Author: SM0TGU

OrigamiSat-2 (Fuji-OSCAR 126 / FO-126), developed by the Institute of Science Tokyo, is conducting additional high-speed data transmissions on 5.84 GHz. The team has scheduled 500 kbit/s downlinks lasting approximately 10 minutes during selected passes through November 8, 2026. These tests support the satellite’s deployable membrane antenna technology demonstration and promotion of amateur use of the 5.8 GHz band.

FO-126 was launched April 23, 2026, on a Rocket Lab Electron and also carries a UHF downlink on 437.505 MHz (CW and 1200 bps AFSK). Operators interested in the C-band experiments are encouraged to monitor published pass times and share reception reports with the team.

[ANS thanks AMSAT-HB and the OrigamiSat-2 team for the above information.]

Operators interested in working one of amateur radio’s longest-lived linear satellites may have only a few more weeks before Fuji-OSCAR 29 (FO-29) returns to periods of eclipse.

FO-29’s batteries have deteriorated over the past 30 years, leaving the satellite dependent on solar power to stay active for more than a few minutes. When its orbit remains continuously illuminated by the Sun, the V/U linear transponder can operate without the scheduled command activations required during portions of the year when the satellite enters Earth’s shadow.

A long period of continuous solar illumination began around May 20 and was projected to continue until approximately mid-November 2026. AMSAT’s current linear-satellite listing still reports FO-29 as being in full sunlight.

FO-29 carries an inverting V/U analog transponder:

* Uplink: 145.900-146.000 MHz, LSB
* Downlink: 435.800-435.900 MHz, USB
* CW beacon: 435.795 MHz

The satellite was launched in 1996 and remains under the control of the Japan Amateur Radio League. Its continued operation three decades later makes it one of the veteran spacecraft of the amateur satellite fleet.

As eclipses begin returning to its orbit, operators should not assume that the transponder will remain available continuously. During eclipse seasons the JARL control team may activate the satellite according to announced schedules when sufficient power is available.

[ANS thanks the Japan Amateur Radio League for the above information.]

Streaming for the 44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting begins Friday 13:00 Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Satellite enthusiasts can view the presentations live stream on AMSAT’s You Tube Channe. Dial in https://youtube.com/@amsatna and click on the “Live” tab to enjoy the presentation. Presentations will also be saved and available for viewing thereafter.

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For those who cannot attend the AMSAT-UK Colloquium on October 10-11 the talks will be streamed live on YouTube from 9:15 AM BST (08:15 GMT).

Saturday 10th http://youtube.com/live/WQy0CXqjp3M

Sunday 11th https://youtube.com/live/CS6i-xeDm7o

September has been an unusually eventful month on the IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel’s status pages, hosted by AMSAT-UK at https://iaru.amsat-uk.org/index.php. In addition to the UNNE-1B coordination reported above, the panel completed four coordinations, declined four requests in a single day, and posted six new applications during the month.

Newly Coordinated (September 7)

+ FramSat-1.5 – Orbit NTNU, Norway. ANS-235 reported that the panel had declined coordination for this 1U CubeSat on August 17. The request now appears on the list of completed coordinations, with a downlink on 435.060 MHz coordinated for its 2FSK 9k6 telemetry. Built by the student organization at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, FramSat-1.5 is planning an Isar Aerospace launch from Andoya in Q4 2026, following its predecessor FramSat-1, which reached orbit on Isar’s “Onward and Upward” mission on September 5.

+ Qubesat-2 – Space Technologies at Cal, University of California, Berkeley. A 2U CubeSat carrying a store-and-forward digipeater that will accept packets of amateurs’ own data and retransmit them at a time of the operator’s choosing, with the open-source TinyGS ground station network used for broad accessibility. Its science payload is a proof-of-concept quantum gyroscope using nitrogen-vacancy center diamonds. The team proposed a UHF LoRa downlink at 1025 baud, with launch arranged through Voyager.

+ UTNH-SAJILO-SAT (SanoSat-3) – AMSAT Nepal. The follow-on to SanoSat-1 (NO-116) and SanoSat-2 carries an amateur digipeater for short messages, a 5-megapixel camera downlinking SSDV images via GFSK, a Morse code identification beacon, and a magnetorquer-based detumbling system, with telemetry openly available through SatNOGS.

+ Solar Flare and Ionosphere Explorer (SoFIE) – Saint Francis University, Pennsylvania. A 3U CubeSat that will observe HF radio bursts from the Sun while collecting ground-based transmissions with a broadband 3-30 MHz receiver, in collaboration with the University of Scranton’s HamSCI initiative, with a 9k6 BPSK AX.25 UHF downlink and a 1 Mbps S-band downlink.

Coordination Declined (September 17)

Four requests were declined on the same day, in each case with the panel’s reasoning noted on the request:

+ AlMunther – Bahrain Space Agency. A 3U CubeSat carrying a camera system, an in-house avionics board with encryption and AI image-processing experiments, and a beacon transmitting the Bahraini national anthem and a quote from the King of Bahrain for amateurs to collect. The satellite was launched on SpaceX’s Transporter-14 mission in March 2025; coordination was not requested until July of that year.

+ MOI-1 – K J Somaiya Institute of Technology, India. A 6U CubeSat intended to provide AI computation infrastructure in space, with an “OrbitRadio” amateur-band downlink broadcasting telemetry and user-uploaded messages. The panel declined coordination as a commercial project.

+ GenexSat – Genex Space (Space Shaala Pvt. Ltd.), India. A 4P PocketQube proposing a LoRa digipeater and a lab-on-chip biological experiment. The panel declined coordination as a commercial project.

+ MRZN – Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Honduras. A 1U CubeSat measuring hydrometeorological variables to provide flood early warnings for Central American river basins, with SSTV images promised for amateurs in the summer months. The panel declined coordination as an Earth exploration mission.

New Applications

+ SCALAR – Washington University in St. Louis (applied September 6). The student club’s first satellite mission, a 1U CubeSat demonstrating three-axis attitude control using custom magnetorquers and torque rods, with members obtaining amateur licenses and building their own ground station along the way.

+ Nyansat – Oakwood School, California (applied September 13). A 2U CubeSat designed, built, and operated by high school students, carrying acoustic structural measurement, radio-based orbit determination, distributed ledger, embedded Ethernet, imaging, and student artwork payloads, plus a materials science experiment that students at approximately 30 schools will follow with control observations. The team proposes a UHF GFSK downlink and a NASA launch to the ISS in June 2027. The responsible operator is Michael Lyle, AE6XM.

+ UTNH-Sat – Universidad Tecnologica Nacional Regional Haedo, Argentina (applied September 15). LoRa telemetry and a CW beacon on 436.850 MHz, an automatic LoRa ping-response service that returns the requesting station’s callsign, and an onboard radiation counter for educational study of the space environment. The team is planning a SpaceX launch from Vandenberg in October 2026. The responsible operator is Gustavo Carpignano, LW2DTZ.

+ RSP-P00 – Rymansat PocketQube, Japan (applied September 16). A 1P PocketQube intended to demonstrate an ultra-small, rapidly iterated satellite platform whose hardware designs and protocols will be open-sourced to the amateur community. The satellite will transmit telemetry, CODEC2 digital voice (FreeDV 2400B), and SSDV images, and will offer an AX.25 echo-back practice mode for newcomers and an APRS repeater, with a downlink combining CW, GMSK at up to 19k2, AFSK, and ME-2FSK. A SpaceX launch from Vandenberg is planned for early 2028. The responsible operator is Takafumi Shimamura, JI1YSC.

+ Space-Ranger 1 and Space-Ranger 2 – Beihang University, China (applied September 22). A pair of 28 kg microsatellites developed from winning projects of the second Space Universities CubeSat Challenge, each carrying an optical camera, a deployable membrane demonstration, a neutron detector, and electric propulsion. Telemetry is to be open to radio amateurs worldwide upon application for authorization, with a UHF BPSK downlink at 4096 bps and an S-band QPSK downlink at 200 kbps proposed. Launch from Jiuquan is planned for January 2027.

Finally, the Slipper2Sat-2 entry from Antarikchya Pratisthan Nepal, reported as a new application in ANS-214, no longer appears on the panel’s status pages.

Developers planning a mission are reminded to request coordination as early in the design process as possible – and, as this month’s declines illustrate, well before launch.

[ANS thanks the IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel and AMSAT-UK for the above information]