Author: SM0TGU

Satelliten QIKCOM-1 har släppts ut från ISS men tyvärr har inget hörts från den. Se även http://aprs.org/qikcom-1.html

QIKCOM-1 was deployed from the ISS Friday at 0915 UTC attached to
the SIMPL spacecraft. It is an APRS digipeater just like the ISS.
Whereas it also supports the same ARISS alias as the ISS digipeater,
please use the ALIAS of APRSAT on your uplinks instead of ARISS so
that you only hit QIKCOM-1 for these first few passes with your test
uplinks (once a minute).. Or you can be specific via QIKCOM-1
callsign. At 4 Watts, it will be 10 dB stronger than PSAT(84) and
about the same power level as ISS and should be easy to receive on
the 145.825 downlink.

We ask all potential IGates to check your ground stations and make
sure they are ready to IGate packets during those initial orbits from
all over the globe. If you do not have an IGate, just capture
packets and email them to qikcom1 at gmail.com until we see that
everything is making it to the APRS-IS.

The downlink should be available on the original
http://pcsat.findu.com and also on
http://59.167.159.165/satreporter/index2.html

Being released from ISS, QIKCOM-1 will of course have the same
Elements and tracking info as ISS until they begin to separate. This
means passes over the USA every 90 minutes beginning at 0630 EDT in
the Southeast and ending after 1440 PDT in Southern California.

Web page: http://aprs.org/qikcom-1.html

As usual, QIKCOM-1 is not intended for UNATTENDED BEACONS. It is
designed for Live Operations and experiments only.

For the initial passes, do not attempt 2-way contacts. Just set
your STATUS text to indicate your TX power and antenna type and
transmit at 1m intervals ATTENDED as described on the web page
during these first few orbits. So we can get sttistices on uplink
quality.

[ANS thanks Bob, WB4APR for the above information]

Nytt spännande projekt från AMSAT-NA med målet att skicka upp Cubesats i högre bana än LEO:

AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin 301.01
From AMSAT SYMPOSIUM, RENO, NV
DATE October 28, 2017
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-301.01

At the AMSAT-NA Annual General Meeting in Reno, NV, AMSAT-NA President
Joe Spier, K6WAO, announced the next phase of AMSAT’s CubeSat program:
GOLF. GOLF, an acronym for “Greater Orbit, Larger Footprint,” is a
crucial step towards fulfilling AMSAT’s strategic goals involving high
altitude, wide access satellite missions.

As an initial step in the GOLF program, the AMSAT-NA Board of
Directors approved the submission of a NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative
proposal for the GOLF-T satellite project. The GOLF-T project will
serve as a rapidly deployable Low Earth Orbit (LEO) testbed for
technologies necessary for a successful CubeSat mission to a wide
variety of orbits, including LEO, Medium Earth Orbit (MEO),
Geosynchronous Orbit (GEO), Highly Elliptical Orbit (HEO), or beyond.

AMSAT-NA Vice-President Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, said “The
GOLF-T project tees off the next phase of our CubeSat program. GOLF-T
provides AMSAT hardware and knowledge for Attitude Determination and
Control (ADAC) capability and the opportunity to develop a 3U
spaceframe with deployable solar panels that can be used in LEO or HEO
missions, two of the major systems required in future GOLF and HEO
missions.”

In addition, GOLF-T provides the opportunity for rapid deployment and
on orbit testing of the AMSAT’s Advanced Satellite Communications and
Exploration of New Technology (ASCENT )program’s technology, including
radiation tolerant transponder and Integrated Housekeeping Unit (IHU)
technologies that will lead the way for low cost commercial
off-the-shelf (COTS) systems that can function in the MEO and HEO
radiation environments. GOLF-T will also provide for the development
of “Five and Dime” Field-Programmable Gate Array Software Defined
Radio (FPGA SDR) transponders for use on a variety of missions and
orbits.

[ANS thanks the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors and our Engineering Team
for the above information]

Via SM5SRR/Eskil kommer denna information:

Dreaming of flying a satellite into space but not sure how? Wonder no more! The ESA Education Office and ESA’s Systems and Concurrent Engineering Section have the perfect workshop for you. We are currently looking for university students who would like to participate in ESA Academy’s  first  Concurrent Engineering Workshop dedicated to CubeSats. The 4-day workshop will be organised between 16 and 19 January 2018 at the Training and Learning Centre in ESEC, Belgium.

Läs mer på ESA hemsida

Har du några minuter (timmar?) över så kan du se videopresentationer från AMSAT-UK årsmöte:

AMSAT-UK YouTube Channel Updated with 2017 Colloquium Recordings

AMSAT-UK has begun uploading recordings of all talks from the 2017
Colloquium, October 14-15 to the AMSAT-UK YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/AMSATUK

Some of the videos have already been uploaded; refresh your screen
occasionally to to catch additional 2017 Colloquium uploads.

2017: An introduction to Amateur satellites – David Johnson, G4DPZ and
Carlos Eavis G3VHF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tj2rUsNpPs&t=1039s

2017: Es’hail-2 Geostationary Amateur Satellite – Peter Guelzow DB2OS
(AMSAT-DL)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L67pza0hCZw

2017: The Goonhilly project (aka playing with big boys toys) – Noel Matthews
G8GTZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzrcLFFEq74