A December 27 Soyuz launch deployed the two German Orbital Systems D-Star ONE satellites D-Star ONE – Sparrow and D-Star ONE – iSat. Beacons have been successfully received from both satellites, which carry a D-Star repeater with an uplink at 437.325 MHz and downlink at 435.525 MHz. The D-Star ONE – Phoenix 3U CubeSat, launched last February, was lost. This winter’s D-Star mission was to include three D-Star CubeSats. A pair of Kanopus V remote-sensing satellites was the primary payload. The flight carried 28 satellites in all.
“During the first low-elevation pass over Berlin, our team established successful contact with both satellites,” German Orbital Systems said. “The received telemetry confirms nominal status of all systems.”
The December Soyuz flight also deployed the UWE-4 1U CubeSat carrying an electric propulsion experiment and a 70-centimeter 9.6 k AX.25 digipeater, with an uplink/downlink frequency of 437.375 MHz.
Elsewhere, AMSAT-DL (Germany) has reported that in-orbit testing of the P4-A ham radio transponders on Es’hail-2 has begun. AMSAT-DL cautioned that, under no circumstances, should anyone attempt to transmit on the Es’hail-2 uplink.
“Like everyone, we are very excited by the received signals so far, and we do appreciate any monitoring and receiving reports from the Amateur Radio community,” AMSAT-DL. Unsolicited transmissions on the Es’hail-2 uplink not only could delay commissioning and adversely affect relations with satellite owner Es’hailSat.
When all in-orbit testing has been successfully completed, the satellite will be moved to its final orbital position at 26° E.
Source:ARRL
Antenna
“Real world antenna comparisons I don’t have many choices for my antenna at my residential QTH. I have an80m OCF Dipole (aka Windom) hung from the peak of my roof at about 25ft and a ladder line fed 40m Doublet folded around in... Read more
VHF
Alinco DR-B185HT 85 Watt 2 Meter Transceivers are their highest power 144 MHz VHF mobile. DR-B185HT transceivers deliver high-power and superior performance without compromise. They compare very favorably to other maker’s models that... Read more
Review
Using the ARRL RF Exposure Calculator
Brent, KI5HXM, has a question relating to RF exposure in a mobile environment. Dave wants to show a cool online tool to helps know the save distance p... Read more
Remote Antenna Tuners [PodCast] – “ARRL The Doctor is In”
“Remote Antenna Tuners” is the topic of the just-released episode of the “ARRL The Doctor is In” podcast. Listen…and learn! Read more
Universal Radio presents the Yaesu FTDX9000D
FTDX9000D The FTDX-9000 is a groundbreaking HF/50 MHz Elite Class Transceiver from the YAESU Engineering Team. The FTDX-9000D features unmatched close... Read more
Best Coax Cable for Portable Operation
A viewer asks: What is the best coax cable choice for portable operation. Joe and I talk about our favorite and give you a few options. Read more
Measures The Loss In Coax Connectors and 100 Feet of RG8X by W6LG
Jim W6LG uses a signal generator and a panadapter to measure the loss in 30 coax connectors at 14 and 52 mhz down to a fraction of a db. You might be... Read more