8-year-old radio amateur Hope Lea KM4IPF made her first contact just 45 minutes after her callsign appeared in the FCC database. The contact with Arthur K4YYL, via the FO-29 satellite, took place on March 11, 2015 at 2100 UT.
Her elder sister Faith WA4BBC and brother Zechariah WX4TVJ got to work K4YYL as well. They had both gained their US Technician licenses (equiv UK Foundation) in February and upgraded to the US General (equiv UK Intermediate) a couple of weeks later.
Hope’s younger sister is studying for her licence.
Ofcom have announced that following representations they are restoring the 75.875-76.0 GHz Amateur and Amateur-Satellite allocation to Primary status in the new amateur radio licence which comes into effect on April 7, 2015.
The Ofcom licensing updates page says:
Following the recent notification sent to licensees of our proposal to vary the Amateur Radio Licence, Ofcom now publishes a Notice of Variation to the Amateur Radio licence.
Licensees who received a notification dated 30th January are not covered by this. Their licences will be the subject of a separate Notice, which we shall publish in the course of the next couple of weeks.
A number of changes have been made to the licence proposals originally announced December 5, 2014, these are detailed in Annex B.
It is understood that examinations will continue to be based on old licence terms until October 2015, since any exam changes are subject to a six month notice period.
On Friday, March 13 eight school teams from across the UK competed in the National CanSat Competition held at the National STEM Centre in York.
CanSat 434 MHz Tracking Antenna – Credit Ryan Laird
The CREST Gold Award accredited competition, now in its second year, involves students building a miniature simulation satellite, known as a CanSat, and launching it from 300 metres above an airfield.
The students had to build their own space experiments, fitting all the major subsystems including radio communications on 433/434 MHz and power into a 350 ml soda can.
They needed to write code to measure temperature, pressure and other chosen parameters on its journey parachuting to the ground. The winners of the competition will go on to the European finals, held in Portugal, in June.
Sarah Brightman Space Flight Training February 2015
Sarah Brightman hopes to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) for a 10 day mission in September 2015.
If the launch takes place as planned she would become the UK’s second astronaut, the first was Helen Sharman GB1MIR on May 18, 1991. Tim Peake KG5BVI is expected to launch in November 2015.
Sarah announced her planned flight on October 10, 2012 and commenced training in Russia’s Star City in January 2015.
She will fly to the ISS aboard Soyuz 44 (TMA-18M) and return on Soyuz 42 having spent 10 days on the ISS. With her on the flight will be Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen KG5GCZ and Russian cosmonaut Sergei Volkov RU3DIS.
To celebrate her journey into space and recognise the combination of arts, science, technology, engineering and maths Sarah has teamed up with the Challenger Center to launch a programme for students all around the world. She says “Through my partnership with Challenger Center, I hope to inspire in children the same wonder and excitement for space exploration that I feel myself. As I prepare for my own space journey, I am proud to work with them to impart the sense of magic that has had me dreaming and looking up at the stars since I was a child.”
Prospective UK astronaut Tim Peake KG5BVI has sent this video message to Sarah
A flight to the ISS is understood to cost around $52 million, considerably more than the $20 million that Iranian-American engineer Anousheh Ansari paid for her mission to the ISS in 2006, highlighting the dramatic escalation in launch charges in recent years.
In 2012 in conjunction with Virgin Galactic, The Brightman STEM Scholarship program (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) was launched to help young women in the US pursue STEM education across their four year college careers.
Her album, “Dreamchaser” was released on January 22, 2013. She said “I don’t think of myself as a dreamer. Rather, I am a dream chaser, I hope that I can encourage others to take inspiration from my journey both to chase down their own dreams and to help fulfill the important UNESCO mandate to promote peace and sustainable development on Earth and from space. I am determined that this journey can reach out to be a force for good, a catalyst for some of the dreams and aims of others that resonate with me.” She intends to become the first professional musician to sing from space.
The ISS has two amateur radio stations, one in the Russian Service module the other in the ESA Columbus module. It is not yet known if Sarah will make any amateur radio contacts during her mission.
In 1991 the first UK astronaut Helen Sharman was issued with a special callsign GB1MIR by the Radiocommunications Division of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). She was then able to contact radio amateurs on Earth during her stay on the MIR space station.
The RSGB has reported that the UK communications regulator Ofcom will make the callsign GB1SS available for issue to UK astronauts who wish to operate from the ISS.
There will be a total solar eclipse on March 20, 2015 which tracks across the North Atlantic and eventually covers a lot of the Arctic.
Path of Solar Eclipse March 20, 2015
It would seem that this will affect most spacecraft that are in a polar orbit to some extent as, at that sort of time, they would expect to be in sunlight at the time and location.
On FUNcube-1 (AO-73) we have a good power budget which means that we should be able to maintain our normal autonomous operation schedule for the day but, of course, if the spacecraft does go fully into darkness it should switch autonomously to transponder and low power telemetry.
It will be interesting to see what actually happens and we hope that as many listeners as possible will upload the data they receive between 0740 and 1150 UT on that morning. Our Whole Orbit Data will show the solar currents, battery voltage and external temps clearly during this period so we should get a clear understanding of the effects on board.
If anyone has some software that can model the satellite’s track and the expected impact of the solar eclipse it would be great to hear about it!
Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen KG5GCZ with Murray Niman G6JYB
Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen completed his amateur radio license class on February 23 and passed his exam on February 25. He has been assigned the callsign KG5GCZ.
Andreas was selected as an ESA astronaut in May 2009 and completed the astronaut basic training programme at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany in November 2010. Since completing the astronaut basic training programme, Andreas has been trained and certified as a private pilot by the Lufthansa flight school and is trained and qualified for spacewalks using both the American EMU suit and the Russian Orlan suit.
In July 2009 he attended the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium in Guildford where he described to delegates the astronaut selection process. This year it was announced he would be on the same 10-day mission to the International Space Station (ISS) as the UK’s Sarah Brightman.
He will be the first astronaut of Danish nationality to go to space and will launch with Sarah on a Soyuz TMA-18M spacecraft in September 2015.
AMSAT-UK 
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