During May there are plans for two separate attempts to make contacts from Newfoundland using the QO-100 geostationary satellite amateur transponders. Newfoundland is just outside the coverage area of QO-100, the elevation at Signal Hill at St. Johns is -0.9°, however, contacts have been made from Indonesia at an elevation as low as -1.3° so there is a chance of success. Gopan VO1/M0XUU (VU3HPF) will be in Newfoundland from May 8-15 and will attempt to make QO-100 contacts. David VO1/G0MRF and Graham VO1/G3VZV will be in Newfoundland May 15-19 and plan to be active on QO-100 using SSB / CW / F ..read more

GreenCube IO-117 CubeSat Rome, April 30, 2024 – AMSAT Italia is proud to announce the acquisition of the quote of property of the IO-117 “GreenCube” satellite. The other part of the property remains on behalf of “Sapienza University”, Rome, Italy. A collaborative work of the parts will let the satellite continue the amateur radio operations after the completion of the primary scientific mission. This will definitively avert the satellite decommissioning process by transferring the legal responsibility of the satellite from the Italian Space Agency to AMSAT Italia. Even formally and legally ..read more

Matthew Dominick KC0TOR An ARISS contact is scheduled with students at Mrs Ethelston’s CE Primary Academy at Axminster Community Academy Trust, Lyme Regis, U.K. at 11:44 BST (10:44 GMT) on Wednesday April 17 on 145.800 MHz FM. Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has received schedule confirmation for an ARISS radio contact between an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and students at the Mrs. Ethelston’s CE Primary Academy located in Lyme Regis, UK. ARISS conducts 60-100 of these special amateur radio contacts each year between students around the glo ..read more

2024-03-27 Belgium 1240-1300 MHz proposed restrictions On March 27, 2024, Belgium’s regulator the BIPT published draft restrictions on amateur radio operation  in the 23cm (1240-1300 MHz) band. The new restrictions include: Class A (equiv UK Full, USA Extra) – size of band reduced from 60 MHz to 8.24 MHz. The satellite allocation is reduced to 1260-1262 MHz and the antenna elevation must always be more than 15° above the horizon and the transmission power is limited to 50 W EIRP. If the elevation is above 55° above the horizon, the power is increased to 500 watts EIRP Class B (equiv UK ..read more

Series 15 episode 4 of Michael Portillo’s TV show Great British Railway Journeys: Havant to Guildford, features Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd and Professor Sir Martin Sweeting G3YJO. To see the segment fast-forward 20 mins 30 secs into the show. Watch in the UK on BBC iPlayer at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001xj3j/great-british-railway-journeys-series-15-4-havant-to-guildford Over the years Michael has met several radio amateurs while making his show. In 2013 he was shown how to send Morse code by Peter Watkins M0BHY https://web.archive.org/web/20180107172841/http://www.southgatea ..read more

Customers for Inaugral SaxaVord Spaceport Launch Two more amateur radio satellites, MARIA-G (HADES-F) and UNNE-1 (HADES-E), are planned to launch from the UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport later in 2024. Previously announced amateur radio payloads on the launch are: ERMINAZ-1U and -1V from AMSAT-DL GENESIS-MA and -ME from AMSAT-EA QUBIK 5, SIDLOC-PQ-1 and -PQ-2 from Libre Space Foundation MARIA-G SaxaVord UK Spaceport under construction A 1.5u Pocketqube. MARIA-G will offer radio amateurs around the world the opportunity to relay FM voice and AX.25 / APRS 300 / 1200 bps communications. The satellite ..read more

S5Lab announcement on X that GreenCube is to cease operation At 1622 GMT on Thursday, January 25, 2024 @S5Lab posted on X that the GreenCube IO-117 Digipeater would be permanently deactivated on February 5. Designed and developed by students of Sapienza University of Rome, GreenCube IO-117 was the first satellite to carry an amateur radio payload into Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) – 6,000 km. IARU satellite frequency coordination information https://iaru.amsat-uk.org/finished_detail.php?serialnum=784 AMSAT Responds to Planned Decommissioning of IO-117 (GreenCube) https://www.amsat.org/amsat-respo ..read more

E-members of AMSAT-UK can now download the December 2023 edition of OSCAR News, issue 243, here. The paper edition edition will be sent to postal members and should arrive in the next 2-3 weeks. In this issue: • From the Secretary’s Keyboard • Letters to the Editor • Satellite News • Beyond the Bent Pipe by Martin Ling M0LNG • St Peter-in-Thanet Junior School ARISS Contact by John Hislop, G7OHO • Greencube Antennas by Dave Fisher KG0D • Packet Decode Analysis from GreenCube Terminal’s debug.log by Justin Sours, N9ZTS AMSAT-UK FUNcube Mission Patch Membership of AMSAT-UK is open to anyone who ..read more

An ARISS Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event is scheduled from the International Space Station (ISS) December 16-19, 2023, on 145.800 MHz FM to celebrate the 40th anniversary of amateur radio in human spaceflight. The event is slated to begin on Saturday, December 16, at 10:15 GMT for setup and operation and continue until Tuesday, December 19, ending at 18:00 GMT. These times are tentative and are subject to change due to crew availability. Images will be downlinked at 145.800 MHz +/- 3 kHz for Doppler shift and the expected SSTV mode of operation is PD-120. Radio enthusiasts participating in the event ..read more

AO-73 (FUNcube-1) – Image credit Wouter Weggelaar PA3WEG After a year long period of ‘battery management’, AMSAT-UK and AMSAT-NL have restarted the transponder on AO-73. After 10 years in orbit, the battery on the satellite has reduced capacity and until recently, has been unable to charge to the nominal 8.3V. Following some careful battery management, where the transmitter was off during eclipse, the battery status has improved and the transponder has been reactivated. Although the battery voltage is varying between 8.13 in sunlight and 7.8V at the end of eclipse, this is much improved on t ..read more