A brief try at decoding HORYU-4 1k2 AFSK telemetry

In the previous post I’ve talked about HORYU-4 CW telemetry. Here I report my findings when trying to decode 1200baud AFSK telemetry. Since the satellite transmits digital telemetry only over Japan, the recordings I’ve analysed have being kindly provided by Tetsurou JA0CAW. There is a telemetry format document from Kyutech, but as it is the case with the CW document, it is rather incomplete and lacks several important details.

HORYU-4 CW telemetry format

HORYU-4 is a small satellite from Kyushu Institute of Technology (Japan) designed to test a high voltage solar array in space and observe the effects produced by the charge on the spacecraft due to the high voltage. It transmits telemetry on the 70cm and 13cm amateur bands. It has a CW beacon at 437.375MHz, a 1200baud AFSK telemetry downlink at 437.375MHz and a 100kbaud BPSK telemetry downlink at 2400.3MHz. The digital telemetry downlinks are only active over Japan and use a custom packet format. Here we take a brief look at the format of the CW telemetry.