Sisters called to White House

A pair of young Seattle sisters who sent a balloon to the edge of space are be received at the White House 

Last September, Rebecca, 10, and Kimberly, 8, went out to Moses Lake with their parents to launch a spacecraft they designed and built. 

“We built a spacecraft that was attached to a weather balloon and parachute,. We launched it in Central Washington. We took it to the edge of space, 78,000 feet up. It’s called the Loki Lego Launcher 1, or L-Cubed-1, because Loki was our cat. Lego because every time we launch we want to send up a different Lego mini figure.”

— Rebecca Yeung, 10

Both girls say they took on the project because they love science, in part because of a really great science teacher they have at Seattle Country Day School. But their father, licenced Amateur Radio Operator Winston Yeung KI7CSK, was another motivating force. 

“Kimberly and Rebecca hope to show other children that science and engineering is not only interesting and accessible for kids, but a lot of fun as well,”

— Amanda Stone, White House Senior Program Manager

The sisters hoped to launch the APRS equipped spacecraft again during their spring break, but the voyage has been postponed until after their trip to D.C.

Rebecca and Kimberly's blog - https://lokilegolauncher.wordpress.com/

KIRO interview - http://kiroradio.com/874/2810767/Seattle-sisters-launch-a-homemade-space-craft-to-the-edge-of-space

DSTAR Satellite in Space

The first-ever satellite to carry a D-STAR (Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio) Amateur Radio payload into space is to be launch on April 22 from Guiana. 

The OUFTI-1 (Orbital Utility For Telecommunication Innovations) CubeSat is one of three CubeSats developed by student teams under the European Space Agency (ESA) Education Office “Fly Your Satellite!” program, which is aimed at training the next generation of aerospace professionals. The satellites arrived in South America on March 25, followed by the student teams a few days later.

The CubeSat’s frequencies are 145.950 MHz (FSK AX.25 and D-STAR down, with an uplink at 435.045 MHz. OUFTI-1 will carry a CW beacon transmitting on 145.980 MHz.

The other two CubeSats are from Italy and Denmark. The CubeSat e-st@r-II from the Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, will demonstrate an attitude control system using measurements of Earth’s magnetic field. It will transmit CW and 1.2 k AFSK on 437.485 MHz. AAUSAT4 from the University of Aalborg, Denmark, will operate an automated ocean vessel identification system. It will transmit on 437.425 MHz.

More information - http://qrznow.com/first-ever-d-star-satellite-to-launch-in-april/

New Radio Antenna Avoids Unwanted Signals

A new, simpler, cheaper and potentially more effective way to prevent radio antennas from picking up unwanted signals has been created by researchers at University of Texas, Austin, United States.

It is hoped with further development of the technique could also be used to help prevent thermophotovoltaic cells from re-emitting radiation they absorb.

The laws of electromagnetism work exactly the same way if you run time in the opposite direction. One logical consequence of the design is to broadcast at a certain radio frequency will also absorb radiation at that frequency.

This issue is problematic for broadcast radio antennas, which will absorb radiation that has bounced back from surrounding objects – something that can have a negative impact on operation.

The team at the University of Texas have based their design on a traditional leaky-wave antenna, in which electromagnetic waves of certain frequencies couple to the space around the antenna and "leak out" as they travel along it

Full story - http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2016/mar/29/new-radio-antenna-avoids-unwanted-signals