Happy 10th Birthday FUNcube-1 (AO-73)

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Happy 10th Birthday FUNcube-1 (AO-73)

November 21, 2023, marks the tenth birthday of our very first CubeSat mission, FUNcube-1 (AO-73).

A very short time after the launch from Yasny in Russia and within a few minutes from deployment, the very first frame of data from the low power transmitter on board, was detected and decoded by ZS1LS in South Africa. He was able to relay the data over the internet from his Dashboard to the Data Warehouse and the numbers, appeared, as if by magic, at the launch party being held at the RSGB National Radio Centre at Bletchley Park.

After a very brief check out, the FUNcube team were able to switch the transmitter to full power, again at the very first attempt, and were quite amazed at the strength of the signal from the 300mW transmitter on 145.935 MHz. The transponder was then switched on and successfully tested, the first contact was between G6LVB and M5AKA who were both operating from the Bletchley Park car park.

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New Satellite Distance Records

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Jérôme LeCuyer, F4DXV, set yet another distance record on October 15th when he worked Scott Richardson, N1AIA, on SO-50. Jérôme was located in JN14ch while Scott was in FN43rh, a distance of 5,645.3 km [3507.8 miles]. This eclipses the previous record of 5,548 km set by KE9AJ and MI0ILE in May.

Additionally, Puneit Singh, VU2TUM, claimed the initial distance record on Tevel-2 with a 3,815 km QSO with BA1PK in ON80eb. VU2TUM’s QTH was ML88ij.

More Information - https://www.amsat.org/ans-316-amsat-news-service-weekly-bulletins/

RFI from above is Anything but Heavenly Interference

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RFI from above is Anything but Heavenly Interference

Starlink satellites are emitting RFI that is causing issues for radio astronomers, even in so-called "radio quiet zones," such as the outback of Western Australia.

That is the finding of a research team that published their findings recently in the journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics Letters. Steven Tingay of Curtin University writes on the Cosmos magazine website that, using radio telescopes, the researchers detected signals at a number of licensed radio frequencies but their greatest concern was over intended and unintended emissions from elsewhere. They traced those to Starlink satellites. The scientists' tests were conducted at the site where an SKA-Low facility is to be built in Western Australia.

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