20m WSPR Balloon Travels the World

A 25 gram Pico Balloon, using the call sign LU1ESY, transmitting 25 mw WSPR on 14097.6 kHz USB has completed its first circumnavigation of the Earth.

This Pico Balloon was launched on 19th January 2018 to celebrate the 28th anniversary of the Argentine amateur radio satellite LUSAT-OSCAR-19.

More information and pictures - http://amsat.org.ar/globo09.htm

Pico Balloon Real-Time Tracking - https://tracker.habhub.org/#!mt=roadmap&mz=3&qm=All&mc=-48.39023,-140.21&q=lu1esy-3

D-Star One v1.1 Phoenix

The amateur radio satellite D-Star One, which was lost on 28th November 2017 when the launch vehicle failed to achieve orbit is being replaced and should launch on 1st February 2018.

Earlier this month it was announced that the team had completed the assembly and checks on the new satellite. On 1st February 2018 it should launch on a Soyuz-2/Fregat craft from the Vostochny launch site.

The satellite will carry an amateur radio D-Star repeater - http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=582

AO-91 Available for Amateur Use

As of 06:50 UTC 23rd November 2017, AMSAT Engineering officially commissioned AO-91 (RadFxSat/Fox-1B).

AO-91 Available for Amateur Use

AMSAT Vice-President Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, turned over operation to AMSAT Operations in a QSO on the AO-91 transponder with Mark Hammond, N8MH, of the AMSAT Operations team during the pass over the Eastern United States.

N8MH responded and declared AO-91 open for amateur use!

AO-91 was built as a partnership with Vanderbilt University ISDE and hosts four payloads for the study of radiation effects on commercial off the shelf components. The satellite was launched on 18th November 2017 as part of the ELaNa XIV mission, secondary payloads aboard the Delta II rocket that carried the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS-1) satellite to orbit. AO-91 also features the Fox-1 style FM U/v repeater with an uplink on 435.250 MHz (67.0 Hz CTCSS) and a downlink on 145.960 MHz. Satellite and experiment telemetry are downlinked via the “DUV” subaudible telemetry stream and can be decoded with the FoxTelem software.