Zhou Enlai student satellite to launch

Zhou Enlai student satellite to launch

The 2U CubeSat Zhou Enlai 周恩来 developed with primary and middle school students is expected to launch on Friday, January 19, 2018.

The satellite is named after the first Premier of the PRC. Zhou Enlai held office from October 1949 until January 1976.

A report on Xinhua Net says:

The satellite was sent from its production base in Huai’an Youth Comprehensive Development Base in east China’s Jiangsu Province to Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China’s Gansu Province Monday, where a CZ-11 solid fuel rocket is scheduled to put it into orbit Friday.

Twenty teenagers who participated in the development project accompanied the transport group to the launch center and will witness the lift-off.

Zhang Xiang, chief designer of the satellite, said that the nano-satellite, weighing 2 kilograms, is set to run in sun-synchronous orbit. Equipped with a HD optical camera, it can capture space photos with the highest resolution among those shot by other Chinese satellites for scientific education purpose.

Zhang said that the students had taken their spare time to join the development and groundbased simulation performance of the satellite, and had learnt to assemble and practice voice data transfer and telecommunication applications.

“A scientific satellite like this is like a teacher in space, carrying cameras or spectroscopes to study the upper atmosphere or to shoot space pictures of the stars. Students can grasp the mystery of the universe through the messages transmitted by the teacher,” said Zhang, a professor with Nanjing University of Science and Engineering.

Read the full story at http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-01/17/c_136902466.htm

The IARU satellite pages list a 2U CubeSat called HA-1 with FM transponder and SSTV developed by the Teenagers Amateur Radio Center of Activity in Huai’an. Zhou Enlai may well be the new name for this satellite
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=589

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m5aka

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AO-73 / FUNcube-1 Illumination – Update January 15, 2018

AO-73 / FUNcube-1 Illumination – Update January 15, 2018

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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Ham radio CubeSat launch success

Ham radio CubeSat launch success

CubeSats carrying amateur radio payloads were among the 31 satellites successfully launched on January 12 at 0359 UT on an Indian ISRO PSLV rocket.

Two of the CubeSats, Fox-1D and PicSat, carry amateur radio FM transponders, but neither is yet available for general amateur use. The PicSat FM transponder is unusual in that instead of a CTCSS tone it requires a 1750 Hz tone burst to activate it. The 1750 Hz tone burst used to be popular on IARU Region 1 FM repeaters in the 1980s and 90s before the widespread use of CTCSS.

CNUSail-1, built by students at the Chungnam National University in Korea, carries a deployable sail. The students have requested the help of radio amateurs in receiving the 437.100 MHz beacon, further information is available at https://sites.google.com/view/cnuusg

JE9PEL lists these frequencies for the satellites carrying amateur radio payloads:

Fox-1D (AO-92) 145.880 down 435.350/1267.350 up FM CTCSS 67.0Hz/200bps DUV
PicSat         435.525 1200bps BPSK
CNUSail-1      437.100 9600bps GMSK
Canyval-X 1/2  437.200 9600bps MSK
KAUSAT-5       437.465/2413.000 9600bps FSK,115k2 MSK
STEP-1         437.485 9600bps FSK CW

Shankar A65CR/VU2SWG reported coping the Fox-1D satellite voice beacon on the morning pass at 30 deg elevation in Dubai using a TH-F7 with standard rubber duck. YL voice with satellite identifier. Very short burst with fluctuating carrier.

Madhu A65DE also copied Fox-1D from Fujairah, North of Dubai.

AMSAT North America has issued a statement formally designating Fox-1D as AO-92:

Fox-1D, a 1U CubeSat, is the third of AMSAT’s five Fox-1 CubeSats to reach orbit, being preceded by AO-85 (Fox-1A) and AO-91 (RadFxSat / Fox-1B). Fox-1D carries the Fox-1 U/v FM transponder, with an uplink of 435.350 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS) and a downlink of 145.880 MHz. In addition, Fox-1D carries several university experiments, including a MEMS gyro from Pennsylvania State University – Erie, a camera from Virginia Tech, and the University of Iowa’s HERCI (High Energy Radiation CubeSat Instrument) radiation mapping experiment. Fox-1D also carries the AMSAT L-Band Downshifter experiment which enables the FM transponder to be switched to utilize an uplink of 1267.350 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS).

Fox-1D was sent aloft as a secondary payload on the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s PSLV-XL rocket as part of the PSLV-C40 mission. Fox-1D was one of thirty-one satellites successfully deployed on this launch.

Since Fox-1D has met all of the qualifications necessary to receive an OSCAR number, I, by the authority vested in me by the AMSAT President, do hereby confer on this satellite the designation AMSAT-OSCAR 92 or AO-92. I join amateur radio operators in the U.S. and around the world in wishing AO-92 a long and successful life in both its amateur and scientific missions.

I, along with the rest of the amateur community, congratulate all of the volunteers who worked so diligently to construct, test and prepare for launch the newest amateur radio satellite.

William A. (Bill) Tynan, W3XO
AMSAT-NA OSCAR Number Administrator

Further information on the Fox-1D launch, deployment and designation at
https://www.amsat.org/fox-1d-launched-designated-amsat-oscar-92/

Information on PicSat is available via
https://amsat-uk.org/2018/01/10/picsat/

Report on the five Korean satellites that were launched
http://koreabizwire.com/cube-satellites-built-by-university-students-launched-into-outer-space/107445

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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PicSat to launch Friday

PicSat to launch Friday

The PicSat 3U CubeSat carrying an amateur radio 145/435 MHz FM transponder is planned to launch into Earth orbit on January 12, 2018.

The primary mission is to study the star Beta Pictoris, its exoplanet and its famous debris disk, thanks to a small telescope 5 cm in diameter. The nanosatellite has been designed and built over three years by scientists and engineers at the Paris Observatory and the CNRS, with support from the Université PSL, the French space agency CNES, the European Research Council and the MERAC Foundation.

The nominal PicSat mission will last for one year. When the start of a planetary or other transit is observed, the 3.6-meter telescope from the European Southern Observatory in La Sille, Chile, will also be immediately put into action to observe Beta Pictoris using the powerful HARPS instrument. These data combined will allow an even better understanding of the phenomenon.

On Friday, January 12 2018 at 0358 UT, the Indian PSLV launcher will lift off and place PicSat in a polar orbit at an altitude of 505 km, together with about thirty other satellites. PicSat will be operated from Lesia in Meudon. However, the satellite will be visible from Meudon for only about 30 minutes every day, when it passes over Paris. Therefore, PicSat uses radio amateur bands for its communication, for which authorisation has been obtained thanks to the help of the French Réseau des Émetteurs Français (REF, or the Network of French Emitters).

Anybody who owns a minimum radio receiving equipment can listen to and receive PicSat’s transmissions on 435.525 MHz. The PicSat team invites radio amateurs from all over the world to collaborate in following the satellite, receiving its data and relaying them to the PicSat data base via the Internet. Those interested can register on the PicSat website to follow the updates and, if they so wish, become part of the radio network, see http://PicSat.obspm.fr/

Watch the launch at http://webcast.gov.in/live/

Social Media
https://twitter.com/IamPicSat
https://www.flickr.com/photos/picsat/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbVE3QEJO74NbJ-tHtThHpg

Download the PicSat Press Release PDF

IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination
http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=536

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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BBC TV to show Michael Portillo moonbounce

BBC TV to show Michael Portillo moonbounce

The former MP for Enfield Southgate, Michael Portillo, used 5.6 GHz amateur radio to bounce a signal off the surface of the moon.

In 2017, a team led by Noel Matthews G8GTZ and Brian Coleman G4NNS made several visits to Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall to use the 32 metre GHY6 dish for 3.4 GHz and 5.6 GHz Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) operation using the call sign GB6GHY. During one of the visits, Michael Portillo and the Great British Railway Journeys team visited and filmed a sequence including EME operation.

The show will be broadcast on Friday, January 12, 2018 at 6:30pm on BBC2.

Described as “Going to the moon by way of the Cornish Riviera” the sequence will show Michael talking to Brian G4NNS and operating his station under supervision to “talk to the moon” and hear his echos coming back.

The BBC description reads:

Steered by his early 20th-century Bradshaw’s railway guide, Michael Portillo boldly goes to the moon by way of the Cornish Riviera Express! On the trail of an historic achievement made at the dawn of the Edwardian era, he investigates the first radio signal to be sent across the Atlantic. In Plymouth, Michael uncovers what happened to surviving crew members of the most famous ocean liner in history, the Titanic. And at Fowey, he rediscovers a lost literary figure known as Q, who immortalised the town in his novels.

The show will be available online for 30 days from January 12 at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09m8kc2

GB6GHY – Hello Moon, this is Goonhilly calling!
https://amsat-uk.org/2017/08/27/gb6ghy-hello-moon-this-is-goonhilly-calling/

This was not Michael Portillo’s first encounter with amateur radio, in 2014 he send Morse code at Chelmsford, Essex under the guidance of Peter Watkins M0BHY
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2014/january/michael_portillo_sends_morse_code.htm

What is Amateur Radio? http://www.essexham.co.uk/what-is-amateur-radio

Find a UK amateur radio training course https://thersgb.org/services/coursefinder/

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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