Congratulations to the $50SAT team as their satellite has received an OSCAR number, Morehead OSCAR-76, or MO-76.
$50SAT is a joint effort involving Professor Bob Twiggs, Morehead State University, Howie DeFelice, AB2S, Michael Kirkhart, KD8QBA, and Stuart Robinson, GW7HPW.
More information on the satellite can be found at http://www.50dollarsat.info/ and on the AMSAT website.
More information on obtaining an OSCAR number for your satellite can be found here.
Friday February 28 at 0730Z, several cubesats were deployed from the International Space station.
Perhaps of most interest to radio amateurs are Lithuania’s first satellites, LituanicaSAT-1 and LitSat-1.
LituanicaSAT-1 carries an FM repeater with a 145.950 MHz uplink and 435.180 MHz downlink, a 9600 baud AX25 packet system with a 145.850 MHz uplink and 437.550 MHz downlink, and a CW beacon on 437.275 MHz. Detailed information may be found at http://www.kosmonautai.lt/en/satellite/ and https://www.facebook.com/Lituanicasat1
LitSat-1 carries a linear transponder of unknown bandwidth and with a reported uplink of 435.180 MHz and downlink of 145.950 MHz, a AX25 packet system with a 437.550 MHz uplink and 145.850 MHz downlink. Limited additional information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/palydovas and http://www.space-lt.eu/journeyof-thefirstlithuanian-satellites74326-1-541.html#apacia .
UAPSAT is Peru’s third satellite, and will transmit AX25 packet telemetry and an audio message on 145.980 MHz. It is unclear whether there will be a two-way capability. Additional information via Google Translate at http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://www.uapsat.info/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Duapsat%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26hs%3DGt9%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official
ArduSat-2 and SkyCube are also included in this deployment.
G. Gould Smith, WA4SXM of Knoxville, TN has resigned as an AMSAT Board of Directors member as well as his position as VP-User Services on the AMSAT Senior Leadership Team. Gould notified AMSAT President Barry Baines, WD4ASW of his decision via an e-mail that states in part, “It is with deep regret that I must resign my AMSAT positions of BoD member and VP of User Services. AMSAT has played a major part in my life over the last 25 years; the incredible people have made it such a great pleasure.”
Gould has persevered despite chronic health issues, but recent severe medical issues have precluded him from active participation in AMSAT for some time. Gould noted, “I had hoped that I would be able to contribute this year, but that hasn’t worked out. The organization needs to have contributing people in these positions.”
In his reply to Gould’s notification, Barry responded in part, “I’m sorry to receive your resignation; you have done so much for AMSAT over the years.”
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