AMSAT's Fox-1D cubesat
was successfully launched from India
in mid-January. Designated as AMSAT-OSCAR 92 (AO-92), it went into general
amateur service on January 26. According to the AMSAT News Service, it includes
an FM transponder with an uplink on 435.350 MHz and a downlink on 145.880 MHz;
plus an "L-Band Downshifter" which allows the command station to
switch the uplink to 1267.350 MHz (both uplinks require a 67.0 Hz CTCSS tone);
a camera provided by Virginia Tech and a radiation mapping experiment from the
University of Iowa.
A Chinese cubesat
developed in part by elementary and middle school students was launched on
January 19. The "Zhou Enlai" satellite includes an FM transponder
(145.930 MHz up; 436.950 MHz down) as well as slow-scan TV capabilities and an
SSTV beacon which will transmit date, time, location and temperature
information on an SSTV frame, according to the ARRL. Two other cubesats
operating on amateur frequencies were orbited on the same launch vehicle. TY2
and TY6 operate in the UHF and higher bands, with capabilities on 2.4, 5.6 and
5.8 GHz as well as 435 MHz.
On the downside of space
news, the ARRL reports that the APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) station
on the International Space Station was offline as of late January, "due to
an as-yet unidentified anomaly involving the radio serving the system." No
word at press time as to when or whether the problem might be resolved.
