Cal Poly CubeSat Labs (CPCL) will be launching SAL-E, aka CP-16 on 03/29/2026 on Transporter 16. This is our first mission in a while now! Our last one was Spinnaker 3 (CP15) in Sept. 2021 which unfortunately exploded on the Firefly Alpha Rocket prior to entering orbit…
QSL cards sound like a fun idea! I’ll see if our team can post QSL cards for people who submit telemetry receptions within the first 24h of launch (might change to first 48h), and possibly offer digital cards for any telemetry after that. Still need to confirm with my team though.
We’ll update with the AX.25 telemetry format hopefully within the next three days
Transporter 16 will be launching Monday, March 30, 2026 from Vandenberg SFB, CA. Launch window opens 03:20 PDT. Initial TLEs will be posted here ASAP as we get them from our launch provider.
Additionally, we are providing digital QSL cards to the first 50 people who decode our AX.25 UHF beacon data (raw hex data). Pending approval, we might even mail out physical QSL cards for the first 10 people who submit the form!
On March 31, 2026, at 14:37 JST, I successfully received two packets from CalPoly CP-16 (SAL-E) in grid square PM53kv, Japan.
I am very pleased to confirm that SAL-E appears to be operating properly, and I wish you continued success with the mission.
The received packets have already been submitted via the designated form for the purpose of requesting a QSL card.
Please note that the data has not been uploaded to the database this time.
2026-03-31T01:18 UTC - Replay of recorded IQ with turnstile and LNA/BPF. Three frames decoded but not uploaded to the SatNOGS db. I hope my QSL request was not submitted too late
That okay! Feel free to still submit the QSL card! We’ve been greenlit to send out physical QSL cards, so we shall try to send one out to whoever fills out the form!!
Once again, thanks for all the beacon data, everyone. This is super useful to gain insight into SAL-E’s performance early on right after deployment.
Hi everyone. We have just established two way communication about an hour ago!!! Thank you everyone for all the beacons so far, they have been immensely helpful determining the state of SAL-E during these early stages of the mission!
Hi again! I’ve just created a Kaitai decoder for SAL-E. I’m hoping to also create a dashboard whenever this decoder gets in (also, where/who to ask for permission to create dashboards?).
I’m trying to give Alex permissions to a new dashboard under Scratchpad folder but his user name doesn’t come up. Seems he has to log in at least one time.
. Later decoded with recorded IQ (None frame sent to the SatNOGS DB network 
)
