Tag Archives: hamradio

Jun 13 2020

Indian radio amateur starts petition for licence change

Department of Telecommunications India LogoRohit Bokade VU3OIR has started a petition requesting a change to the Amateur Radio licence in India to permit all grades of licence to use the amateur radio satellites.

In India holders of the Restricted grade of licence (VU3 prefix) are not permitted to use amateur radio satellites or communicate with the International Space Station. The exam requirements for a Restricted licence are of a similar level to the UK Intermediate.

Rohit says:

“Last decade has seen a rapid increase in Amateur Satellites, especially the ones made by educational institutes. As we are slowly moving towards an era when Space will be democratized, more and more students are becoming interested in joining the Amateur radio community.”

“By keeping the amateur radio service bound to General grade license, we are preventing a vast majority of restricted grade operators consisting of a major portion of students yet to get general grade license, from operating these satellites even if it is possible to operate them within the power bounds of restricted grade. We request you through this petition to allow restricted grade operators to operate amateur satellite service within their emission power bounds.”

Read the full petition text at
https://www.change.org/p/wireless-planning-and-coordination-wpc-wing-change-in-amateur-radio-rules-in-india-to-facilitate-rising-amateur-and-student-satellites

Rohit Bokade (VU3OIR) https://twitter.com/rnbokade/status/1271706670943502336

The two grades of licence in India are General (400w HF, 25w VHF/UHF) and Restricted (50w HF, 10w VHF/UHF). The exam syllabus and licence regulations can be downloaded from
http://www.niar.org/training-material.html

India’s Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, released the 2018/19 Amateur Radio statistics in their Annual Report. See page 60 (PDF page 62) at
http://dot.gov.in/sites/default/files/Annual%20Report-2018-19(English).pdf

Previous Annual Reports http://dot.gov.in/reports-statistic/2471

Aug 24 2019

144-146 MHz WebSDR at Goonhilly

Goonhilly 144 MHz WebSDR

Goonhilly 144 MHz WebSDR

The AMSAT-UK and BATC 144-146 MHz Web-based Software Defined Radio installation at Goonhilly is now available. The WebSDR uses the standard FUNcube TLM Receive Antenna that can be purchased from the AMSAT-UK Online Store.

WebSDR Antenna top right

WebSDR Antenna top right

This is being provided in collaboration with Goonhilly Earth Station where it is kindly hosted alongside the existing receiving equipment for the amateur radio transponders on the Qatar-Oscar-100 (QO-100 / Es’hail-2) geostationary satellite.

It shares the same Turnstile antenna that is used for the reception of the AO73, EO88 & JO97 CubeSats.

Being located in the far South West of the UK, it is anticipated the SDR will be useful for early Acquisition of Signal (AOS) of 144 MHz downlinks from amateur satellites and the International Space Station (ISS). Additionally it can be used for reception of tropospheric signals from the south – the Spanish beacon ED1ZAG on 144.403 MHz has been already been heard on the system.

The new 144 MHz band WebSDR is available at https://vhf-goonhilly.batc.org.uk/

The AMSAT-UK / BATC 10 GHz WebSDR for QO-100 is still available at https://eshail.batc.org.uk/

AMSAT-UK: https://amsat-uk.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AmsatUK
Facebook: https://facebook.com/AmsatUK
YouTube: https://youtube.com/AmsatUK

BATC: https://batc.org.uk/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/batconline
Live event streaming: https://batc.org.uk/live/

Jun 23 2015

MADHEN EGGSPLORER-1 Balloon Launch

Eggs in Space on front page of the Sleaford Standard newspaper

Eggs in Space on front page of the Sleaford Standard newspaper

At around 10-11am on Sunday, June 28, 2015 Andrew Garratt M0NRD and the South Kesteven Amateur Radio Society are planning to launch balloons from the 10th World Egg Throwing Championship held at the Swaton Vintage Day at Swaton, near Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

As well as telemetry data it is also planned to transmit Slow Scan Digital Video images in 434 MHz. Depending on altitude the signals from a balloon may have a range of up to 800 km, potentially covering much of the British Isles. A real-time track with altitude will be displayed online at http://tracker.habhub.org/

Andrew provided this information on the UKHAS Mailing List : First ever flights for me, so in at the deep end. The ‘egg’ payload will be carried aloft by the balloon and will have a parachute decent into the North Sea when the balloon eventually bursts. There will be SSDV and backup tracker, kindly sponsored by MADHEN http://madhen.net/

Callsign – MADHEN
USB RTTY 300 Baud 880 Hz Shift – Ascii 8 bits, no parity, 2 stop bits Telemetry and SSDV – 434.400 MHz

Callsign – EGG1
Backup tracker
USB RTTY 50 Baud 380 Hz Shift – ASCII 7 bit, no parity, 2 stop bits
Telemetry – 434.650 MHz (old non-tcxo NTX fixed frequency)

Second flight planned, a foil floater with VAYU-NTX tracker kindly donated by Steve Smith G0TDJ

Callsign – EGGDX
USB RTTY 50 Baud 450 Hz Shift – ASCII 7 bit, no parity, 2 stop bits
434.450 MHz (fixed frequency)

Launch should be around 10-11am.

All help in tracking greatly appreciated

Andrew Garratt M0NRD
Chairman South Kesteven Amateur Radio Society
http://www.skars.co.uk/
https://twitter.com/eggsplorer1

UPDATE June 30, 2015:
BBC News report on the balloons http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-33277561

Andrew M0NRD’s report on the day
http://nerdsville.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/first-hab-flights-were-success.html

Read the Sleaford Standard newspaper report
http://www.sleafordstandard.co.uk/news/local/eggs-in-space-team-of-radio-hams-scramble-to-be-first-to-achieve-egg-straterrestrial-space-mission-1-6803863

High Altitude Balloon links for online tracking, chat room, free software and SSDV
https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/balloons/

May 31 2015

LightSail Signal Heard

Artists impression of LightSail

Artists impression of LightSail

On the Planetary Society’s website Jason Davis @JasonRDavis reports LightSail is again transmitting on 437.435 MHz, AX.25, 9600 bps FSK.

Jason writes: The Planetary Society’s LightSail test spacecraft reported for duty this afternoon [May 30], heralding the end of an uneasy silence caused by a suspected software glitch. At 5:21 p.m. EDT (21:21 UTC), an automated radio chirp was received and decoded at the spacecraft’s Cal Poly San Luis Obispo ground station. Another came in eight minutes later at 5:29 p.m. The real-time clock on board the spacecraft, which does not reset after a software reboot, read 908,125 seconds—approximately ten-and-a-half days since LightSail’s May 20 launch.

LightSail is not out of the woods yet. Its exact position remains fuzzy, complicating two-way communication. Today’s [May 30] contact marks the first time engineers can compare the spacecraft’s signal with orbital models called two-line element sets, or TLEs. There are ten TLEs associated with the ULTRASat fleet that joined LightSail for a free ride to orbit courtesy of a United Launch Alliance Altas V rocket. Which TLE represents LightSail is unknown, but each radio chirp’s Doppler shift helps narrow down the possibilities.

Read Jason’s full post at http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2015/20150530-lightsail-phones-home.html

LightSail Transmissions Stopped https://amsat-uk.org/2015/05/26/lightsail-1-stops-transmitting/