A school science club is turning pupils into amateur radio fans after they were given the technology to communicate with a satellite.
The group of students based at St George’s Academy in Ruskington have been gathering data from space since the Fun Cube satellite was launched a week ago by a team of amateur radio enthusiasts.
So far they have been able to collect information about how the satellite works as well as temperature readings during daylight and evening hours.
The club was started up in September by ICT technician and licensed radio operator Paul Dixon and they have been provided with an antenna and a computer attachment to receive the signals thanks to support from the Friends of St George’s Ruskington and sponsorship from an educational group called Stelar. They were only one of five schools sponsored by Stelar to have a Fun Cube USB dongle radio receiver. Paul said the students are excited but a bit overwhelmed at the amount of data received at the moment.
As the satellite orbits it operates in educational mode in daylight giving out data about itself which can be put onto a website by the schools involved to build up a complete picture. At night time amateur radio users can use it to communicate further.