Frequency Shift Keying Transmission of an Image File Using GNU Radio, HackRF One, and the GR-Control Module

This project is an initial step in the construction of a satellite ground station at Howard University for the 3UCubed project partners with the University of New Hampshire and Sonoma State University, to investigate the cause of drag that can affect some Low Earth-Orbiting satellites (LEO). Howard is exploring the Nitrogen clouds that develop at the Earth’s magnetic dipole. In turn, the Earth’s Aurora, created by the Solar wind interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field, illustrates this influence of the ions in the high-altitude atmosphere. From this interaction, particles in the ionosphere either drag into or are ejected from Earth. We assert that Aurora observations of the Sun-Earth connections may be linked to nitrogen clouds found on Earth’s dipole. The CubeSat at Howard aims to measure the electromagnetic current in the poles and in-situ plasma density, located in the Earth’s LEO. Construction of the CubeSat also includes the development of a ground station which will include ship to station comms. FlatSat testing of the comms-systems includes a rudimentary image file transfer between two HackRFs, a software-defined radio, and an open-source gr-control module using Frequency Shift Keying. Current status of the ground station, FlatSat comms, and CubeSat functional testing will be reported.