First Contact Made Through QO-100 from North America

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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

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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.

AO-92 Satellite Reaches end of Life

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Fox-1D (AO-92) was an AMSAT CubeSat satellite that operated for just over 6 years in orbit and proved to be a popular option for amateur radio satellite operators through its FM transponder. In addition to the transponder, the versatile satellite contained several payloads including an L-band converter, an experimental camera, and a MEMS GYRO experiment.

With aging batteries, the satellite could no longer operate reliably and was mostly inoperable in recent months. The satellite reentered earth's orbit on 3rd February 2024.

Read more about distance records set with AO-92 and view a gallery of images captured from the experimental camera - https://www.amsat.org/tlm/showImages.php?id=4