Friday, January 13, 2023

FO-118 Puts HF Back on Satellites

FO-118 (From amsat.org website)
Hams operating on HF have access to an amateur satellite for the first time in 30 years. China’s new CAS-5A satellite, launched in December and recently designated by AMSAT as Fengtai-OSCAR 118, or FO-118, includes an FM repeater and two linear transponders. While one transponder uses the common band layout of 2 meters up and 70 centimeters down, the second has an uplink on 15 meters (21.427-21.442 MHz) and a downlink on 70 centimeters (435.498-435.512 MHz). This is the first amateur satellite carrying an HF transponder since the Russian RS (Radio Sputnik) series in the 1980s and ‘90s.

According to the AMSAT News Service, FO-118 was designed, built and tested by a group of 31 high school students, working closely with CAMSAT, the Chinese Amateur Satellite Group. The satellite also carries CW and GMSK telemetry beacons. AMSAT-UK has a user manual for FO-118 available online at <https://ukamsat.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/cas-5a-amateur-radio-satellite-users-manual-v1.0.pdf>.