AMSAT-UK has been without a volunteer editor for Oscar News since mid 2024 and this has greatly hampered our ability to produce Oscar News on a regular basis – the last one produced was April 2025.

The original editor was responsible for sourcing all the material for Oscar News as well as typesetting the document and creating the pdf version for the website and for creating the printed edition. Without him, we have have not been able to produce OSCAR News on the schedule we would have liked too.
Several members of the committee have also not been in the best of health and those that remain are either heavily involved in designing and building FUNcube+, our follow on satellite from FUNcube 1, or fully committed to their day jobs, with little time to spare for a major volunteering role.

We have been advertising this fact to the members for over two years, requesting help and for someone, or preferably several people, to step forward and help us fill that important gap. We have said that our preference is to have a team of people producing Oscar News so that the impact on one person is not significant but despite requests, notices, emails to members and announcements at the AMSAT-UK Colloquium, we have not had any offers of assistance.

We have recently had a new member of AMSAT-UK come forward to help source and collate the content for OSCAR News and we now have a commercial arrangement for a typesetter and printer in place. Committee members that have been able to contribute to a new Oscar News have been doing so and we do have the making of a new edition of OSCAR News which we plan to publish by the end of August.

Have you been involved in some activity, operations or construction project that you would like to share with the AMSAT-UK membership?

The AMSAT-UK Committee would welcome contributions from its members to the upcoming edition. IF you have any contribution, please consider forwarding it to us at editor@amsat-uk.org and we will be in touch.

The deadline for submissions is 9th August 2026

Thank you and 73

Ciaran, M0XTD
AMSAT-UK Membership Secretary

AMSAT-UK Logo

The annual AMSAT-UK colloquium is fast approaching.

Once again, it is being held at The Kent’s Hill Conference Centre in Milton Keynes alongside the RSGB Convention on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th October 2026.

Unfortunately, the Delta by Marriott hotel near to Kents Hill is not available this year for accommodation or the Gala Dinner so AMSAT-UK has booked the Woughton House Hotel, Newport Road, Woughton-on-the-Green, Milton Keynes, MK6 3LR, as an alternative. It is approximately a 5 minute drive from Kents Hill.

Details of the hotel, and available accommodation, can be found at https://hotelwoughtonhouse.co.uk/

The AMSAT-UK Gala Dinner will be held at the Woughton House Hotel on the evening of Saturday 10th October 2026.

This will be a 3 course meal with tea / coffee which is priced at £39.00 per person. Attendance is restricted this year and a limited number of tickets are on sale at the AMSAT-UK shop at https://shop.amsat-uk.org/product/amsat-uk-gala-dinner-2026.

If you would like a weekend of all things satellite and some good lectures from the AMSAT-UK and the RSGB, please book now and we’ll look forward to seeing you there.

Please note that you will be required to book a weekend ticket from the RSGB for attendance. Please see the RSGB booking website at https://www.tickettailor.com/events/radiosocietyofgreatbritain/2048785

Papers for the IARU Region 1 General Conference being held in Vienna September 19-23, 2026, are now available

Among the papers is one in the VHF+ (C5) section titled VI26_C5_11 UHF Spectrum Situation submitted by the RSGB which mentions AST Space Mobile’s use of amateur spectrum.

Another satellite paper is VI26_C3_45 ARSPEX Report from the ARSPEX Working Group, a specialised body of IARU-Region 1 for Amateur Radio Space EXploration.

Full set of IARU-R1 Conference papers https://conf.iaru-r1.org/documents/

AMSAT-UK, BATC and UKUG at EMF 2026 – Credit M0DNY

Amateur radio satellites will feature at the Electromagnetic Field EMF 2026 event taking place July 16-19 at Eastnor Castle Deer Park, Eastnor, Ledbury, Herefordshire, HR8 1EN.

Imagine a camping festival with a power grid and high-speed internet access; a temporary village of geeks, crafters, and technology enthusiasts that’s lit up by night, and buzzing with activity during the day. Thousands of curious people will descend on the friendly open space to learn, share, and talk about what they love. There will be a full program of talks and workshops, details at

https://www.emfcamp.org/schedule/2026

AMSAT-UK, the British Amateur Television Club (BATC), and the UK Microwave Group (UKuG) are teaming up to showcase satellite communications, amateur television, and microwave radio experimentation.

Throughout the weekend they plan to demonstrate how radio amateurs communicate via satellites in both low-Earth orbit and geostationary orbit, including contacts and digital amateur television through the QO-100 satellite. They also hope to demonstrate microwave operating techniques and experimental radio systems used on the higher amateur bands.

Visitors can see live satellite ground-station setups, microwave equipment, and amateur television demonstrations, and learn how hobbyists build and operate space-related radio technology. The village will also be active on the air using the EMF special event callsign GB26EMF.

If you are attending the event drop by to explore satellites, video over radio, and the microwave spectrum!

EMF camp Villages https://www.emfcamp.org/villages/2026

EMF Camp on X https://x.com/emfcamp and https://social.emfcamp.org/@emf

EMF posts from IRTS President Jeffrey Roe EI7IRB https://x.com/Jeffrey_Roe

AMSAT-UK on X https://x.com/AmsatUK

BATC on X https://x.com/BATCOnline

UK Microwave Group on X https://x.com/UKGHZ

IRTS President Jeffrey Roe EI7IRB (standing by AMSAT-UK logo) with AMSAT-UK, BATC and UKuG members at EMF 2026 – Credit IRTS