When a competion was run to find Apps to fly on the Smartphone CubeSat STRaND-1 one of the wining entries was an App which was a spin-off of the work done by the AMSAT-UK FUNcube team. See the story at:
A detailed article on STRaND-1 appeared in a recent edition of the newsletter OSCAR News published by AMSAT-UK. It can be downloaded from http://www.uk.amsat.org/on_193_final.pdf
AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards, Bruce Paige, KK5DO says that congratulations are in order for the latest AMSAT Awards recipients:The following have entered into the Satellite Communicators Club for making their first satellite QSO:
Stephen Licht, WF2S
Jay Hitchcock, KI6WZU
Costantino Montella, IK8YSS
Jackson Wilson, KF5LOQ
The following have earned the AMSAT Communications Achievement Award:
Clayton Coleman, W5PFG #542
Csaba-Zoltan Kertesz, YO6PIB #543
Yanko Yankov, NX9G #544
Jackson Wilson, KF5LOQ #545
The following have earned the South Africa Satellite Communications Achievement Award:
Clayton Coleman, W5PFG #US171
Csaba-Zoltan Kertesz, YO6PIB #US172
Yanko Yankov, NX9G #US173
Jackson Wilson, KF5LOQ #US174
The following have earned their Robert W. Barbee, Jr. W4AMI Award:
Branko Martincic, 9A3ST #74
The following have earned their Robert W. Barbee, Jr. W4AMI 5000 Award:
A vintage TV news report first broadcast Aug 4, 1985 shows a contact between RSGB HQ in Potters Bar and Astronaut Tony England W0ORE in the Challenger shuttle on mission STS 51-F.
Tony W0ORE was running a Motorola model MX-340 handheld 2-meter transceiver and a Robot Research model 1200C slow-scan television scan converter with an antenna fitted on the inside of one of Challengers windows.
RSGB General Manager David Evans G3OUF was among those at the Society’s station GB3RS.
It is believed the voice contact was carried out on 145.550 MHz FM and the RSGB HQ team acheived a first with a two-way exchange of Slow Scan TV (SSTV) pictures.
The original TV news reports about the United Kingdom’s first Amateur Radio satellites, UOSAT-1 (OSCAR-9) and UOSAT-2 (OSCAR-11), can now be seen on the web.
In ‘Talking Satellite’, made February 15, 1983, Martin Sweeting G3YJO talks about OSCAR-9 and its speech synthesizer.
The ITN description reads: “The World’s first talking satellite begins to speak. It was launched 18 months ago in America for the University of Surrey and one of its purposes is to encourage interest among school children in space technology.”
Watch it at http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1983/02/15/AS150283008/
In ‘British Satellite’, made February 7, 1984, Martin Sweeting G3YJO talks about OSCAR-11 due to be launched the following month.
The ITN description reads: “Staff at the University of Surrey have designed and built a spacecraft in 5 months after being challenged by NASA. Intvw Dr Martin Sweeting, University of Surrey.”
Watch it at http://www.itnsource.com/shotlist//ITN/1984/02/07/AS070284011/
The Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) initiative took place on Friday, October 28 at 0948 UT and a number of Amateur Radio satellites were among them. The CubeSats were successfully deployed at 1129 UT. Signals have been heard from Explorer-1[Prime], RAX-2, AubieSat-1 and M-Cubed.
Jean-Marie KI4YAU asks Amateur Radio operators to listen out for AubieSat-1, on 437.475 MHz CW. He says
We fervently request your assistance in receiving transmissions from an upcoming satellite, AubieSat-1, immediately after its launch from Vandenberg AFB, California, USA. AubieSat-1 (AS-1) is an undergraduate – built CubeSat satellite developed by Auburn University.
AS-1 is designed to transmit with a power of about 800 milliwatts on a frequency of 437.475 MHz, plus or minus Doppler correction [+/- 9 kHz]. The beacon signal, along with telemetry, will be sent using A1A continuous wave Morse code at 20 words per minute. Additional telemetry from the onboard science experiment will use CW transmissions up to 60 WPM.
