Thailand’s KNACKSAT-2 CubeSat Preparing for Deployment from the ISS

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Thailand’s KNACKSAT-2 CubeSat Preparing for Deployment from the ISS

Thailand’s KNACKSAT-2 satellite is preparing for deployment from the International Space Station, with release currently scheduled for 3rd February 2026, at 08:55 UTC (03:55 AM EST). The mission continues Thailand’s university-led CubeSat development program following the earlier KNACKSAT-1 mission. The project is led by King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok in Thailand, working with domestic and international partners to advance satellite engineering, payload integration, and on-orbit operations.

KNACKSAT-2 was transported to the International Space Station in late 2025 and is a 3U CubeSat designed to host multiple payloads. The satellite expands on KNACKSAT-1, which demonstrated Thailand’s ability to design and build a satellite domestically. Development and testing were conducted in cooperation with NBSPACE and other academic and research partners. The mission is intended to help Thailand develop multi-payload CubeSat platforms and prepare for future ride-share launch opportunities.

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RSGB Band Plans: Key Changes You Need to Know

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The RSGB 2026 Band Plans were published in the recently released February 2026 edition of RadCom.

This year’s changes address a handful of key topics, including updates to the 5MHz band plan to emphasise correct operating, which comes in the light of out-of-band FT8 usage and Ofcom monitoring concerns.

Updates at 50MHz have been made to accommodate new repeater inputs, which use a wider 1MHz split, easing the implementation of their duplex filters.

In the 430MHz UHF band, provision for low-power ad hoc repeaters and some editorial updates have also been made.

As Band Plans change over time, please ensure you only refer or link to the current ones on the RSGB website and remove any older ones you have saved locally.

More Information - http://www.rsgb.org/bandplans

Radio Club Keeping Communication Open During Extreme Weather

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West Virginia Emergency Management Division amateur radio club hit the airwaves to help emergency management stay informed as ice covered the roads and power lines and trees continued to fall.

“This past weekend was a real-world event where we were able to use our skills and actually use it for the real-world event.”
— Deputy Planner for the West Virginia Emergency Management Division, Jonathan Rodriguez

The club has eight skilled members, each with expertise in different fields like meteorology, communications and emergency management, among others. Rodriguez is one of them, and he said he's hopeful this club can continue to grow.

“We’ve had a lot of amateur radio operators come in and give us snowfall and ice reports, traffic reports. We even had to do a welfare check for somebody because the AT&T outage affected the communication, so we had to make a phone call with that. So many of the things we do here with amateur radio is situational awareness of what’s going on in our community, whether it be snowfall reports, whether or not it could be any type of disaster.”
— Jonathan Rodriguez

They said they want counties to build their own amateur radio capabilities to communicate with operators across the state. Because Rodriguez said, if all else fails, amateur radio works.

“For example, it could be, ‘Hey, I have a flat tyre,’ to, ‘Wow, there are significant power outages,’ we should inform the state so that way if a shelter was needed for that person, we could be able to assist them in their resources, whatever they may need”
— Jonathan Rodriguez