AMSAT General News

Fox-1 launch update

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The following is excerpted from the Apogee View column of AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW, as published in the latest AMSAT Journal:

Grace L-55 will launch on a similar Atlas V
Grace L-55 will launch on a similar Atlas V

The launch of Grace/L55 from Vandenberg AFB is slipping from December 2014 into Summer 2015 due to governmental priorities. Fox-1 is currently manifested on that launch as part of the ELaNa-12 group of satellites. Instead of launching our vehicle in December, another launch vehicle with payload is taking precedence, forcing a reschedule of ELaNa-12. Currently, we are now scheduled to fly on 1 AUG 2015 rather than December 2014.

This delay is mixed news for AMSAT. While we are disappointed that this will mean that Fox-1 will not fly in 2014, it also means that we have more time to complete and test the spacecraft prior to delivery to SRI. In the overall scheme of things, it allows AMSAT to have greater confidence in the delivery of a thoroughly tested spacecraft by taking more time to allow for unforeseen contingencies and to do the ground testing.

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Update on DELFI-N3XT transponder test

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A follow-up to our previous news on the DELFI-N3XT transponder test was received via e-mail today:

Dear all,

Today we did a first transponder test. We could hear the beacon, but unfortunately did not hear anything back from our calls. Also we were missing the noise floor of the transponder band. Our hypothesis is that our adjustable LO (Si570) which is mixed with the IF band could not be programmed correctly and hence the pass-band goes outside our filtered band (which is a good thing, because we do not want to transmit on illegal frequencies). This LO is adjustable by I2C communication and should be programmed each time at power up (so each time the transponder mode is activated. We will do two attempts more tomorrow at the morning ground passes and even if that doesn’t help we will keep on trying with different settings. If the situation changes I will update you again.

Best regards,

Jasper, PC4JB

AMSAT-NA will be at HamCation 2014!

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AMSAT-NA will be at the 2014 Orlando HamCation on Friday through Sunday, 7-9 February 2014. Stop by the AMSAT booth where John Papay, K8YSE will be demonstrating his two remote satellite stations.  Don’t miss the AMSAT Forum on Saturday, February 8th.  It will be moderated by Dave Jordan,  AA4KN and will be located in the Children’s Safety Village, Classroom I, 1:45 – 2:45 PM.  Speakers will include AMSAT-NA President Barry Baines, WD4ASW on AMSAT’s activities, Lou McFadin, W5DID on the new HamTV experiment on the International Space Station, and AMSAT-NA Vice President for Operations on AO-73 and other new amateur satellites.  Drew will also will be on hand both Saturday and Sunday conducting portable satellite contacts and fielding questions from the crowd.

FLASH: Drew and John will be operating as W100AW/4 for the portable demos from the HamCation!