SatNOGS-COMMS
Turn-key UHF/S-band communications for nanosatellites and CubeSats, tightly integrated with the SatNOGS Network.
SatNOGS-COMMS is a dual-band, software-configurable radio transceiver designed for Telemetry and Telecommand (TMTC) in the UHF and S-band. It supports full in-flight reconfiguration of carrier and intermediate frequencies, bitrate, modulation, and channel-filter bandwidth, and is fully compatible with the SatNOGS Network for all TMTC functionality.
Both hardware and software are released as open-source projects, so the design can be tailored to specific mission needs. SatNOGS-COMMS reached TRL9 as of July 2024. Its scope is deliberately wide, spanning from the space-segment transceiver to the ground-segment station, making it a genuine turn-key solution rather than a single component.
Key features
Transceiver / controller
- STM32H7 ARM® Cortex®-M7 microcontroller
- AT86RF215 dual-band transceiver with I/Q radio capabilities
- Xilinx ZYNQ-7020 FPGA
- 8 GB internal memory (default; upgradeable on request)
- Latch-up protection with mitigation mechanism
RF
- Dual radio, UHF and S-band, half-duplex operation per band
- Adjustable TX power: 26–32 dBm in 1 dB steps (no ALC, stability ±1.5 dB uncalibrated), SFCG 21-2R4 compatible
- Receiver noise figure: 1.5 dB
- AGC dynamic range: 58 dB
- Frequency step size: 100 Hz (UHF), 400 Hz (S-band)
- Frequency stability: ±0.5 ppm (uncalibrated)
- Frequency ranges:
- 2025–2110 MHz (Rx, S-band)
- 2200–2290 MHz (Tx, S-band)
- 2400–2450 MHz (Rx/Tx, S-band)
- 400–440 MHz (Rx/Tx, UHF)
Baseband and protocol
- Modulation: GMSK/GFSK, BPSK, QPSK
- Data rates: up to 50 kbps (UHF), up to 1 Mbps (S-band)
- Framing encapsulation: CCSDS, IEEE 802.15.4
- CCSDS coding schemes
- I/Q support for both UHF and S-band
Interfaces
- Electrical: CAN-FD, UART, I²C, SPI, plus an antenna-deployment interface
- Mechanical: LibreCube Board Specification compliant
- RF connector: MMCX
Physical and environmental
- Mass: under 200 g with aluminium shield
- Dimensions: 90 × 90 × 25 mm
- Power: 6–14 V DC supply; 8 W peak consumption (transmitting 31 dBm on the S-band radio)
- Operating temperature: −40 to +85 °C
Resources
- Source code: GitLab repository
- Community: SatNOGS-COMMS channel on Matrix