Five new Amateur Radio Satellites in orbit

FASTRAC-1, FASTRAC-2, NanoSail-D2, O/OREOS and RAX were launched at 01:24 UT on Saturday Nov 20, reports of the signals are needed.

So far signals have been reported from FASTRAC-2 (Emma), O/ORES and RAX.

Nominal Frequencies:
- FASTRAC-1 "Sara Lily" 437.345 MHz FM AX.25 1200bps
- FASTRAC-2 "Emma" 145.825 MHz FM AX.25 1200bps
- RAX-1 437.505 MHz
- O/OREOS 437.305 MHz
- Nanosail D2 0.5 sec beacon every 5 sec on 437.275 MHz.

RAX Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/RAX-Ra...68658456492859
RAX Twitter: http://twitter.com/RAX_2010

FASTRAC Facebook http://www.facebook.com/fastracsats
FASTRAC Twitter http://www.twitter.com/fastracsats/

O/OREOS http://www.crestnrp.org

NanoSail-D2 http://nanosaild.engr.scu.edu/dashboard.htm

Amateur radio operators - help track the FASTRAC satellites
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/nov...c_tracking.htm

AMSAT Bulletin Board (AMSAT-BB)
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/

Orbiter Forum
http://www.orbiter-forum.com/showthread.php?p=219924

Source : QRZ Forums

A close up of Doppler Shift

My searches about Soppler Effect on Doppler scenarios for low Earth orbiting satellite operation reaches here..

Many amateurs have been confused by the Doppler shift encountered during satellite operation. In essence, Doppler shift is simply the apparent change in frequency that is observed when an object moves towards or away from an observer. It is a property common to wave propagation. Almost everyone has experienced Doppler shift in everyday life. Here's a couple of common examples:

Read on : http://www.qsl.net/vk3jed/doppler.html

HAMSAT approaches 5th birthday

On May 4, the Indian Amateur Radio satellite HAMSAT (VO-52) will have completed 5 years in orbit and Mani, VU2WMY is requesting information from radio amateurs regarding its usage.

Since it was launched HAMSAT has provided consistent service to the Amateur Radio community using its two 435 to 145 MHz transponders.

One of the transponders was developed by Indian Radio Amateurs with the expertise of ISRO and the experience of AMSAT-India. The second transponder was developed by Dutch Radio Amateur William Leijenaar PE1RAH.

On the AMSAT bulletin board Mani VU2WMY writes:
On behalf of the Programme Director, Mission Director, Operations Director and the entire "HAMSAT" project team, I convey their message to the Global Amateur Radio Satellite enthusiasts & users through my mail.

It gives us a great pleasure to inform the World Amateur Radio community that, on 4th May 2010, HAMSAT (VO-52) is completing 5 years of successful existence in Space rendering useful and fruitful services to the Amateur radio community.

We as well take this opportunity with great pleasure to inform the Global Amateur Radio community, that the overall system health and performance of "Hamsat" - "The gift from INDIA/ISRO to World of Ham Radio" is good and satisfactory.

To commemorate this milestone achievement, we have intended to bring out a 'Comprehensive Performance & Utilization Report' of the payload (Transponder) based on the user feed back from across the Globe.

In this regard, we request all the Amateur Satellite Enthusiasts and users to kindly send us their feed back about the performance and utilization of the transponder. A detailed report expressing their views, suggestions, comments, ratings and preferably a comparison note made with other linear transponders, those already been flown and currently available one's would be greatly appreciated.

Looking forward to hear from you all.
Thanking you
73 de
Mani, VU2WMY
Secretary & Station-In-ChargeUpagrah Amateur Radio Club VU2URC

ISRO Satellite CentreAirport Road,

Bangalore-560 017.

Phone:(O)91-80-2508 2054/2192/2537

Mobile: 91-80-98803 41456

E-mail ID: wmyisac.gov.in

vu2wmy_maniyahoo.com

isrohamsyahoo.com

The full email including a copy of the request from the Operations Director at the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) can be seen at http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/amsat-bb/48hour/msg79250.html

ISTRAC is responsible for providing Space Operation services that include spacecraft control, TTC support services and other related projects and services, for the launch vehicle, low earth orbiting spacecraft and deep space missions of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and other space agencies around the world.

HAMSAT (VO-52) : http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/sat_summary/hamsat.php
AMSAT-India: http://www.amsatindia.org/

Courtesy : www.southgatearc.org

New Indian Amateur Radio Satellite- STUDSAT

India's first student satellite-STUDSAT(STUDent SATellite)-The first pico-satellite being developed indigenously in India, by an enthusiastic group of under-graduate students from across India, with support from Indian Space Research Organization and seven different Engineering Academic Institutions.

This project started off in December,2007 as an ambitious aspiration of a bunch of under-graduate students. Today, it is heading towards completion, manifesting the undaunting spirits of the team of students. With most of the technical work under the credit of students in the team,we want to be an example for further such endeavours for all students, within and outside India.

StudSat is slated for a March 2010 launch and will carry a camera capable of 90 metre resolution. The IARU Satellite co-ordination page says it is planned to launch in March 2010 on an Indian launcher.

The satellite resembles a small cube of size (10 cm x 10 cm x 13.5 cm), weighing about 850 gm and has a volume of 1.1 litres. The satellite is intended to be launched in 700 km Sun-synchronous orbit.

It will perform the function of a remote sensing satellite and take images of earth’s surface with a resolution of 90 metres, the best achieved by any “PICO” category satellite in the world.

It is proposed to use a 10mW CW beacon on UHF and also a half duplex 9k6 or 4k8bps FSK TC/TLM link with 1 watt output also on UHF.

Further information on StudSat can be found at http://www.teamstudsat.com/
STUDSAT - IARU Satellite Frequency coordination page http://www.amsat.org.uk/iaru/formal_detail.asp?serial=164

China's 1st ever amateur radio satelite XW-1 is in space now!

ANS Special Bulletin AMSAT China Says XW-1 Has Been Launched.

AMSAT China reports it was launched at about around 0230 UTC on December 15, 2009. The beacon was received in Sanya after launch.XW-1 was a secondary payload aboard the CZ-4C rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center into a sun-synchronous orbit about 1200kilometers high. The primary payload of this launch is the Yaogen-8Remote Sensing Satellite.

The preliminary keplerian elements for the satellite are:

XW-1

1 99999U 09349.11987269 .00000000 00000-0 00000-0 0 00006

2 99999 100.4859 046.2958 0001760 147.4703 038.6343 13.15267150000017

The XW-1 communications payload includes a beacon and three crossband transponders operating in FM, linear, and digital modes.

Here is a Spacecraft Summary:

Common Name: XW-1

Alternate Name: CAS-1

Satellite Type: Microsatellite

Launch Date: TBD

Launch Location: Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center of China

Launch Vehicle: CZ-2C(LM-2C) Rocket

Apogee: 1200km

Perigee: 1200km

Inclination: 105 degrees

Period: 109 minutes

Local time of descending node: 21:30

Weight: 50kg

Frequency Information:

Mode V/U (J) FM Voice Repeater (30 dbm (1 w)):

Uplink: 145.8250 MHz FM, PL 67.0 Hz.

Downlink: 435.6750 MHz FM

Mode V/U (J) Linear Transponder (Inverting) (30 dbm (1 w)):

Uplink:145.9250 - 145.9750 MHz SSB/CW

Downlink:435. 7650 - 435.7150 MHz SSB/CW

Mode V/U (J) PacSat BBS (30 dbm (1 w)):

Uplink:145.8250 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS

Downlink: 435.6750 MHz AFSK 1200 BPS

Mode Beacon (23 dbm (200mw)):

Downlink:435. 7900 MHz CW

You can get XW-1 Telemetry Format at :

http://www.amsat. org/amsat- new/satellites/ documents/ XW-1_Telemetry_ Format.pdf

Details of the XW-1 satellite are available at:

http://www.camsat. cn/index. php?option= com_content& view=article& id=56&Itemid= 67

[ANS thanks David Chen, BD5RV/4 and Alan Kung, BA1DU for the above information]

Courtsy : Mani, VU2WMY