Radio Info

If you have questions, please ask them on the KickSat-gs Google Group

KickSat-2 Sprites:

• Frequency: 437.240 MHz
• Power: 10 mW
• Modulation: MSK
• Encoding: Data bits are encoded as 511 bit PRN codes (Gold Codes)
• Chip Rate: 64 khz (this is the rate at which PRN bits are transmitted)
• Bit Rate: 125 bps (this is the rate at which data bits are transmitted and is equal to Chip Rate / PRN Length)
• Packet Format: Custom

Max Valier Sprites:

• Frequency: 437.325 MHz
• Power: 10 mW
• Modulation: MSK
• Encoding: Data bits are encoded as 511 bit PRN codes (Gold Codes)
• Chip Rate: 64 khz (this is the rate at which PRN bits are transmitted)
• Bit Rate: 125 bps (this is the rate at which data bits are transmitted and is equal to Chip Rate / PRN Length)
• Packet Format: Custom

All of the Sprites transmit on the same frequency. Each Sprite has a unique pair of PRN codes that it encodes its transmissions with, allowing a receiver to tell the Sprites apart (this is known as CDMA). A list of all Sprite PRN codes codes is available online.

Due to the low power of the Sprite transmitter, some signal processing tricks are used to ensure that data can be successfully decoded with low gain antennas. The Sprite receiver is written in C++ for the GNURadio framework and is available on GitHub. An automated install script is available here.