UK School to Contact Space Station

UK School to Contact Space Station

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 globe and crew members with ham radio licenses aboard the ISS.

Acorn Multi Academy Trust is a small trust of seven schools (Mrs Ethelstons, Axminster, Chardstock, Marshwood, Loders, Thorncombe and Membury) that are situated on the coast of the English Dorset /Devon /Somerset border. Mrs Ethelston’s CE Primary Academy is hosting this ARISS contact and is directly involved in this project, however children involved are from the 7 primary schools within this Multi-Academy Trust and range in ages from 4-11 years.

This will be a direct contact via Amateur Radio allowing students to ask their questions of astronaut Matthew Dominick, amateur radio call sign KCØTOR. The downlink frequency for this contact is 145.800 MHz and may be heard by listeners that are within the ISS-footprint that also encompasses the relay ground station.

The amateur radio ground station for this contact is in Lyme Regis, UK. Amateur radio operators using call sign GB4ACA, will operate the ground station to establish and maintain the ISS connection.

The ARISS radio contact is scheduled for April 17, 2024 at 11:44:48 am BST (UK) (10:44:48 UTC, 6:44 am EDT, 5:44 am CDT, 4:44 am MDT, 3:44 am PDT).

The public is invited to watch the live stream at: https://live.ariss.org

As time allows, students will ask these questions:
1. What was the hardest part of getting ready to go to space?
2. If you can make the water from a bottle float, then how can you swallow it without it coming up again?
3. Why do humans want to go to Mars?
4. How will we get loads of water in space without running out?
5. How long does it take to transmit data from Earth to ISS?
6. How do you not get lost in space?
7. Why doesn’t the ISS fall and hit the ground?
8. How much exercise do you need and how do you get it?
9. What temperature is it in the ISS and is that the same outside?
10. What is it like in zero gravity?
11. What is your favorite part of the ISS and why?
12. How fast can you move around in zero gravity?
13. How do you wash your hands?
14. Have you ever seen any astronomical phenomenon?
15. What is your favorite site every time you circle the Earth?
16. How big is the ISS?
17. How do you cook food in space?
18. How do you vote in space?
19. Are the space suits really heavy or light?
20. Which other planets can you see?

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Belgium: 23 cm band Restrictions

Belgium: 23 cm band 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 Intermediate / USA General) – 1296-1300 MHz only

Class C (equiv UK Foundation / USA Technician) – No access (unchanged)

The public consultation runs until April 28 https://www.bipt.be/operators/publication/consultation-on-the-frequencies-powers-and-transmission-modes-that-may-be-used-by-radio-amateurs

Read the full UBA story at https://www-uba-be.translate.goog/nl/nieuws/raadpleging-over-ontwerp-van-besluit-van-de-raad-van-het-bipt-inzake-de-frequenties?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US

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UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport to launch amateur radio satellites

UK’s SaxaVord Spaceport to launch amateur radio satellites

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

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 will also transmit telemetry with its status and voice and CW messages. This all will be achieved by implementing a SDR based FM and FSK repeater. The FM / FSK repeater will be available all time and opened by squelch level without the need of a PL tone/CTCSS.

Main mission for MARIA-G is to be a FM repeater but it will also include a simple guess game being implemented by students at Maria Guerrero High School in Collado Villalba – Madrid (Spain). The satellite will send a clue each week in CW so radioamateurs will have to solve the mystery by having all the clues.

A small experiment, developed by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft research organization (Germany) will also fly on the satellite to make proof of concept transmissions of a TS-UNB waveform from a low Earth orbit. It will transmit a TS-UNB message according to the ETSI standard ETSI-TS-103-357. It is intended solely as a research and development project with no commercial intent, all its data public and open.  ITU modulation classification would be 100K W2DWW but the bandwidth will be narrowed. The operation of this experiment will be managed by AMSAT-EA.

UNNE-1

https://iaru.amsat-uk.org/index.php

AMSAT-DL ERMINAZ https://amsat-dl.org/en/erminaz/

AMSAT-EA projects https://www.amsat-ea.org/proyectos/

Libre Space Foundation projects https://libre.space/projects/

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IO-117 GreenCube to cease operating on February 5

IO-117 GreenCube to cease operating on February 5

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

The S5Lab post on X said:

Dear Friends,

After one year and a half of operations, it is time to conclude the GreenCube operations with the planned de-commissioning activities. After the conclusion of the nominal experiment and with the digipeater payload active for more than one year, we will pergorm the passivation operations for the satellite.

The planned passivation operations will be executed on Monday, 5 February 2024, at 00:00 UTC. From that day, GreenCube will be completely passivated and the digipeater will be switched off for good.

We want to thank everyone that endorsed, supported or participated in the mission and the radio amateur community that enthusiastically became a true part of our project. We hope that GreenCube will somehow be part of your memories of radio amateurs, space engineering enthusiasts, and we hope to involve you soon in many more adventures.

Thanks once again for the unbelievable memories shared together… See you soon!

The GreenCube Team at S5Lab

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