Belgium's QARMAN CubeSat to be Deploy

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Belgium's QARMAN CubeSat to be Deploy

QARMAN, a nano-satellite designed and built at VKI, was launched to the International Space Station on 5th December 2019. Deployment is expected to take place in the week of 12th February 2020

QARMAN (Qubesat for Aerothermodynamic Research and Measurements on AblatioN) is the world’s first CubeSat designed to survive atmospheric re-entry. Work on it started in 2013 at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI).

The aim of the QARMAN mission is to demonstrate the usability of a CubeSat platform as an atmospheric entry vehicle. Spacecraft descending towards a planet with an atmosphere experience very harsh environment including extreme temperatures (several thousand degrees).

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John Litz (NZ6Q) Appointed as San Joaquin Valley Section Manager

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John Litz, NZ6Q, has been appointed as the ARRL San Joaquin Valley Section Manager to succeed Dan Pruitt, AE6SX, who died on 27th December 2019. Litz will complete the remaining term of office that runs through 30th June 2021. ARRL Radiosport and Field Services Manager Bart Jahnke, W9JJ, made the appointment, effective immediately, after consulting with Pacific Division Director Jim Tiemstra, K6JAT, and San Joaquin Valley Section Leaders. Litz, from Stockton, California, was first licensed in 1974, and he is an ARRL Life Member. He is active in many facets of amateur radio and has served as an Assistant Section Manager in San Joaquin Valley for the past year.

Proposing to Delete Some Current Amateur Allocations in China

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Proposing to Delete Some Current Amateur Allocations in China

China’s telecommunications regulator has proposed amending the Measures for the Administration of Amateur Radio Stations, and some amateur bands are in danger of being eliminated. Lide Zhang, BI8CKU, told ARRL that the proposal would prohibit amateur operation on the 2200-meter band as well as on 146 – 148 MHz, 1260 – 1300 MHz, 3400 – 3500 MHz, 5650 – 5725 MHz, and all bands above 10 GHz.

Radio communications engineer and Chinese Amateur Satellite Group (CAMSAT) CEO Alan Kung, BA1DU, believes that government efforts to eliminate some amateur bands are nothing new, but proposals that have been aired for a while now are on the regulatory agency’s schedule. Kung said he does not anticipate that all of the bands proposed will be taken away, but he conceded that the climate will “undoubtedly” become increasingly more dangerous for China’s amateur radio community.

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