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Two cubesat missions with ties to AMSAT have been selected as part of the eighth round of the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative. These spacecraft are eligible for placement on a launch manifest after final negotiations, depending on the availability of a flight opportunity.

TJREVERB is a cubesat from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Alexandria, Virginia. This satellite will include an AMSAT Fox mode U/v FM radio system, and will be capable of serving as an analog FM repeater.

HuskySat-1 from the University of Washington in Seattle will carry a mode V/u linear transponder and 1200 baud BPSK beacon similar to RadFXsat-2. The satellite will demonstrate plasma propulsion and high gain telemetry in advance of a larger cubesat lunar mission.

The complete list of satellites selected may be found at on the NASA web page. Further information will be shared when available.

RadFXSat-2 is a 1U cubesat technology demonstration mission from Vanderbilt University that has been accepted for launch as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative. Vanderbilt University is partnered with AMSAT, who will provide the satellite and communications for the experiments onboard as part of the AMSAT Fox program.

AMSAT recently received IARU frequency coordination for a 1200 baud BPSK telemetry downlink beacon on 435.750 MHz, and a mode V/u inverting transponder with an uplink of 145.860-145.890 MHz and a downlink of 435.760-435.790 MHz.

RadFXSat-2 is currently manifested as part of the ELaNA XX mission, scheduled for no earlier than December 2017, on a Virgin Galactic Launcher One, from Mojave, California. Other satellites on the mission include:

• CACTUS-1 – Capitol Technology University, Laurel, Md.
• ALBus – NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio
• SurfSat – University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla.
• Q-PACE – University of Central Florida, Orlando, Fla.
• CAPE-3 – University of Louisiana Lafayette, La.
• MiTEE – University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
• PICS – Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
• INCA – New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, N.M.
• MicroMas-2b – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lexington, Mass.
• EXOCUBE – California Polytechnic University, San Louis Obispo, Calif.
• PolarCube – University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colo.

From AMSAT-bb (http://www.amsat.org/wordpress/pipermail/amsat-bb/2016-November/061297.html):

The AMSAT satellite status page at http://www.amsat.org/wordpress/status/ indicates
that as of the morning of 11/25/2016, AO-7 is once again entering eclipse
each orbit. This means that the 24 Hour mode change timer is interrupted
each orbit, and the satellite will be found primarily in Mode U/v (aka Mode
B).

As the satellite is powered solely by the now 42 year-old solar panels, it
is very sensitive to strong uplink signals, particularly CW. Users should
closely monitor their downlink for excessive chirp, warbling or “FM’ing” and
reduce power as necessary. More information including frequencies can be
found at http://ww2.amsat.org/?page_id=1031

73, Drew KO4MA

AMSAT VP Operations

UPDATE: The DXpedition has been postponed by the Venezuelan Navy. Check back for further updates.

The YX0V DXpedition to Aves Island, scheduled for August 31, 2016 – September 10, 2016, will include satellite operations. Aves Island, a dependency of Venezuela located west of Dominica and Guadeloupe in the Caribbean Sea (grid FK85eq), is currently the 17th most wanted DXCC entity on the Club Log DXCC Most-Wanted List and was last on the air in 2007. It was active on satellite during the YV0D expedition in 2004, but only three QSOs were made before the DXpedition was cut short due to rain.

Satellite plans are yet to be finalized. Please check back for further details. YX0V information can be found on their website at http://yx0v.com/, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/yx0v2016, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/yx0v2016/