Argentinian Balloon Flight Completes 2nd Round World

The El PicoGlobo WSPR beacon balloon has now completed its 2nd lap around the world.

After its 2nd crossing of the Pacific Ocean, the balloon flew over Patagonia, then headed north at 12,000 metres altitude to Buenos Aires during the night of 11th February 2018.

On 12th February 2018 it flew over Uruguay then turned east out over the Atlantic Ocean to begin its 3rd circle of the Earth.

PicoGlobo transmits a WSPR beacon on 14.0956 MHz.

Flight Progress - http://lu7aa.org.ar/wspr.asp

AO-92 Commissioned and Open for Amateur Use

On 26th January 2018, AMSAT Vice President – Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, announced that AO-92 had been commissioned and formally turned the satellite over to AMSAT Operations. AMSAT Vice President – Operations Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, then declared that AO-92 was now open for amateur radio use.

Initially, the U/v FM transponder will be open continuously for a period of one week. After the first week, operations will be scheduled between the U/v FM transponder, L-Band Downshifter, Virginia Tech Camera, and the University of Iowa’s High Energy Radiation CubeSat Instrument (HERCI).

Schedule updates will appear in the AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins and will also be posted to the AMSAT-BB, AMSAT’s Twitter account (@AMSAT), the AMSAT North America Facebook group, and the AMSAT website at https://www.amsat.org/satellite-schedules/

AO-92 was launched on the PSLV-C40 mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India on January 12, 2018. For the past two weeks, the AMSAT Engineering and Operations teams have been testing the various modes and experiments on board. Testing has shown that both the U/v FM transponder and L-Band Downshifter work very well. The Virginia Tech camera has returned stunning photos and data from HERCI has been successfully downlinked.

AMSAT thanks the 178 stations worldwide that have used FoxTelem to collect telemetry and experiment data from AO-92 during the commissioning process. The collection of this data is crucial to the missions of AMSAT’s Fox-1 satellites. Please continue to collect data from

• AO-85, AO-91, and AO-92.
• RADIO PROGRAMMING CHART
• Fox-1D Doppler Shift Correction
• Memory 1 (AOS) - TX 435.340 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), RX 145.880 MHz
• Memory 2 (Rise) - TX 435.345 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), RX 145.880 MHz
• Memory 3 (TCA) - TX 435.350 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), RX 145.880 MHz
• Memory 4 (Descend) - TX 435.355 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), RX 145.880 MHz
• Memory 5 (LOS) - TX 435.360 MHz (67.0 Hz Tone), RX 145.880 MHz

The L-band experiment will use 1267.350 MHz uplink with 145.880 MHz downlink. UHF and L-band uplink operation are set by the command stations; the operating schedule will be posted.

Signal From 'Dead' NASA Satellite

Scott Tilley VE7TIL / VA7LF discovered a signal from the IMAGE satellite that NASA lost contact within 2005

Arstechnica reports earlier this week, an amateur radio astronomer named Scott Tilley decided to have a look for the presence of secret military satellites.

It's something he apparently does semi-regularly, and in this case his search was inspired by the Zuma satellite, a secret US government payload that was reportedly lost on its way to space.

Most accounts have suggested that Zuma failed to make it to orbit, but the secrecy of the mission (we've got no clear idea what Zuma even was) means that everything about its fate is unclear. Tilley could either find a hint that Zuma is up there—or stumble across some other hardware put into space by other countries.

Instead, he found an undead NASA mission.

Given the clear indication of a radio signal, Tilley matched its orbit to a NASA satellite called IMAGE.

Media Story - https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/01/amateur-search-for-dead-spy-satellite-turns-up-undead-nasa-mission/

Scott Tilley VE7TIL / VA7LF - https://twitter.com/coastal8049