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FUNcube Dongle – sold out in 49 seconds
5 February 2011 | by The latest batch of 135 of Howard Long G6LVB’s FUNcube Dongle Pros sold out a few hours ago in less than a minute!
The FUNcube Dongle Pro is a tiny SDR receiver for the frequency range 64 to 1,700MHz. It’s the “ground segment” of the AMSAT-UK FUNcube satellite project.
FUNcube Dongle Pro
The best source of information about what to do with the FUNcube dongle and how to get hold of one is the Yahoogroup. Howard is active on the list and the main website and is quick to join the discussion and respond to all manner of queries.
The FUNcube Yahoogroup page explains the background and aim to the project:
AMSAT-UK’s FUNcube is an educational single cubesat project with the goal of enthusing and educating young people about radio, space, physics and electronics.
It will support the educational Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) initiatives and provide an additional resource for the GB4FUN Mobile Communications Centre.
The target audience consists of primary and secondary school pupils and FUNcube will feature a 145 MHz telemetry beacon that will provide a strong signal for the pupils to receive.
… FUNcube will carry a UHF to VHF linear transponder that will have up to 1 watt and which can be used by Radio Amateurs worldwide for SSB and CW communications.
Measuring just 10 x 10 x 10 cm, and with a mass of less than 1kg, it will be the smallest ever satellite to carry a linear transponder and the choice of frequencies will enable Radio Amateurs to use their existing VO-52, DO-64, HO68 and similar stations.
Howard seems to be producing and selling the Dongles at an amazing rate. But on the basis of this recent post “What do 500 dongles look like?“ there are at least another 360-odd on the production line.
2 Responses to “FUNcube Dongle – sold out in 49 seconds”
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I would like to get one of these but the selling time is not something I am able to sit by the computer and wait for. Maybe in a month or so there will be enough for us working stiffs to have a chance to buy one.
73, Larry WB8LBZ DM61
I’m waiting for at least a 2 minute 23 second ordering window, since I’m on slow satellite internet and also not at 3:14 AM for those of in the states! 4:15 AM at least.. if not later! :O)
I would say “why doesn’t he raise the price?” but for what they are they aren’t exactly cheap at this point anyway.
When I can order one without playing games, writing Perl Scripts to order one second after the announced sale while synced to the time server at NIST, etc… I will probably get one.
I sure wish there wasn’t that stinkin’ NDA and the firmware was open source. Maybe one of us needs to make one that is completely open and in a quantity/price that would not sell out in 39 seconds? It might not be in a “dongle” form factor but it is certainly possible.
One that also could transmit and go down to 6 meters? Maybe someday.
Fred