Cambridge University Space Flight at EMF 2012 Milton Keynes

EMF 2012 badge of attendee Graham Shirville G3VZV

EMF 2012 badge of attendee Graham Shirville G3VZV

The technology camp EMF 2012 being held at Pineham Park, Milton Keynes runs from Friday August 31 to Sunday, September 2. BBC TV reports that two 20m high masts linked by microwaves have been erected for the event, one at the campsite and the other in the car park of a data centre 2.5 km away.

Among the weekend of presentations are some by radio amateurs such as Adam Greig M0RND (formerly M6AGG). Adam is a member of the UK High Altitude Society (UKHAS) and Cambridge University Space Flight (CUSF) and will be talking about High Altitude Ballooning. The balloons use 434 MHz for the telemetry and video image downlinks.

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HamRadioNow interview with Erin King AK4JG

Erin King AK4JG being interviewed by Gary Pearce KN4AQ of HamRadioNow

Erin King AK4JG, a 17-year-old from Columbus, Georgia, was named Amateur Radio Newsline’s Young Ham of the Year for 2012. She re-founded her high school’s radio club and then built a ham radio-carrying balloon that got to 91,000 feet (27.7 km), recovered the flight data and used it to produce a truly striking video of the flight.

She’s just starting her Freshman year at MIT. Yes, she’s exceptional, but she exhibits the qualities we like to see in every young ham.

In this video she is interviewed by Gary Pearce KN4AQ at the Huntsville Hamfest.

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14099 kHz CPUT CubeSat to launch in 2013

Dr Sandile Malinga, CEO of the South African Space Agency
unveils South Africa’s first CubeSat – Image credit CPUT

The amateur radio CubeSat designed and built by students at the Cape Peninsular University of Technology in Bellville is expected to launch in the 4th quarter of 2013.

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VK1ALR Interview – Mission to make Curiosity count

Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex 70m Dish – Image Credit NASA

Prior to the Curiosity Mars landing this morning Aug 6, The Canberra Times interviewed radio amateur Len Ricardo VK1ALR, operations manager at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, who will be providing a communications link for the Mars Curiosity Rover.

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Italian Microsat to Deploy Amateur Radio Satellites

UniSat-5 with labelsThe Italian microsat UniSat-5 will itself deploy a number of additional amateur radio satellites. Among them should be the CubeSats PUCP-SAT-1, HumSat-D, Icube-1, Dove-4 (Planet Labs Inc. non-amateur) and PocketQubes Wren, Eagle-1 (BeakerSat), Eagle-2 ($50Sat), QB-Scout1. PUCP-SAT-1 intends to subsequently release a further satellite Pocket-PUCP.

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