ESA has changed the launch date of Vega, carrying 8 amateur radio satellites, to Thursday, February 9.
Vega will launch from the ESA launch site at Kourou in the Caribbean.
It will carry 7 amateur radio Cubesats and an amateur radio Microsatellite called ALMASat.
Many rocket launch dates are subject to “slippage” and brand new launch vehicles can slip the launch date more than most. If Vega fails to meet the February 9 date then it will have a short window in which it can be launched before being delayed for many weeks due to an Arianne ATV cargo ship launch from Kourou to the International Space Station planned for March 9.
On Monday, January 9, Edmund 2E0MDO received the International Space Station (ISS) using a Baofeng UV-3R hand-held with its supplied antenna. He has made a video to show how you can hear the ISS with simple equipment. He writes:
Continuing the theme of receiving the International Space Station in random car parks in Southern England, using various low-tech cheap equipment…
This time I was near Worthing (West Sussex) around 1020 GMT on Monday 9 January 2012. I am using my old camera again so hopefully the audio is not as overdriven as the Portsmouth video!
The signal from the space-station I am receiving is on 145.800MHz, in narrow FM, at the top-end of the 2 meter amateur radio band. The signal going up to the space-station was coming from a school in France. Sadly I couldn’t receive that side of the conversation. The astronaut speaking is Dan Burbank, callsign KC5ZSX.
Watch International Space Station received in Worthing – 9 January 2012
The handheld is the Mark II version of the very cheap and cheerful (but excellent value for the money) Baofeng UV-3R, using just the supplied rubber duck as an antenna. The smallest step size on the radio is 5kHz, so I couldn’t do anything about the Doppler shift unfortunately! 145.800 was close enough though.
There is slight breakthrough from pagers, which cannot be helped in a radio of this size and complexity. Using a bigger and better antenna might actually have made the breakthrough worse.
If I can receive the ISS, then *anybody* can! Go for it, whatever your receiving setup is!!
For more information on hearing the ISS read ‘Listening to the International Space Station’ at http://www.uk.amsat.org/3491
Students at the Donald P. Sutherland Elementary School used Ham Radio to talk to the ISS, a student said the experience “was amazing. It was awesome. It was the best experience of my life.”
Fourteen youngsters, representing grades Kindergarten through fifth grade, were lined up to ask questions of Astronaut Michael E. Fossum KF5AQG, who is on his third visit to the Space Station.
Students at the Donald P. Sutherland Elementary School used Ham Radio to talk to the ISS, a student said the experience “was amazing. It was awesome. It was the best experience of my life.”
Fourteen youngsters, representing grades Kindergarten through fifth grade, were lined up to ask questions of Astronaut Michael E. Fossum KF5AQG, who is on his third visit to the Space Station.
Many rocket launch dates are subject to “slippage” and brand new launch vehicles can slip the launch date more than most. If Vega fails to meet the February 9 date then it will have a short window in which it can be launched before being delayed for many weeks due to an Arianne ATV cargo ship launch from Kourou to the International Space Station planned for March 9.
AMSAT-UK 
You must be logged in to post a comment.