ESA announce competition for Radio Hams

It is time to start listening to space. To celebrate the upcoming launch of the three Fly Your Satellite! student-built CubeSats into low Earth orbit, ESA’s Education office challenges the amateur radio community to listen out for the tiny satellites.

The first three radio amateurs to send a recorded signal from either AAUSAT4, E-st@r-II or OUFTI-1 will receive a prize from ESA’s Education Office.

The satellites will be launched on 22 April onboard the Soyuz VS-14 flight from the European Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. Together with CNES’ Microscope scientific satellite, they will be auxiliary payloads in the launch of ESA’s Earth observation satellite Sentinel-1B, the main passenger on this flight.

Fit checks for the CubeSats’ P-POD on ASAP-S

Soon after being deployed into their final orbit, the CubeSats will begin transmitting signals to Earth that can be picked up by anyone with common amateur radio equipment. ESA challenges anyone to record the signal and send it tocubesats@esa.int, and to the CubeSat team.

For each CubeSat, the first email received for which the signal is confirmed to belong to the CubeSat will be awarded with the following prizes:

ESA Fly Your Satellite! poster
ESA Education goodie bag
Scale 1:1 3D printed model of a CubeSat

Radio Contact Information:
Please consult the following links to obtain specific information for radio contact for each of the three CubeSats.

AAUSAT4

Downlink frequency

437.425 MHz

For more HAM radio information see here and here.
Contact: aausat4 @ space.aau.dk

E-st@r-II

Downlink frequency

437.485 MHz

For more HAM radio information see here.
Contact: cubesat.team @ polito.it

OUFTI-1

Downlink frequency

145.980 MHz

For more HAM radio information see here.
Contact: oufti-1 @ ulg.ac.be

What your email should contain:

Sound recording of the CW beacon
Your Name
Callsign
Snailmail address for QSL
Reception time of CW beacon
CW beacon decoded
Location
A few lines about your equipment

More information about Fly Your Satellite! can be found here.

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