Amateur Radio Resources and Downloads

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Essex Ham have made available a number of documents and videos that may be of use to UK amateur radio clubs. They are intended to help with event planning and training

The new resources page covers

  • Special Events Documents
  • Training Material
  • Promotional Material
  • Getting Started Guides

Download from - http://www.essexham.co.uk/resources

1260 MHz Added to Fox CubeSats

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AMSAT Vice President Engineering Jerry Buxton, N0JY, has announced plans to incorporate an L band receiver in Fox-1C and Fox-1D

1260mhz_added_Fox_Cubesats

The addition will allow ground commanded selection of the U/v (normal Fox-1 bands) or the new L/v 1.2 GHz (23 cm) mode. Both bands will operate as FM single channel.

Rather than adding a complete new receiver, the L band “Project Downshifter” will convert the received L band signal down to the Fox-1 uplink frequency and feed it to the regular UHF receiver on the Fox-1satellite. The design will not require an additional antenna on the satellite because the existing UHF antenna will work for L band receive as well.

In concert with the development of the satellite segment, a new group of volunteers is working on a companion uplink station to convert UHF to the L band uplink frequencies. The team is planning to have an affordable L band uplink ground station available to amateurs by the time Fox-1C is on orbit.

Buxton has also announced the plan to construct a Fox-1E “Evolution” variation of the Fox-1 series which will carry a Mode J linear transponder. The transponder is planned to be 30 kHz wide and will also have a 1200 bps BPSK telemetry beacon.

The purpose of the project is to test a design for a linear transponder that could be made available to CubeSat builders as a secondary, or even primary radio payload thus bringing more opportunities for amateur radio in space as well as offering AMSAT’s proven communications skills as a telemetry option.

Full Story - http://www.amsat.org/?p=4000

2017 FM Switch Off in Norway

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Ministry of Culture of Norway has announced a national FM-switch off, beginning 11 January 2017 to complete the transition to digital radio.

Norway will be the first country in the world to decide upon an analogue switch-off for all major radio channels. With DAB and digital radio, listeners will be provided with more radio channels and greater diversity in content.

“This is an important day for everyone who loves radio. The minister’s decision allows us to concentrate our resources even more upon what is most important, namely to create high quality and diverse radio-content to our listeners.”
— Thor Gjermund Eriksen, head of NRK

The DAB-coverage in Norway now exceeds FM-coverage. DAB provides Norway with 22 national channels, as opposed to five channels transmitting nationwide on FM.

Full Story - http://radio.no/2015/04/norway-to-switch-off-fm-in-2017/