Successful Orbit for CubeSATS Built in the Philippines

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Students in the Philippines are feeling proud that their two ham radio cubesats have entered orbit.

Two amateur radio cubesats from the Philippines are now in orbit. Maya-5 and Maya-6 were built by university students with the goal of helping the nation keep its momentum going on satellite development while using locally sourced materials. The primary mission of the cubesat pair is to give the amateur radio community a digital message relay service through the Automatic Packet Reporting System, or APRS. The onboard APRS digipeaters use the frequency of 145.825 MHz for transmitting and receiving. The cubesats are also demonstrating a data/message store-and-forward system compatible with Universal Amateur Radio Text and E-mail messaging.

The International Space Station released the cubesats on the 19th of July 2023

URE Seeks Community Assistance with URESAT-1

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The URE of Spain recently launched and deployed a pocketQube satellite into orbit and now they're seeking assistance from the community. While the satellite is operational and sending signals, the antennas have so far failed to deploy. The URE is requesting help from groups that can provide a powerful VHF station capable of transmitting a strong enough signal to overcome the weak receive state of the satellite. The goal is to transmit a request to once again attempt to deploy the satellite's antennas.

URESAT-1 is currently transmitting telemetry, CW, and SSTV images despite the reduced capability of the antenna system.

Satellite Enthusiasts Encouraged to Take the 'LEDSAT' Challenge

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Satellite Enthusiasts Encouraged to Take the 'LEDSAT' Challenge

The challenge is on - are you up to it? The European Space Agency and S5Lab (pronounced: Ess Five Lab) are inviting hams around the world to get involved in making a special contact through the digipeater of an educational CubeSat known as LEDSAT.

LEDSAT, an LED CubeSat developed by university students in Rome with assistance from AMSAT Italia, was created primarily to demonstrate an LED-based payload to be used with ground-based optical tracking. Starting on June 26th and through to July 30th, it takes on a secondary purpose: It is part of a challenge to hams that will win them the prize of a personalized QSL card designed just for this competition. Hams are being asked to send a digital message via satellite to PI9ESA, the ground station of the ESA's Education Office. The CubeSat follows a sun-synchronous orbit and its digipeater will be activated at certain times. It has two communication windows, one around midday and one at midnight. Operators will be based at the ESA ground station to copy the messages. Hams are encouraged to use their preferred pass-prediction software to assist in the contact.

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