JAMSAT stand at the Tokyo Ham Fair 2013

The JARL Ham Fair 2013 was held at Tokyo Big Sight, Ariake, Tokyo on August 24-25. JAMSAT and several amateur radio satellite projects were represented.

The University of Tsukuba CubeSat ITF-1 YUI “Binding” support project was there. The formal name ITF-1 comes from the initial letter of the university slogan “Imagine The Future”.  The satellite also has a popular name YUI which means bond or binding in Japanese, it came from the project’s concept‚ “Creating the Worldwide Human Community”.

The ITF-1 satellite beacon on 437.525 MHz will send telemetry by a Morse Code audio tone on an FM transmitter running 300 milliwats output. It should be possible to receive it using simple equipment such as a handheld transceiver or scanner.

According to the ITF-1 website the “Binding” support project is organized by the student volunteers to support the construction of a consolidated network and expand public relation activities with the aim of encouraging many reception reports when the satellite is launched.  ITF-1 will fly with the primary payload the Global Precipitation Measurement Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar GPM-DPR satellite in 2014.

ARTSAT stand at the Tokyo Ham Fair

The ARTSAT stand featured the Invader CubeSat which is being developed by students at Tama Art University. The IARU has coordinated 437.325 MHz and 437.200 MHz for Invader which aims to have a camera for Earth imaging and a Digi-Talker, to transmit voice data using FM. Invader will be on the same launch as ITF-1.

Also at the fair was the SPROUT project. This nano-satellite, built by students from Nihon University, is 20 x 20 x 22 cm with a mass of 6.7 kg. It plans to launch with the L-band (1236.5 MHz/1257.5 MHz/1278.5 MHz) Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite ALOS-2 in December, 2013.

SPROUT will have a digi-talker and will transmit, using Slow Scan TV (SSTV) and FM packet, pictures of the Earth taken by an on-board camera. It is believed that radio amateurs will be able to make use of the digipeater and possibly even command when pictures are taken.

ITF-1 project in Google English http://tinyurl.com/ITF-1-Yui-Binding-Project
Imagine The Future https://amsat-uk.org/2012/01/19/itf1-cubesat-imagine-the-future/

ARTSAT project in Google English http://tinyurl.com/ARTSAT
A student art satellite https://amsat-uk.org/2012/04/12/invader-cubesat-a-student-art-satellite/

SPROUT project in Google English http://tinyurl.com/Sprout-Satellite
SSTV satellite https://amsat-uk.org/2012/08/24/sprout-amateur-radio-sstv-satellite-to-launch-in-2013/

JARL Ham Fair 2013 in Google English http://tinyurl.com/JARL-Ham-Fair-2013

Reports on previous JARL Ham Fairs http://www.jarl.or.jp/English/4_Library/A-4-6_ham-fair/ham-fair.htm

Tokyo Ham Fair 2013