Category: Oscar-100

As part of the “HAM RADIO 2026” event at Friedrichshafen, Germany in June, AMSAT-Deutschland e. V. (AMSAT-DL) cordially invites all QO-100 users and amateur radio satellite enthusiasts to an open community workshop.

Building on the experiences with Qatar OSCAR 100 (QO-100) and current activities in the future geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) environment, the event invites amateurs to discuss together with the community what a future geostationary amateur radio payload could look like. The aim of the workshop is to gather ideas, requirements and perspectives from the user community and place them in a common context.

As a basis for the discussion, AMSAT-DL will present 2-3 concrete mission and payload concepts that reflect different development directions and are deliberately put up for open discussion:

1. “Enhanced QO 100+” (basic) An evolutionary approach that builds on the success of the QO 100: classic bent-pipe narrowband and wideband transponders, an advanced beacon architecture, multi-band downlinks and additional functions such as text and image transmission, e.g. for emergency and disaster communication, Internet of Things, etc.

2. Digital Innovation Lab (extended) A more experimentally oriented concept with extensive digital signal processing on board. The focus is on flexible, software-defined payload architectures (SDR), regenerative processing and a “digital playground” for new modulation and access methods and user experiments. But with the risk of being very software-heavy.

3. “High Frequency Pathfinder” (optional) An explorative approach with beacons and experiments in very high frequency ranges (mm Wave), supplemented by new antenna concepts, propagation and environmental measurements as well as earth and space imaging.

Open workshop

The workshop is designed to be explicitly open.

These concepts are not intended as ready-made solutions, but as a basis for discussion. The aim is to evaluate together with the participants which approaches are particularly interesting, sensible and sustainable for the amateur radio satellite community. Which aspects should be pursued further or in greater depth, but also the risks and dependencies should be addressed.

Both experienced satellite radio operators and anyone interested in the future development of amateur radio satellites, new technical concepts and possible applications are invited to attend.

Thematic focus:

• Experiences and lessons learned from the operation of QO-100
• User requirements and expectations for future GEO amateur radio payloads
• Discussion of the 2-3 future GEO concepts presented
• Possible technical development directions and areas for experimentation
• Role of the amateur radio community in future missions

The workshop thrives on participation, discussion and the exchange of ideas – it is not a frontal lecture, but an interactive format with an open end.

Organizational data:

• Event: futureGEO Community Workshop
• Date: Saturday, June 27, 2026
• Start: 16:00 hrs
• Duration: open end
• Venue: HAM RADIO 2026, Friedrichshafen
• Room: (to be announced and can be found in the lecture program)

Registration is not necessary – just come along and bring your ideas, questions and experiences!

[AMSAT-SM and ANS thanks AMSAT-DL for the above information]

On June 29, 2024, the fourth QO-100 Usermeeting took place in Friedrichshafen as part of the Ham-Radio Messe 2024 in a tried and tested environment. This year’s theme was “Roving” and thus perfectly matched the motto of the Ham-Radio amateur radio exhibition “Islands on the Air”.

Please read the full article at AMSAT-DL

Re-post from ANS-140. Images from @g0mrf on X

This week sees three separate groups operating from just outside the coverage footprint of the QO-100 satellite.

From Newfoundland the geostationary QO-100 satellite is nominally 1 degree below the horizon. After 5 years in orbit and much speculation, three groups are in the St. John’s area to try operating QO-100 with its S band uplink and 10GHz downlink.

First in Newfoundland was Gopan, M0XUU. He was operating with a 0.8m dish from just north of the harbor entrance and updates could be found on the QO-100 DX Club web site. https://qo100dx.club/ Despite frequency periods of no signal or deep QSB, Gopan managed to work stations via FT8, FT4, and CW. After a week on the air as VO1/M0XUU, Gopan left Newfoundland on May 15.

Arriving Monday 13 May and remaining until to Friday 17, was a Canadian team with a 1.8m dish and up to 100W. Poor weather hampered their operations. Details of the operation by Stefan Wagener, VE4SW, and John Langille, VE1CWJ, can be found at the QRZ.com page for special callsign, VO100QO at https://www.qrz.com/db/VO100QO

Finally, Graham Shirville, G3VZV, and David Bowman, G0MRF, arrived on Wednesday, May 15 with two sets of equipment and were active as VO1/G3VZV and VO1/G0MRF. They will fly back to the UK early Sunday, May 19. Operating from the old lighthouse keepers bungalow on the southern side of the harbor entrance, GN37PN85, they attempted working all modes including an attempt with DATV with a 175W S band amplifier. When not actively on the bands, a personal beacon was operating on 10489.539 MHz in CW to act as a propagation indicator.

[ANS thanks David Bowman, G0MRF, for the above information]