Ground Sphere CubeSat Ground Station

This is just a heads-up that I'm going to start a sub-project of Ground Sphere to document the MSP430 test rig that Aaron built. There's a library called comSC that is supposed to enable AX.25 communications using the MSP430. My intent is to build up (and document) my own test rig in parallel with Aaron's antenna/SDR/LNA work, while attempting to add sample AX.25 tweet transmissions. It's not exactly an apples-to-apples test setup, but I think it's a decent smoke test and will allow me to test some concepts for future projects. The rig could also be offered as an additional kit to anyone who wants to do a smoke test on their own copy of Ground Sphere before attempting Skycube reception.

This brings me to my second main reason for wanting to do this. The RF booster pack for the MSP430 has a prototyping area that should fit a GPS unit. This could be a starting point to turning the test rig into a low cost HAB (High Altitude Balloon) tracker that would not require an amateur radio license in the U.S. That would extend the utility of Ground Sphere beyond the operational life span of Skycube. It would also allow this project to have a richer project history to rely on if there happened to be a second Skycube launch in the future.