ExseedSat Ham Radio FM Transponder Satellite

Radio Amateur Gurudatta Panda VU3GDP has been discussing with the Media his involvement in the ExseedSat CubeSat built by an eight-person team at Hyderabad-based Exseed Space Private Limited co-founded by Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE

ExseedSat carries an amateur radio FM transponder and APRS digipeater and is expected to be launched by SpaceX towards the end of 2018.

“This satellite will serve the ham or the amateur radio community. As a result, it will be of great help during natural calamities, when conventional communication services get disrupted.”

— Gurudatta Panda VU3GDP

After the launch, the artificial satellite will be on a polar orbit with two passes over India everyday. The public will be able to receive this artificial satellite beacon on 145.900 MHz FM using a TV tuner and USB dongle, Mr. Panda added.

Farhan said the eight-member team involved in construction of the small private satellite involved four technocrats and four managerial staff members.

He and Exseed Space co-founder Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE were the communication engineers who played a key role in building the satellite.

Media Story - https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/odisha-man-team-builds-private-satellite/article24963338.ece

IARU information - http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/formal_detail.php?serialnum=636

Gurudatta Panda VU3GDP - http://gurudattabam.blogspot.com/

Ashhar Farhan VU2ESE - http://hfsignals.blogspot.com/p/about.html

Lunar Satellite Transmits Pictures to Radio Hams

A tiny Chinese satellite is orbiting the Moon and allowing radio amateurs to download images

One of two micro-satellites launched along with a required communications relay satellite in May 2018 has been allowing radio operators to download images from the spacecraft taken along its elliptical lunar orbit.

Longjiang-2, aka DSLWP-B, was developed by students at the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in Heilongjiang Province, northeast China. Despite having a mass of just 47 kg, the tiny satellite managed to use its own propulsion to slow down and enter lunar orbit while the relay satellite continued past the Moon to its special destination.

Media Story - https://gbtimes.com/a-tiny-chinese-satellite-is-orbiting-the-moon-and-allowing-radio-amateurs-download-images

DSLWP Lunar Amateur Radio Satellites - https://amsat-uk.org/2018/04/03/dslwp-lunar-amateur-radio-satellites/

AM1SAT Special Event Station Award

AMSAT EA will be on air on all available satellites with callsign AM1SAT from Sept 10-17 to celebrate IberRadio 2018 – IV Radiocommunications Fair, the biggest HAM party event in Spain and Portugal taking place on 15-16 September 2018.

Main grid will be IN70 but other ones will be activated as well. Our operators will work transatlantic QSOs too. QSLs by LOTW and eqsl

AMSAT-EA will be transmitting its special call AM1SAT via all active satellites from 10th - 17th September 2018 as part of the IV RadioHam Fair IberRadio 2018 activities. IberRadio is the biggest event for the ham community in SouthWest Europe and will open doors 15th-16th September 2018. AM1SAT callsign will be active from a minimum of 14 different grids during that time to help satellite operators to collect as much EA locators as possible.

As part of this activity and in order to promote the participation, AMSAT-EA is sponsoring the AM1SAT Special Award in two categories: SILVER and GOLD.

AM1SAT Special Event Station Award RULES

1. This award can be requested and issued to any licensed amateur station and also SWLs
2. Will be valid contacts all those done via AMSAT satellites from September 10th 2018 to September 17th 2018 in all transmission modes.
3. There are two different requirements to get the awards, depending of the applicant location.

Applicant in a EU entity.

To get the award in its SILVER category, the applicant has to contact AM1SAT in 5 different grids (We consider “grid” as a 4-digits main locator. For example IN71, IM68, JN00, etc). To get the award in its GOLD category the applicant has to contact AM1SAT in 10 different grids.

Applicant in a Non-EU entity.

To get the award in its SILVER category, the applicant has to contact AM1SAT in 2 different grids (We consider “grid” as a 4-digits main locator. For example IN71, IM68, JN00, etc). To get the award in its GOLD category the applicant has to contact AM1SAT in 4 different grids.

4. There is no need of paper QSLs nor EQSLs to ask for the award. When the applicant gets the requirements, s/he has to send via email a log with the QSOs, listing his callsign, name, and QSO data (Date, GMT time, frequencies, mode, received grid and used satellite). Also we need the applicant email to send the award. The awards will be send, latest in 2 months and only in PDF format, free of charge.

5. Logs and any question about this activity must be send to eb1ao@amsat-ea.org

6. Logs must be received by October 1st 2018. We will consider the AM1SAT operators logs as the valid ones to check and cross the QSOs. Disputes or open issues will be solved by AMSAT-EA committee.

AMSAT-EA - https://www.amsat-ea.org/