SOUTHERN AFRICAN AMATEUR RADIO SATELLITE ASSOCIATION (SA AMSAT)
Registered as a
non-profit organisation by the South African Department of Social
Development
Registration number No 55-363
UPDATED 16 April 2009
SA AMSAT
P O Box 90438
Garsfontein 0042
South Africa
Tel: 012 991 4662
Fax: 012 991 5651
Email:
saamsat@intekom.co.za
SA AMSAT PAYLOAD ON SUMBANDILASAT
5 April
2009 ZS5FR's Satellite Report on
Amateur Radio Mirror
Sponsored by Sentech
Sundays 10:00 CAT
17570kHz
7205 kHz
7082 kHz
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Mondays 21:05 CAT
3215 kHz
Podcast: www.zs6ro.co.za/podcast
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Further delays for SumbandilaSat launch
Launch date is now only late July 2009
In early January the Department of Science and Technology signed the SumbandilaSat launch contract with Roscosmos setting the launch date at 25 March 2009. This date was later postponed till May but the latest is a further postponement till late July. No reasons have been given. However rumours have it that one of the main payloads is delayed.
The fact that launch will now take place on a Soyuz launcher at Baikonur as opposed to the previous Shtil from a submarine, ensured that a new Interface Control Document (ICD) had to be issued. This meant that each element of the new ICD had to be check against the previous one and an impact report on the differences had to be compiled. Normally the base plate modifications, various types of vibration, and some electrical issues from the basis of the changes but the ICD is very comprehensive and contains all elements related to on-site safety.
From 25 August 2008 to the present time SunSpace, with permission from the DST and under contract to Stellenbosch University, conducted systems tests at ISSA to ensure that the satellite is launch-ready after its been mothballed for more than two years. All the individual systems have been declared functional and the only outstanding items are some control system software updates caused by the change in orbit parameter from South-North to North-South. The updates have been tested, work and will be uploaded within the week. Final mission scenario testing will then be carried out and is expected to be successful.
In addition, the Satellite Applications Centre (SAC) has commissioned the delivery of a SumbandilaSat mission control system with which to operate the satellite. The delivery of this system is also on schedule.
The scheduled launch date determines when SumbandilaSat has to leave South African shores and SunSpace, Stellenbosch University and the DST are in constant contact with Russian entities to ensure clarity on the actual date. Ideally, SumbandilaSat should leave Cape Town International around 50 days before the final launch date.
Ron Olivier, Executive Director: Business Development of SunSpace said that
SunSpace, Stellenbosch University, SAC and the DST are at a heightened
state of readiness and all indications are that South Africa will have a
successful launch campaign.
FULL STORY ON SUMBANDILASAT AND THE AMATEUR PAYLOAD CLICK HERE
MORE ABOUT BACAR
BACAR is the acronym for Balloon Carrying Amateur Radio. The activity
involved sending up a balloon with an Amateur Radio payload involving a
large number of enthusiasts from a launch team, a recovery team to
individual radio amateurs tracking the signals from their QTH and
reporting in to a mapping team. Read more
Read the BACAR story in the February Edition of EngineerIT online at www.eepublishers.co.za.
JOIN SA AMSAT NOW
SA
AMSAT has introduced a new email newsletter that will arrive in your
inbox on a regular basis, monthly or more often if there is important
news. It is optimised for email and will not gobble up your bandwidth.
Download the July newsletter
to see for yourself.
Members also receive a membership certificate upon joining. If you are already a member and have not received a certificate please send your details to saamsat@intekom.co.za and a certificate will be mailed to you.
To join, get all the details here
SA AMSAT MAILS UP TWO EMAIL NEWSLETTERS A MONTH RIGHT INTO YOUR MAILBOX. SEND AN EMAIL FOR A SAMPLE
SATELLITES FOR BEGINNERS WITH
DAVE LONG ZS5FR
Download the PowerPoint Presentation here in PDF
Download article in word here
Download audio presentation here
JOIN US ON WORLD AMATEUR RADIO DAY AT THE NARC IN GAUTENG
18 APRIL 2009 10:00 - 15:00
Mini BACAR Launch on a tether
Watch APRS Signals on 145,800 MHz
Listen to the CW beacon on 7024 kHz
Listen to the message and send it to armi@sarl.org.za before 13:00. You could win an 2008 ARRL handbook and other prizes
See how hydrogen is generated to float the balloons
2metre beacon wih CW and Voice on 144,825
Parrot Repeater on 145.500 MHz
Call in on the ZS6SRL net on
7082 and 14150 kHz
AMSAT DL REPORTS FIRST SUCCESS IN ITS MISSION TO MARS PROGRAMME
On March 25, a group from AMSAT-DL bounced radio signals off the surface of Venus, marking the first time Amateur Radio operators have bounced radio signals off another planet
According to AMSAT-DL President Peter Guelzow, DB2OS,
the Earth-Venus-Earth (EVE) transmission is another step in preparing
for a mission to Mars. According to an AMSAT-DL press release, the
team's transmitter was generating about 6 kW CW on 2.4 GHz.
Guelzow said that signals were sent from a ground control station at the
IUZ Sternwarte observatory in Bochum: "After traveling almost 100
million kilometers and a round trip delay of about 5 minutes, they were
clearly received as echoes from the surface of Venus.
This was the first German success to receive echoes
of other planets. In addition, this is the farthest distance crossed by
radio amateurs, over 100 times further than echoes from the moon (EME
reflections)."
The EVE experiment was repeated on March 26 for several hours with "good
echoes" from Venus, Guelzow said. "Morse code was used to transmit the
well-known 'HI' signature known from the AMSAT OSCAR satellites."
For receiving the EVE reflections, Guelzow said that the team used a
fast Fourier transform (FFT) analysis with an integration time of 5
minutes. "After integrating for 2 minutes only, the reflected signals
were clearly visible in the display," he said. "Despite the bad weather,
signals from Venus could be detected from 1038 UTC on until the planet
reached the local horizon."
Guelzow explained that with the EVE reflections, the high power
amplifier "has therefore passed this crucial test as a final key
component for the planned P5-A Mars mission. By receiving generated
echoes from Venus, the ground and command station for the Mars probe has
been cleared for operational use and the AMSAT-DL team is now gearing up
for building the P5-A space probe. AMSAT-DL wants to show that
low-budget interplanetary exploration is possible with its approach."
Development, design and construction of this first German Mars mission
have been achieved by AMSAT-DL and its partner organisations, Guelzow
explained. "Already a third of the total project costs were performed.
DESPITE SETBACKS THE
NAMIBIAN
DX-PEDITION A GREAT SUCCESS
Heavy winds, lack of mains power, and equipment going up in smoke were not enough to dampen the enthusiasm of the January 2009 Namibian VHF and Satellite DX-pedition. It was a great success.
Expectations exceeded on the EME side, but some of original goals were not reached for a variety of technical and operational reasons.
The EME operation was impressive. On 144 MHz EME - 231 different stations were contacted in 47 DXCC entities on all continents. Of these contacts 230 were made using the WSJT JT65B mode and 1 on CW. On 432 MHz EME - 18 different stations in 13 DXCC, 16 using JT65B and 5 on CW and on 1296 MHz EME - 18 different stations in 12 DXCC, 17 using JT65B and 1 on CW. The SARL was one of the sponsors of the DX-pedition.
Click here for a detailed report by Hal Lund ZS6WB. Its worth reading!
Thanks to the following donors
who made financial contributions:
South African Radio League
South African Amateur Radio Development Trust
Pretoria Amateur Radio Club
Nico van Tonder ZS6AQ
Ray Webber ZS6RSW
Rene Gouws ZR1RTG
Hans Kappetijn ZS6KR