AMSAT News – Page 38

AMSAT-NA Board of Directors Ballots Due by September 15th

June 28, 2017September 2, 2016 by amsat admin

Ballots have been mailed to AMSAT-NA members in good standing, and must be returned to the AMSAT-NA office by September 15, 2016 in order to be counted. Those sent outside North America were sent by air mail. If you have not received your ballot package in a reasonable time for your QTH, please contact the AMSAT-NA office. Your completed ballot should be sent as promptly as possible, and those from outside North American preferably by air mail or other expedited means.

This year there are five candidates:

Tom Clark, K3IO
Clayton Coleman, W5PFG
Mark Hammond, N8MH
Bruce Paige, KK5DO
Paul Stoetzer, N8HM

The three candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be seated as voting Board Members with two year terms. The two candidates receiving the next highest number of votes will be non-voting Alternate Board Members with terms of one year. Please vote for no more than three candidates.

Please take the time to review the candidate statements that accompany the ballot and determine who you wish to see on the Board. Election of Board members is both an obligation as well as an opportunity by our membership to help shape the future direction of AMSAT-NA.

RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E) Launch Scheduled for December 2017

June 28, 2017August 23, 2016 by amsat admin

AMSAT has been informed that the launch for the NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) XX mission carrying RadFxSat-2 (Fox-1E) has been scheduled for December 2017.

In addition to RadFxSat-2, the ELaNa XX mission will carry 12 CubeSats constructed both by NASA and several universities around the United States. The mission will be launched by Virgin Galactic on their LauncherOne air launch to orbit system from Mojave, CA

RadFxSat-2, like RadFxSat (Fox-1B), is a partnership opportunity between the Vanderbilt University Institute for Space and Defense Electronics and AMSAT and will carry a similar radiation effects experiment, studying new FinFET technology.

RadFxSat-2 will be the fifth Fox-1 satellite built by AMSAT. Fox-1A, now AMSAT-OSCAR 85 (AO-85), was launched on October 8, 2015 and is fully operational, providing science data from it’s onboard experiments and FM transponder service for the amateur radio community. Fox-1Cliff and Fox-1D are scheduled for launch this fall and RadFxSat is scheduled to launch in early 2017.

The RadFxSat-2 spacecraft bus will be built on the Fox-1 series but will feature a linear transponder “upgrade” to replace the standard FM transponder in Fox-1A through D. In addition, the uplink and downlink bands will be reversed from the previous Fox satellites in a Mode V/u (J) configuration using a 2 meter uplink and 70 cm downlink. The downlink will feature a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry channel to carry the Vanderbilt science data in addition to a 30 kHz wide transponder for amateur radio use.

RadFxSat “Tour” on YouTube

June 28, 2017August 20, 2016 by amsat admin

Vice President Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, gave a live “tour” of the RadFxSat CubeSat on August 20 from Fox Labs, describing various aspects of the flight model, construction, and testing.

The video playback is available on YouTube.

RadFxSat (Fox-1B) Nearing Completion

June 28, 2017July 28, 2016 by amsat admin

RadFxSat flight unit has been assembled and is going through various stages of testing before it is put through environmental (shock, vibe, bakeout) testing in August for completion in early September. Launch is scheduled for January 20, 2017.

In a recent test stop in Fox Labs for a few days, most of the testing was streamed live on YouTube to give enthusiasts an opportunity to “look over the shoulder” of VPE Jerry Buxton, N0JY as he conducted tests on the flight unit along with other Fox Engineering Team members on GoToMeeting.

If you missed the live video, you can view the archives at

http://www.youtube.com/c/n0jy/live

RadFxSat is expected to be back in Fox Labs around August 11 for another round of tests and it is planned to have live streaming during those tests as well.