Category: Ham Satellite news

Thank you ITA SPace Center for certificate!

Only night passes for Europe:
The Japan Amateur Radio League has released the FO-29 operation
schedule for December 2020 and January 2021. Times are in UTC. The
operation runs until the UVC (lower limit voltage control) activates.

December 2020
5 01:52, 03:35
6 02:45, 04:30
12 02:25, 04:15
13 03:20, 05:05
14 02:25, 04:10
19 01:20, 03:05
20 02:10, 03:55
26 01:55, 03:40
27 02:45
30 01:45
31 02:35

January 2021
1 01:40, 03:25
3 01:35, 03:20
9 01:20, 03:05
10 02:10, 03:55
11 01:15, 03:00

[ANS thanks Hideo Kambayashi, JH3XCU for the above information.]

Den sista satelliten i AMSAT-NAs FOX-serie, RadFxSat-2 / Fox-1E, har fått ett uppskjutningsfönster som börjar den 19 december (2020). Till skillnad mot de andra FOX-satelliterna, som har haft FM-transponder, har Fox-1E en linjär inverterande transponder för SSB och CW-trafik.

Dessutom har telemetrilänken flyttat till 70cm på 435.750 MHz och kan tas emot med den senaste versionen av FoxTelem.

Läs hela nyheten här:

Launch Window for AMSAT’s RadFxSat-2 / Fox-1E Opens December 19th

Virgin Orbit has announced that the launch window for their
LauncherOne Launch Demo 2 mission opens on December 19th. This launch
will carry AMSAT’s RadFxSat-2 / Fox-1E to orbit.

RadFxSat-2, like RadFxSat / Fox-1B, now AMSAT-OSCAR 91, is a
partnership opportunity between Vanderbilt University and AMSAT and
will carry a similar radiation effects experiment, studying new FinFET
technology.

RadFxSat-2 is the fifth and final Fox-1 satellite built by AMSAT. The
RadFxSat-2 spacecraft bus is built on the Fox-1 series but features a
linear transponder “upgrade” to replace the standard FM transponder in
Fox-1A through D. In addition, the uplink and downlink bands are
reversed from the previous Fox satellites in a Mode V/u (J)
configuration using a 2 meter uplink and 70 cm downlink. The downlink
features a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry channel to carry the Vanderbilt
science data in addition to a 30 kHz wide transponder for amateur
radio use. Telemetry and experiment data can be decoded using FoxTelem
version 1.09 or later. FoxTelem is available at
https://www.amsat.org/foxtelem-software-for-windows-mac-linux/.

Participation in telemetry collection by as many stations in as many
parts of the world as possible is essential as AMSAT Engineering looks
for successful startup and indications of the general health and
function of the satellite as it begins to acclimate to space. AMSAT
will send a commemorative 3D printed QSL card to the first station
capturing telemetry from RadFxSat-2.

RadFxSat-2 / Fox-1E Frequencies:

Telemetry Downlink – 435.750 MHz
Inverting Linear Transponder Uplink – 145.860 MHz – 145.890 MHz
Inverting Linear Transponder Downlink – 435.760 MHz – 435.790 MHz

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information]

During the month of October the IARU coordinated frequencies for six
upcoming Amateur Radio satellites:

• OreSat0 (Portland State Aerospace Society at Portland State
  University is a 1U CubeSat. The mission is to provide flight heritage
  to the “OreSat bus”, an open source card-cage based system that is
  ideally suited for education CubeSat projects involving
  interdisciplinary teams of students. Downlinks on UHF using CW
  beacon, 9k6 G3RUH AX25/APRS packet beacon and a 96k GMSK
  engineering downlink. Also downlink on S Band using amateur 802.11b
  DPSK with 11M chip/sec spread and 1 Mbps data rate for bulk mission
  data. Downlinks on 436.500 MHz and 2425.00 MHz have been
  coordinated. Planning a launch with Momentus Space from Cape
  Canaveral in February 2021 into a 450 km polar orbit. More info at:
  http://oresat.org/ and https://github.com/oresat.
• TartanArtibeus-1 (Carnegie Mellon University) is a 1P PocketQube.
  The
  Amateur Radio community globally will be provided with a delay
  ping-back service, allowing Amateurs to send messages, with replies
  from the satellite transmitted later. A UHF downlink using 3kbps FSK
  compatible with RadioHead library. A downlink on 437.170 MHz has
  been coordinated. Planning a SpaceX launch from KSC in December 2020
  into a 550km SSO.
• SATLLA-2 (Ariel University) is a 2P picosat that will take
  low-resolution photos and will broadcast the photos over the Amateur
  Radio with its position in orbit and data from its sensors. UHF and S
  Band downlinks using LORA from 476bps to 9k6 bps. Downlinks on
  437.250 MHz and 2401.000 MHz have been coordinated.Planning a SpaceX
  launch into a 410 km 52 degree orbit in December 2020.
• CSIROSat-1 (University of South Australia & CSIRO) is a 3U CubeSat
  mission that will perform hyperspectral infrared imaging of the earth
  for scientific research purposes. An experimental two-way link for
  Amateur Radio operators to exchange short messages through a
  ‘ping-pong’ arrangement of data exchange is among the several
  communications experiments. Proposing a 9k6 FSK downlink. A downlink
  on 437.315 MHz has been coordinated. Planning a launch from Cape
  Canaveral in March 2021 into an ISS orbit.
• PyCubed-1 (Carnegie Mellon University) is a 1P PocketQube that will
  test a novel 3-axis attitude control system based on magnetic torque
  coils. In addition, it will test new low- power LoRa radios in
  low-Earth orbit which will be of interest to many other Amateur Radio
  small satellite operators. Proposing a 3kbps UHF downlink. A downlink
  on 437.290 MHz has been coordinated. Packets are standard LoRa format
  and are compatible with the RadioHead library. Planning a SpaceX
  launch from KSC into a 550 km SSO in December 2020.
• Grizu-263A (Zonguldak Bülent Ecevit University) is a pocketcube
  satellite with a digipeater mode that will allow forwarding of
  received messages back to earth to support communication between
  Amateur Radio operators. Proposing a UHF downlink using 4k8 FSK. A
  downlink on 437.190 MHz has been coordinated. Planning a SpaceX
  launch from Vandenberg into a 500 600 km SSO in December 2020.

Information on these and other upcoming satellites can be found at:
http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/.

[ANS thanks the IARU for the above information.]

The 2020 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting was held via a Zoom Webinar on October 17, 2020 with over 200 AMSAT members in
attendance. If you were not able to attend, a complete replay is
available on the AMSAT YouTube channel:

The YouTube video is divided into chapters to make it easy to find the
specific presentation you are looking for:

0:00:00 Welcome
0:02:07 AMSAT GOLF-TEE System Overview and Development Status
0:43:02 GOLF IHU Coordination
1:19:10 GOLF Downlink Coordination
1:50:15 FUNcube Next
2:13:50 LunART – Luna Amateur Radio Transponder
2:45:35 CatSat HF Experiment Overview
3:13:30 Neutron-1 CubeSat
3:39:58 Progress and Development of Open Source Electric Propulsion
for Nanosats and Picosats
4:15:00 AMSAT Education
5:14:00 ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) /
AREx (Amateur Radio Exploration)
6:14:00 AMSAT Engineering
7:21:16 AMSAT Annual General Meeting

AMSAT members may download the 2020 Symposium Proceedings at
https://launch.amsat.org/Proceedings.

The 2021 AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting is expected to be held in the Minneapolis area in October 2021.

[ANS thanks the 2020 AMSAT Symposium Team for the above information]

ANS-292.02 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

At its annual meeting, the AMSAT Board of Directors elected Robert
Bankston, KE4AL, of Dothan, AL, President, succeeding Clayton Coleman,
W5PFG. Bankston is a Life Member of AMSAT and has previously served
as Treasurer and Vice-President User Services, as well as volunteering
in several other capacities for AMSAT, including the development and
launch of AMSAT’s online member portal and chairing the 2018 AMSAT
Space Symposium held at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, in
Huntsville, Alabama. He also is an ARRL Life Member and holds an
Extra Class license.

Immediate Past President Clayton Coleman, W5PFG, said “It has been
both a joy and privilege to serve as President of AMSAT in 2020. In
what has been a rather difficult year for many individuals in amateur
radio, AMSAT, through its many supportive members, volunteers, and
donors, has continued course on our vision of Keeping Amateur Radio in
Space. With our initiatives such as modernizing the AMSAT office with
a self-service member portal and the Linear Transponder Module, the
organization has moved forward. With the talented and capable
individuals sitting on AMSAT’s new Board and its Officers, I am
confident in a bright future ahead for AMSAT and the amateur radio
satellite service.“

Other officers elected by the Board were:

• Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, of Washington, DC, as Executive Vice President
• Jerry Buxton, N0JY, of Granbury, TX, as Vice-President – Engineering
• Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, of Brooksville, FL, as Vice President –
Operations
• Jeff Davis, KE9V, of Muncie, IN, as Secretary
• Steve Belter, N9IP, of West Lafayette, IN, as Treasurer
• Martha Saragovitz, of Silver Spring, MD, as Manager
• Alan Johnston, KU2Y, of Philadelphia, PA, as Vice President –
Educational Relations
• Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, of Burnsville, MN, as Vice President –
Development

[ANS thanks the AMSAT Board of Directors for the above information]