Also in GB2RS this week…
International delegates were pleased to learn that an Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) plan is under consideration by NASA’s Deep Space Gateway program. NASA Gateway Utilization Manager informed those attending the annual ARISS International in-person meeting that ARISS is the only non-commercial entity whose ideas are under study by the program. The ARISS plan focuses on amateur radio communication, including optical communication channels, as well as equipment development, team cooperation, education and public outreach.
Mexico’s IARU member society is asking radio amateurs to avoid 7.060, 7.130 and 14.120MHz, where hurricane emergency nets are operating in Spanish. Mexico’s National Emergency Net activated the nets earlier this week. Also, storm Yutu is said to be the strongest storm on record to hit the Northern Mariana Islands, home to about 55,000 people. Four ARRL HF/VHF Ham Aid kits in Guam are available for use in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Another seven kits are positioned in Hawaii. Radio amateurs in Guam and Hawaii are attempting to get in touch with amateurs who can assist on Saipan. Amateur radio teams that had planned to operate in the CQ World Wide DX SSB Contest from Saipan this weekend have cancelled their trips.
UKube-1, the UK Space Agency’s first CubeSat, was launched into space in July 2014. It completed its successful nominal mission 14 months later in September 2015. Since that date, the FUNcube-based payload has continued to provide a transponder for use by radio amateurs and, additionally, 30-plus channels of real time telemetry for STEM outreach and for use by schools and colleges. These downlinks have operated continuously on the 145MHz band and more than 450 stations have supported this ongoing activity. They have uplinked the telemetry data to the FUNcube Data Warehouse, where it is stored and available for research. Just before midnight on Thursday, 18 October 2018, the Warehouse received a data frame from KB6LTY in California. This is the last record of signals being received from the spacecraft and since that date, careful observations have failed to detect any signals from either of the transmitters carried by the spacecraft. An early analysis of the last telemetry received has not shown any obvious anomalies, but this work continues. Although it is obviously sad for both the amateur and educational worlds to lose such a valuable resource, both AO73-FUNcube 1 and EO88-Nayif 1 continue to operate nominally and JY1SAT and ESEO are expected to launch before the end of 2018.
Two lectures from the RSGB’s 2018 Convention are now available for RSGB Members to view on the RSGB website. Neil Smith, G4DBN speaks on FT8 Performance Secrets and William Eustace, M0WJE on Microwave Engineering: From Death Rays to Dinner. These join the wide selection of videos on the RSGB website at rsgb.org/videos.
Category: GB2RS Headlines
