Subj : Amateur Radio Newsline (A
To   : All
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Feb 14 2019 08:25 pm

Amateur Radio Newsline Report 2155, for Friday, February 15th, 2019

Amateur Radio Newsline Report Number 2155, with a release date of Friday,
February 15th, 2019, to follow in 5-4-3-2-1.

The following is a QST. The OSCAR 100 satellite goes live online. A U.S.
Navy classroom covers ham radio basics -- and the search is on for young
amateurs who have a charitable spirit. All this and more, as Amateur
Radio Newsline Number 2155, comes your way right now.

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BILLBOARD CART

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TOP STORY: 1ST GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE GOES LIVE ONLINE

JIM/ANCHOR: We begin our report this week with big news from the sky. If
you've had your eyes on Qatar (Kat-R) OSCAR-100 since the satellite's
launch last year in the U.S., here is another way to keep in touch from
anywhere in the world. Graham Kemp, VK4BB, has the latest.

GRAHAM: Things just got a little more exciting for fans of Qatar (Kat-R)
OSCAR-100, which is carrying the first geostationary amateur radio payload
in history. Its two transponders have been inaugurated, and have gone live
online. A WebSDR for the narrowband segment, and a spectrum viewer for its
wideband segment, are being operated by the British Amateur Television
Club, and AMSAT-UK. The OSCAR-100 project has the support of Goonhilly
Earth Station, which is hosting the ground station facility in Cornwall
in the UK. Meanwhile, up above the earth, Oscar-100 can be found in its
geostationary orbit aboard the Es'hail-2 (S-HALE-TWO) communications
satellite at 25.9 degrees East. The satellite was launched on a Falcon 9
rocket from SpaceX at Cape Canaveral, on November 15th of last year.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Graham Kemp, VK4BB.

(AMSAT-DL.ORG, ESHAIL.BATC.ORG.UK)

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SATELLITES NOT JUST ACADEMIC ON VILLANOVA CAMPUS

JIM/ANCHOR: Back here on earth, satellites have landed at a Pennsylvania
college - in the form of a campus club. Here's Heather Embee,
K-B-3-TEE-ZED-DEE, with those details.

HEATHER: There's a new club on campus at Villanova University in
Pennsylvania, and its ambitions are lofty - with good reason. The
school's College of Engineering is now home to a CubeSat Club, focusing
on amateur radio nanosatellites. Its faculty advisor is Alan Johnston,
KU2Y, an associate teaching professor of electrical and computer
engineering. The advisor's role is a natural for him; Alan is vice
president for educational relations for AMSAT, a voluntary position he
holds within the radio amateur satellite corporation. Alan was named to
his position at AMSAT in May of 2018, and was given the assignment to
boost educational outreach, and the role of amateur satellites as teaching
tools.

Club meetings, which are held on Wednesdays, provide students with what
is often their first glimpse at satellite technology, and the little
CubeSats. According to the university's website, the ultimate goal of the
club might be to launch its own mission to space, perhaps as a joint
effort with another organization or university. For the meantime, club
members already have a busy agenda here on Earth, building a CubeSat
simulator, based around a Raspberry Pi computer, with a 3-D printed frame
and establishing a satellite ground station to be part of an automated
open source global network.

For Amateur Radio Newsline, I'm Heather Embee, KB3TZD.

(VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY; AMSAT NEWS SERVICE)
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