Australian CubeSat to use 76 GHz

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Australian CubeSat to use 76 GHz

The IARU Satellite Coordination Panel has announced the amateur radio frequencies for the Australian 76 GHz CubeSat CUAVA-1 that is expected to launch in July 2019

CUAVA-1 is a 3U CubeSat and the first CubeSat project of the new ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and their Applications (CUAVA), whose primary aim is the education and training of people, mostly PhD students, for the space sector.

With significant heritage from the QB50 CubeSat INSPIRE-2, CUAVA-1 is a 3U CubeSat that will link with the international radio amateur community for outreach, training, and increased data downloads, observe the Earth with a novel multi-spectral imager, use a GPS instrument to explore radio occultation and the reception of GPS signals scattered off the Earth as well as provide a backup determination of the CubeSat location, investigate plasma environment and associated space weather with radiation detectors, and explore the performance of a new communications payload.

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Ham Radio Geostationary Satellite Transponders

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An article by Dan Maloney KC1DJT about the new Es'hail-2 / QO-100 amateur radio geostationary satellite transponders

For the reception, a dish in the 60-cm to 1-meter range will suffice, depending on location, with a decent LNB downconverter. Pretty much any SDR will do for a receiver. An alternative to assembling the hardware yourself — and the only way to get in on the fun for the two-thirds of the planet not covered by the satellite — would be to tune into one of the WebSDR ground stations that have been set up.

The British Amateur Television Club and AMSAT-UK, located at Goonhilly Earth Station, have set up an SDR for the narrowband transponder that you can control over the web. I used it to listen in on a number of contacts between hams the other night.

Media Story - https://hackaday.com/2019/03/18/eshail-2-hams-get-their-first-geosynchronous-repeater/


Bethlehem Receives First Signals From OSCAR 100

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Bethlehem Receives First Signals From OSCAR 100

Rickus de Lange, ZS4A in Bethlehem was the first station in South Africa to report having monitor QSOs on Qatar OSCAR 100. Rickus pointed his dish skywards and on the eve of the official inauguration of Es’hailsat on 14 February 2019 monitored QSOs from the geostationary satellite.

Es’hailsat has been one of the major discussions on the agenda of the AMSAT Space Symposiums over the past two years with Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP providing details of how to set up an inexpensive ground station.

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