Es’hail-2 coverage area

DARC reports on Saturday, September 29, the annual symposium of AMSAT-DL took place in the IUZ observatory Bochum.

The Google translation reads:

There were lectures on current amateur radio satellites and space projects. The focus was on the first geostationary amateur radio satellite Es’hail-2, whose launch is expected later this year, as well as the MEGINASAT project, the first CubeSat from a German grammar school.

The lecture series was opened by Thilo Elsner, DJ5YM, whose article gave an overview of the ESERO office Germany opened in Bochum on May 16. ESERO stands for “European Space Education Resource Office”. The aim of the initiative is to bring space travel in the context of STEM subjects exciting and innovative in the classroom. After a lengthy selection process, Bochum was chosen as the location for Germany. In cooperation with the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, the observatory Bochum, the AMSAT-DL and other partners are founding members of this educational and scientific consortium.

Afterwards, AMSAT-DL-President Peter Gülzow, DB2OS, and Achim Vollhardt, DH2VA, talked about the current status of Es’hail-2 (called AMSAT-intern P4-A), whose launch will start in the fourth quarter of 2018 according to operator Es’hailSat should be done. A concrete start date is still not available. Recently, the AMSAT-DL completed and finalized the individual components for the Es’hail-2 ground station in Doha / Qatar. “Last week we finished the work and made the equipment ready to ship,” reported DB2OS. The components will soon be installed in Qatar. Another facility will be back up at the Qatar Amateur Radio Society (QARS) in Doha. A third ground station will be installed at the AMSAT-DL in the Bochum observatory. Two transponders are available on the satellite for amateur radio: a narrowband and a broadband transponder to be used for DATV broadcasts. “We hope to be able to present live broadcasts in DATV at the next HAM RADIO from June 21 to 23, 2019,” said Gülzow optimistically.

How satellite radio can also contribute to the successful recruitment of youngsters was demonstrated by the MEGINASAT team headed by project leader Thomas Leister, DG2PU. The project originated from an ISS contact of the Megina Gymnasium Mayen in 2012 and a stratospheric balloon launch in 2016. Specifically, MEGINASAT is the first CubeSat from a German grammar school. The students Florian Jüngermann, Max von Wolff (Physics Bundessieger at Jugend forscht) and Max Schild presented the project and pursue ambitious goals: The CubeSat is to serve Earth observation and send its image data by light transmission to Earth. Also sponsorship funds in five-digit amount have already been collected, now the team is looking for only one.

Source DARC https://www.darc.de/

AMSAT-DL President Peter Gülzow DB2OS will be giving a presentation “Es’hail-2 and its amateur radio payload” at the AMSAT-UK International Space Colloquium which is being held as part of the RSGB Convention at the Kents Hill Park Conference Centre in Milton Keynes, October 13-14 https://amsat-uk.org/colloquium/

Qatar Amateur Radio Society Geostationary Transponders Leaflet Page 1

The Qatar Amateur Radio Society released a leaflet about the geostationary amateur radio transponders at the IARU Region 1 Conference taking place September 20-27, 2014 in Varna-Albena, Bulgaria. The frequencies quoted are:

Amateur satellite service spectrum used by cell-phone masts in the UK

Linear transponder
2400.050-2400.300 MHz Uplink
10489.550-10489.800 MHz Downlink

Wideband digital transponder
2401.5-2409.5 MHz Uplink
10491.0-10499.0 MHz Downlink

In the UK the 10475-10500 MHz section of the Amateur Satellite Service allocation was auctioned by Ofcom for nationwide cell-phone backhaul links. The winner of the auction was T-Mobile(UK) now part of the phone company EE. The use of this segment of the band by cell-phone masts may cause problems to UK amateurs wishing to receive the transponders. See this spreadsheet of spectral masks for the 10 GHz links.

Gunter Krebs reports on his Space Pages that Es’hailSat has signed a contract with MELCO to build the Es’hail-2 Geostationary Comsat. Es’hail 2 is a planned communication satellite operated by Es’hailSat, the Qatar Satellite Company. It will also feature an radio amateur payload.

The new satellite will be positioned at the 26° East hotspot position for TV broadcasting and significantly adds to the company’s ability to provide high quality, premium DTH television content across the Middle East and North Africa. It will feature Ku-band and Ka-band transponders to provide TV distribution and government services to strategic stakeholders and commercial customers who value broadcasting and communications independence,interference resilience, quality of service and wide geographical coverage. Es’hail 2 is expected to be launched at the end of 2016.

In September 2014, a contract with MELCO was signed to build the satellite based on the DS-2000 bus.

Es’hail 2 will also provide the first Amateur Radio geostationary communication capability linking Brazil and India. It will carry two “Phase 4” Amateur Radio transponders. The payload will consist of a 250 kHz linear transponder intended for conventional analogue operations in addition to another transponder which will have an 8 MHz bandwidth. The latter transponder is intended for experimental digital modulation schemes and DVB amateur television. The uplinks will be in the 2.400-2.450 GHz and the downlinks in the 10.450-10.500 GHz amateur satellite service allocations. Both transponders will have broad beam antennas to provide full coverage over about third of the earth’s surface. The Qatar Amateur Radio Society and Qatar Satellite Company are cooperating on the amateur radio project. AMSAT-DL is providing technical support to the project.

Gunters Space Page http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_chr/lau2014.htm

2006 Ofcom auction of upper segment of 10 GHz Amateur Satellite Service spectrum
http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/consultations/10ghz/

10 GHz Cell-Phone Links Spectral Mask http://tinyurl.com/10GHz-Cell-Phone-Mask

IARU Region 1 Conference link http://iaru.lz-live.com/

RSGB WRC-15 page http://rsgb.org/main/news/special-focus/wrc-15/

Qatar Amateur Radio Society Geostationary Transponders Leaflet Page 2