Apr 20 2015

Launching CubeSats For and From Australia

The 2015 CubeSat Workshop took place on Wednesday, April 1 at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Videos of the presentations are now available on YouTube.

Among the presenters were representatives of two UK space companies, Tom Walkinshaw of Alba Orbital and Craig Clark of Clyde Space.

The presentation schedule and slide PDF’s are at http://www.acser.unsw.edu.au/events/cubesat2015.html

The videos are at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ4pUVq3euPwUNX00If0FTw/videos

Watch 2015 Cubesat Workshop Session 2

Apr 18 2015

Kosmos-2504 pushes target off its orbit

Launch of Kosmos 2499Anatoly Zak reports on the maneuvers of Cosmos-2504 whose signals were detected by a Dutch amateur radio enthusiast Cees Bassa.

Cosmos-2504 was launched on March 31, 2015, at 16:47:56 Moscow Time from Site 133 in Plesetsk. Just hours later it was noted it was transmitting signals similar to previous maneuverable satellites — Cosmos-2491 (RS-46) and Cosmos-2499 (RS-47).

Read the article at http://russianspaceweb.com/Cosmos-2504.html

COSMOS-2499 Callsign RS-47 https://amsat-uk.org/2014/11/30/cosmos-2499-callsign-rs-47/

COSMOS-2491 is RS-46 https://amsat-uk.org/2014/12/02/cosmos-2491-rs-46/

Apr 18 2015

ISS 2395 MHz Digital Amateur TV Blank Transmission Test

Front panel of the HamTV transmitter

Front panel of the HamTV transmitter

The request to power up the Ham Video system was added to the crew task list on April 16.

That means, that crew is invited to activate Ham Video as a free time activity. No precise day/time for this activity is fixed.

Please monitor the 2395 MHz at 2.0 Ms/s frequency and tell everyone as soon as you observe it.

This will be a period of blank transmission for testing and calibration. Please make maximum use of it.

Read the HamTV overview by Gaston Bertels ON4WF http://tinyurl.com/HamTVoverview

Join the ISS HamTV Yahoo Group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HamTV

ARISS-EU HamTV Bulletins http://www.ariss-eu.org/

HamTV on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Hamtvproject

Video of ISS HamTV – Koichi Wakata KC5ZTA April 13, 2014
https://amsat-uk.org/2014/04/14/video-of-iss-hamtv-koichi-wakata-kc5zta-april-13-2014/

Apr 17 2015

With a heavy heart – G3CWV – SK

Clive Wallis G3CWV

Clive Wallis G3CWV

It is with great sadness that I have to inform you that I have just learnt of the passing of our dear friend Clive Wallis, G3CWV on 27th March 2015.

Clive has been a very staunch supporter of AMSAT from the very early days. Many will recall his intense interest and loyalty in following UOSAT-2/UO-11. He maintained a very comprehensive web site with details of the spacecraft’s activities. He wrote many articles for Oscar News about his activities. He attended many AMSAT-UK Colloquia.

He was awarded the Louis Varney cup for 2015 by the RSGB, and although he knew of the award before his passing, the formal presentation is not until 25 April.

His funeral is to be held on Wednesday, 22 April 2015 at 3.00pm at Christchurch, Bedford Road, Hitchin, Herts, UK. I am sure that his family would appreciate the presence of any AMSAT members who are able to be there.

We send our condolences to his widow, Janet.

RIP, Clive.

73s
Jim Heck G3WGM
Hon Sec AMSAT-UK

For 17 years between 1996 and 2013 Clive produced monthly reports on OSCAR-11  (UoSAT-2).
The report archive is at http://www.g3cwv.co.uk/newsarch.htm

Clive’s OSCAR-11 page http://www.g3cwv.co.uk/oscar11.htm

In 1993 Clive Wallis G3CWV took over distribution of satellite related BBC software
https://amsat-uk.org/2011/12/11/bbc-micro-and-amsat-uk-software-library/

Apr 16 2015

FUNcube-1 (AO-73) Transmitting Again

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) - Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG

FUNcube-1 (AO-73) is again transmitting telemetry. A restart took place during the 0930 UT pass over Europe.

The CubeSat had stopped transmitting at around 2018 UT on Wednesday, April 15.

The team is still investigating the situation, but have concluded from earlier telemetry analysis that it was safe to switch back to nominal operations.

During the 0930 UT pass over The Netherlands, Wouter PA3WEG commanded it back to nominal mode with full automatic mode switching.

At this time, there is no reason to believe this event was dangerous to the spacecraft, all systems were nominal and the battery is nearly full.

Many thanks for all the reports that the team have received.

FUNcube-1 (AO-73) Telemetry:
• Dashboard App http://funcube.org.uk/working-documents/funcube-telemetry-dashboard/
• Data Warehouse Archive http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/
• Whole orbit data shows the effect http://warehouse.funcube.org.uk/wod.html?satelliteId=2

Apr 15 2015

ISS Ham Radio SSTV Video

On the weekend of April 11/12 Randy Hall K7AGE used his Arrow dual band J-Pole antenna, FT-817, Signalink USB interface and MMSSTV software to capture some great amateur radio Slow Scan Television (SSTV) images from the International Space Station (ISS).

Watch SSTV Images from the International Space Station

ISS Slow Scan TV Active on Weekend of April 11 https://amsat-uk.org/2015/03/31/iss-sstv/

Using WebSDRs Worldwide for the ISS https://amsat-uk.org/2015/04/14/using-websdrs-for-iss/

ISS SSTV in the UK Press https://amsat-uk.org/2015/04/15/iss-sstv-in-the-press/