Company Announces Bluetooth Connection to Satellite

A company based in Seattle, Washington has achieved an unprecedented long-distance connection in space with a satellite - via Bluetooth technology.

Using a software patch upgrade to some off-the-shelf Bluetooth chips, the Hubble Network in Seattle has achieved what it calls the first low-power Bluetooth connection with a satellite orbiting the Earth. The signals travelled a distance of more than 600km - or 370 miles - prompting Hubble's CEO and cofounder Alex Haro to say in a recent press release that the Seattle company had debunked sceptics' belief that such a feat was impossible. A press release from the company this month heralded the achievement as "critical validation for the company, potentially opening the door to connecting millions more devices anywhere in the world.”

Hubble Network said it began receiving the signals shortly after the satellites' launch in March. Hubble hopes it will be able to present an option for communications with global coverage creating less battery drain and lower operating costs.

Source - https://www.arnewsline.org/

First Contact Made Through QO-100 from North America

The first contact through the QO-100 geostationary satellite made from North America took place on 11th May 2024 from Newfoundland, Canada. VO1/M0XUU (VU3HPF) made a trans-atlantic FT8 contact with G0MRF in London. The contact is significant considering the QO-100 footprint falls beyond Newfoundland at -0.9° below the horizon.

Source AMSAT-UK

AMSAT Makes Plea to Keep Greencube in Service

AMSAT has made a plea to Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory to postpone its scheduled shutdown of the digipeater aboard the amateur satellite known as GreenCube, or IO-117. The satellite was scheduled to be decommissioned on the 5th February 2024.

Radio operators around the world have been making use of its digipeater for QSOs for more than a year, including those for the high-profile TX5S DXpedition on Clipperton Island in the Pacific Ocean. AMSAT said this marks the first activation in three decades of Clipperton Island via amateur satellite.

“opened worldwide long-distance contacts via amateur radio satellite that had not been possible since the loss of AMSAT-OSCAR 40 in 2004.”

— Quote Source

In a 25th January 2024 letter requesting the decommissioning's postponement, AMSAT's president Robert Bankston, KE4AL, reminded S5Lab's Green Cube team that amateur satellites such as AMSAT-OSCAR 7 often enjoy extended lifetimes. The still-active OSCAR 7 was launched in 1974. AMSAT committed itself to involvement in helping manage GreenCube in cooperation with AMSAT Italia, S5Lab and other AMSAT organisations.