Author Archives: m0xtd

Feb 12 2013

More Cubans Active on Ham Radio Satellites

Raydel Espinet CM2ESP - 640

Raydel Espinet CM2ESP

On the AMSAT bulletin board Raydel Espinet CM2ESP reports that more Cuban radio amateurs have become active on the satellites. He writes:

As many of you should already know, now we have two new Cuban Amateur Operators on FM Satellites. Recently CO7WT and CM2XN have finally achieve their first QSO on SO-50 Satellite. This may look simple, but for a Cuban Ham this is a great success, after many weeks of antenna building, equipment adjustments and learning, this two fellow hams enjoy of the amazing opportunity of make a QSO on a FM Transponder Satellite. They know there is a lot more of operating skills to learn and they are very happy to do so.

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Feb 10 2013

Amateur Radio on ISS switches to Ericsson after Kenwood problems

ARISS Amateur Radio on the International Space StationAfter experiencing issues with the Kenwood D700 on two consecutive school contacts, ARISS will use the Ericsson radio on the Columbus module for ARISS contacts until problems with D700 are resolved.

According to Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, AMSAT’s Vice President for Human Spaceflight Programs, “…for some reason, our signals from the Service Module Kenwood D700 radio are much diminished.  Our contact with Israel last Sunday [February 3]  had low audio levels, with good signals only near TCA.  Our contact [February 8] with the Hospital for Sick Children was even worse.  Only one student was able to talk to Chris Hadfield [VA3OOG] before we lost the signal.”

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Feb 9 2013

Amateur Satellite Allocations on the Agenda at Vienna

IARU_LogoIn the coming months meetings will take place in both IARU Region 1 and Region 2 to discuss HF and VHF bandplans.

The IARU Region 1 2013 Interim Meeting in Vienna April 19-21 will be discussing two proposals relating to the Amateur-Satellite Service:

VIE13_C4_02 – Amendment to the 28 MHz Bandplan in relation to the Amateur Satellite Service. This proposes the removal of the downlink only restriction on the 29.300-29.510 MHz satellite segment.
http://uska.ch/fileadmin/download/iaru/interim_meetings/vienna2013/VIE13-C4-02_RSGB.pdf

VIE13_C5_03 – Increased Amateur-Satellite Service 144 MHz Usage. This proposes the introduction of a new satellite downlink band for CW/SSB transponders at 144.000-144.035 MHz.
http://uska.ch/fileadmin/download/iaru/interim_meetings/vienna2013/2013_Vienna_Documents.pdf

A report on the ARRL website has requested input for the IARU Region 2 meeting. At this time it is not known if satellite allocations will be raised at the meeting in Region 2.

UK Yahoo Reflector for discussion of C4 (HF) papers
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/ukc4discussion/

UK Yahoo Reflector for discussion of C5 (VHF/UHF/Microwave) papers
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/ukc5discussion/

Feb 8 2013

The World's First Smartphone In Space

STRaND-1 flight ready February 2013 with Shaun Kenyon, Dr Peter Shaw, Dr Chris Bridges

STRaND-1 flight ready February 2013 with Shaun Kenyon, Dr Peter Shaw, Dr Chris Bridges

In this video Professor Sir Martin Sweeting G3YJO talks about STRaND-1 which aims to be the world’s first smartphone satellite in space.

STRaND-1 a UK mission, jointly developed by the University of Surrey’s Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), to send the world’s first smartphone satellite into orbit is due to launch on February 25.

Also appearing in the video are Shaun Kenyon and Dr. Chris Bridges both of whom have given presentations on the STRaND project to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium held each year in Guildford.

 

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Feb 8 2013

Video of satellite FO-29 shown at Amateur Radio Fair Nov 17-18

Amateur Radio Satellite FO-29

Amateur Radio Satellite FO-29

This HD video, made by Sylvain Draux F0FVK, features the amateur radio satellite Fuji-OSCAR-29 (JAS-2). The video was shown at the Amateur Radio Fair held in Pordenone, Italy on November 17-18, 2012.

The 50kg satellite FO-29 was launched on August 17, 1996 from the Tanegashima Space Center of NASDA, Tanegashima Island, Japan into a 1330 by 810 km orbit.

It carries a 145 to 435 MHz linear transponder for SSB and CW communications.

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Feb 7 2013

STRaND-1 Smartphone CubeSat to launch end of February

STRaND-1 and team - image credit SSTL

STRaND-1 and team – Image credit SSTL

The BBC report that the world’s first “smartphone-sat” STRaND-1 is ready to launch at the end of February. The satellite was built in Guildford by volunteers from the Surrey Space Centre (SSC) and Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) in their spare time. It is planned to be launched on February 25 into a 785 km orbit by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the PSLV-CA (PSLV-C20) rocket.

Dr Chris Bridges working on STRaND

Dr Chris Bridges working on STRaND-1

The innovative STRaND-1 CubeSat will carry a Google Nexus One Android smartphone into space to demonstrate the feasibility of using cheap smartphone electronics to control a spacecraft.

Smartphones contain highly advanced technologies and incorporate several key features that are integral to a satellite – such as cameras, radio links, accelerometers and high performance computer processors – almost everything a spacecraft needs except the solar panels and propulsion.

There will be an amateur radio AX.25 packet radio downlink on 437.568 MHz using a data rates of 9k6 bps.

STRaND-1 flight ready February 2013 with Shaun Kenyon, Dr Peter Shaw, Dr Chris Bridges

STRaND-1 flight ready February 2013 with Shaun Kenyon, Dr Peter Shaw, Dr Chris Bridges

Further information on STRaND-1 at
http://www.amsat-uk.org/?p=12196

Watch the videos in the STRaND-1 video archive
http://www.amsat-uk.org/?p=12472

Read the BBC News story at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21361204

The world’s first smartphone in Space ‘STRaND-1’ ready for launch
http://www.sstl.co.uk/News-and-Events?story=2117

Dr Chris Bridges talked about STRaND-1 on the BBC Radio 4 show Material World broadcast on Thursday, February 7. A recording can be heard until February 14 at http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qfj3l The STRaND-1 segment starts 08:55 into the recording.

STRaND-1 on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nanosats

You can follow STRaND at https://twitter.com/SurreyNanosats