APRS destination address for ham radio satellites

APRS has standardized an ID series for amateur radio Oscar spacecraft -APOxxx

At the request of Juan Carlos, LU9DO, AMSAT-LU wanted a series of APRS designators for uniquely identifying AMSAT APRS applications.  He suggested those beginning with the letter O for OSCARS.

ALL APRS applications include this identifier in their packets so that the source of APRS data can be known.  

Full List - http://aprs.org/aprs11/tocalls.txt

Thailand's first ham radio satellite

The Thailand Amateur Radio Satellite Group are developing their first satellite JAISAT-1

The group hope to complete the satellite by the end of 2015. Plans include a 145 to 435 MHz linear transponder for SSB/CW communications, APRS, a packet bulletin board system (PBBS) and a HD camera for imaging.

The Thai language site in Google English - http://tinyurl.com/ThailandRAST

Fox-1 has a launch date!

NASA announced that AMSAT’s Fox-1 FM transponder spacecraft has been assigned a launch in 2014.

For details on the launch vehicle, targeted launch date, orbit specifics, and more, please attend the AMSAT Forum and visit the AMSAT booth at the Dayton Hamvention this weekend.

AMSAT’s Fox-1 CubeSat aims to provide these features:

• Fox-1 is designed to operate in sunlight without batteries once the battery system fails. This applies lessons learned from AO-51 and ARISSat-1 operations.
• In case of IHU failure Fox-1 aims to continue to operate its FM repeater in a basic, ‘zombie sat’ mode, so that the repeater remains on-the-air.
• Fox-1 is designed as the immediate replacement for AO-51. Its U/V (Mode B) FM transponder will make it even easier to work with modest equipment.
• From the ground user’s perspective, the same FM amateur radio equipment used for AO-51 may be used for Fox-1.

AMSAT Bulletin Board - AMSAT-BB - http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/