In this HamRadioNow video AMSAT President, Barry Baines WD4ASW, gives an update on what AMSAT is up to now and planning for the future.
Tag Archives: AMSAT
HamRadioNow – "AMSAT Mission to MARS?*"
In this HamRadioNow video AMSAT President, Barry Baines WD4ASW, gives an update on what AMSAT is up to now and planning for the future.
Smartphone and Kinect Satellite Presentations at Guildford
Dr Christopher Bridges (2nd from left) discussing why space is cool on Sky News
Dr Chris Bridges recently appeared on the nationwide TV channel Sky News discussing why space is cool. On September 15-16 he will be giving two presentations to the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium at the Holiday Inn, Guildford, GU2 7XZ.
Chris will cover the Nexus Android Smartphone amateur radio satellite STRaND-1 which will carry both a Resistojet and a Pulsed Plasma Thruster (PPT) module and STRaND-2 which comprises two 3U CubeSats that will use Microsoft Xbox Kinect controller technology for docking.
UPDATE: For videos of the two STRaND presentations see http://www.uk.amsat.org/?p=10297
AMSAT-UK Membership.
AMSAT-UK Membership.
There has never been a more exciting time for you to join one of the UK’s largest group of people who have an interest in Amateur radio satellites/space activities from all around the world.
AMSAT-UK has an ever growing membership base from shortwave listeners to satellite engineers, amateur radio in space is becoming more affordable with the
concept of Cubesats.
The AMSAT-UK FUNcube projects aims to be at the forefront with a launch of it’s very own educational Cubesat in 2012 http://funcube.org.uk/
AMSAT-UK is a voluntary organisation that was formed in 1975 and has provided invaluable assistance to the Amateur satellite programme and continues to be at the forefront of satellite research and design, benefits of membership include a full colour Oscar News magazine (Sample here) that is packed with articles and information relating to our ever growing hobby.
AMSAT-UK has a great Website with all the latest news and articles that are updated on a almost daily basis,there you will find information for the newcomer to the more advance
user,an online shop stocks items from the LVB satellite antenna tracker to booking a room for the forthcoming AMSAT-UK Colloquium 2012 Fri 14 Sep to Sun 16 Sep
A regular net is also held on Sunday’s on 3.780 MHz +/- QRM, at 10 AM (local) Membership is open to clubs, schools, companies, etc, and individuals from around the world.
Join AMSAT-UK today HERE
AMSAT-UK Website- http://www.uk.amsat.org/
AMSAT-UK Membership- http://tinyurl.com/3gg2tvc
FUNcube- http://funcube.org.uk/
Twitter @AMSATUK
New OSCAR-7 DX Record
Wyatt AC0RA and Bill OM3BD have broken the AMSAT-OSCAR-7 (AO-7) long distance (DX) record set in 2010.
Their GPS-measured 7849km QSO between grid squares EN31vx and JN88mf surpassed the prior 7843km record set by PY5LF and K3SZH in 2010.
Bill says that Wyatt did all the hard work by waking up at 3am, driving to a hill an hour away from his home, setting up his station, and working Bill before sunrise at 0955 UT on July 2.
Bill was running an FT847, 2 x 10 element yagi on 2m with SP2000 preamp, and an 8 element yagi for 70cm while Wyatt had an FT-847, a 7 element yagi on 2 meters and a 12 element yagi on 70cm.
It appears that an even longer distance is attainable, and Wyatt is looking for a suitable place from which they can try before Bill leaves Slovakia in mid-July.
Further information, pictures and recordings of the contact are at http://www.qsl.net/nz5n/AO7record.htm
2010 PY5LF and K3SZH AO-7 distance record http://www.southgatearc.org/news/january2010/new_ao7_record.htm
10th Anniversary of OSCAR 7′s Return To Life http://www.uk.amsat.org/8524
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Penn State Behrend students Jacob Sherk, Kathleen Nicholas and David Jesberger put final touches to the amateur radio satellite supercapacitor battery – Image Credit Pennsylvania State University
On Feb. 3, 2006, astronauts tossed an old spacesuit off the International Space Station. Inside was an amateur radio transmitter, a temperature sensor and some batteries.
The suit was a DIY satellite. It circled the Earth twice, repeating a greeting recorded in multiple languages; ham radio operators listened in as it passed overhead.
Then the batteries died.
The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, or AMSAT, tried again in 2011. The battery in that satellite, a more traditional box design, also failed.
Penn State Nittany Lions Paw Print
For the next model, AMSAT, a volunteer group, turned to the School of Engineering at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. Three students designed a brand-new battery: a 1.8 kg cube powered by 15 supercapacitors, each roughly the size of a film canister.
The battery was built to handle 16 charge cycles in a 24-hour period. That will power the satellite in dark orbits, when the solar panels are not facing the sun.
To activate the battery before those solar panels charge, the students – David Jesberger, of St. Marys; Kathleen Nicholas, of Pittsburgh; and Jacob Sherk, of Elizabethtown – added four 9-volt Duracells.
AMSAT hopes to fit the satellite into a rocket payload and onto the International Space Station sometime in 2013. The astronauts won’t have to do much with it.
“It’s simple by design. They flip a switch, and they throw it out,” said Dakshina Murthy Bellur, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Penn State Behrend. He supervised the battery work, which counted as the students’ senior capstone project.
All three students have since graduated. All three have jobs: Nicholas and Jesberger signed on with defense contractors, and Sherk works at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.
They continue to track the AMSAT project. They want to know when their battery, upon which they laser-etched with their names and a Nittany Lion paw print, gets a launch date.
“That’s going to be cool,” Jesberger said. “We’ll have our signatures in space.”
Source Pennsylvania State University http://live.psu.edu/story/60125
ARISSat http://www.arissat.org/
AMSAT-UK 
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