ANS-215 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service

ANS-215
August 3, 2025

In this edition:

• AMSAT Symposium Call for Papers & Presentations
• AMSAT-UK Tests FM Transponder for Jovian-1 Satellite
• AO-123 FM Transponder to Enter Continuous Service
• HamTV Installed On ISS
• NOAA-15 and NOAA-19 to be Decommissioned
• GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers August 2025 Rankings
• VUCC Satellite Standings for August 1, 2025
• DXCC Satellite Standings for August 1, 2025
• Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for August 1, 2025
• ARISS News
• AMSAT Ambassador Activities
• Satellite Shorts From All Over

The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information service of AMSAT, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.

The news feed on https://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor [at] amsat.org

You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

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AMSAT Symposium Call for Papers & Presentations

Proposals for Symposium papers and presentations are invited on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. We request a tentative title of your paper or presentation as soon as possible, with final copy submitted by October 8th for inclusion in the Symposium Proceedings.

Proposals for presentations at the Symposium do not require a paper. Presentations will be recorded and made available on AMSAT’s YouTube Channel and transcribed and published with its slides in the Proceedings.

Proposals should be sent to Frank Karnauskas, N1UW via [email protected]

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information]

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The 2025 AMSAT President’s Club Coins Are Here!
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
Help Support GOLF and Fox Plus.
Join the AMSAT President’s Club today!

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AO-123 FM Transponder to Enter Continuous Service

The FM transponder on AO-123 has been activated on periodic basis since its launch in late 2024. Beginning this weekend, it is expected to enter continuous service if no issues are observed.

AO-123 (ASTRU-1) is a 12U Cubesat mission designed by Russian and Chinese university students for education and amateur radio. The amateur radio station provides telecommand uplink and telemetry / digital image downlink.

A new SDR based transceiver was developed for ASRTU-1 to provide communication and experiment resources to radio amateurs, including a V/U FM transponder, a UHF telemetry downlink and a 10.5G image downlink.

The uplink is 145.850 MHz with a 67 Hz CTCSS tone and the downlink is 435.400 MHz.

[ANS thanks the AO-123 team for the above information]

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HamTV Installed On ISS

On July 29th, Jonny Kim installed the repaired HamTV module in the ISS’s Columbus module. Originally operational from mid-2015 until its failure in 2018, the repaired module was returned to the ISS earlier this year.

Shortly after installation, reports of successful carrier reception were received from Europe. Carrier transmission is expected to continue for a few days.

HamTV transmits live MPEG-2 video using a DVB-S signal on 2395 MHz, primarily for educational contacts.

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information]

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NOAA-15 and NOAA-19 to be Decommissioned

NOAA has announced the decommissioning of NOAA-15 and NOAA-19. NOAA-15 will be decommissioned on August 12, 2025 and NOAA-19 will be decommissioned on August 19, 2025.

These two remaining satellites in the NOAA Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) Constellation are far beyond their primary mission design life. All have incurred subsystem and instrument degradation or failures and have entered a “twilight phase” where failure modes are increasingly likely. NOAA has completed End of Life (EOL) testing activities for NOAA-15 and NOAA-19 and will commence the decommission process shortly. NOAA-18 had previously been decommissioned on June 6, 2025 at 1740 UTC.

Many amateur satellite enthusiasts have copied the APT weather data from NOAA’s POES satellites over the years. With a strong signal at 137 MHz, these satellites have served as a gateway to satellite reception. The decommissioning of these satellites represents an end of an era.

[ANS thanks NOAA for the above information]

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GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers August 2025 Rankings

The August 2025 rankings for the Top 100 Rovers (Mixed LEO/MEO/GEO) in satellite operations, as determined by @GridMasterMap on Twitter, has been released. The ranking is determined by the number of grids and DXCC entities activated, taking into account only those grids where a minimum number of QSOs logged on the gridmaster.fr website have been validated by a third party. Grid numbers do not directly reflect the exact number of activations. Satellite operators are encouraged to upload their LoTW satellite contacts to https://gridmaster.fr in order to provide more accurate data.

Updated: 2025-08-01

1	ND9M	26	KX9X	51	KE0WPA	76	KM4LAO
2	NJ7H	27	DJ8MS	52	KE0PBR	77	VE7PTN
3	UT1FG	28	KG5CCI	53	JK2XXK	78	N4UFO
4	JA9KRO	29	ON4AUC	54	PR8KW	79	PT2AP
5	N5UC	30	N5BO	55	EB1AO	80	AA8CH
6	DL6AP	31	K8BL	56	XE1ET	81	VE1VOX
7	OE3SEU	32	KE4AL	57	LU4JVE	82	FG8OJ
8	DP0POL	33	KB5FHK	58	W7WGC	83	PT9BM
9	F5VMJ	34	AC0RA	59	EA4NF	84	YU0W
10	WI7P	35	PA3GAN	60	N6DNM	85	KI7UXT
11	K5ZM	36	JO2ASQ	61	SM3NRY	86	N6UTC
12	LU5ILA	37	F4BKV	62	W8LR	87	KJ7NDY
13	N6UA	38	VE3HLS	63	KI7QEK	88	AF5CC
14	W5PFG	39	KI0KB	64	W1AW	89	K0FFY
15	N9IP	40	VA3VGR	65	AA5PK	90	JM1CAX
16	WY7AA	41	KI7UNJ	66	VE1CWJ	91	PS8BR
17	HA3FOK	42	HJ5LVR	67	KE9AJ	92	W8MTB
18	DL2GRC	43	LA9XGA	68	F4DXV	93	KB2YSI
19	AK8CW	44	BG7QIW	69	DL4EA	94	N4DCW
20	AD0DX	45	N7AGF	70	AD7DB	95	KG4AKV
21	N4AKV	46	VK5DG	71	SP5XSD	96	WD5GRW
22	AD0HJ	47	DF2ET	72	N8RO	97	DK9JC
23	ND0C	48	K7TAB	73	M1DDD	98	N0TEL
24	BA1PK	49	JL3RNZ	74	VA7LM	99	VE3GOP
25	WD9EWK	50	XE3DX	75	HB9GWJ	100	WA9JBQ

[ANS thanks @GridMasterMap for the above information]

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VUCC Satellite Standings for August 1, 2025

VUCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for July 01, 2025 to August 01, 2025.

Call	1-Jul	1-Aug
K8DP	1738	1750
S57NML	1028	1500
EA2AA	1085	1100
W8LR	910	911
W9FF	545	558
AG4W	438	524
JH1NHK	440	500
N6PAZ	479	495
KE7RTB	300	338
K5WO	270	304
OH3DP	176	226
NK0S	170	171
N0RC	151	170
KT8O	100	153
W5HI	New	150
KG5IPA	New	135
9V1EO	New	133
WB5TX	110	128
DM2RM	New	115
WI5D	New	100

Congratulations to the new VUCC Satellite holders.

KG5IPA is first VUCC Satellite holder from DM61
9V1EO is first VUCC Satellite holder from Singapore and OJ11
DM2RM is first VUCC Satellite holder from JO63

[ANS thanks Jon Goering, N7AZ, for the above information]

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DXCC Satellite Standings for August 1, 2025

DXCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for July 01, 2025 to August 01, 2025.

Call	1-Jul	1-Aug
F6BKI	209	211
MI0ILE	125	200
YO2CMI	184	185
OG7D	166	176
YO3APJ	165	170
EA2AA	161	162
SP3AU	144	149
IK7FMQ	130	141
DL2QB	136	139
JH4UYB	125	126
CT1EEB	112	113
I4DOR	101	109
DG7RO	103	104

[ANS thanks Jon Goering, N7AZ, for the above information]

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Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for August 1, 2025

Two Line Elements or TLEs, often referred to as Keplerian elements or keps in the amateur community, are the inputs to the SGP4 standard mathematical model of spacecraft orbits used by most amateur tracking programs. Weekly updates are completely adequate for most amateur satellites. TLE bulletin files are updated daily in the first hour of the UTC day. New bulletin files will be posted immediately after reliable elements become available for new amateur satellites. More information may be found at https://www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-resources/.

This week there are no additions or deletions to the AMSAT TLE distribution.

[ANS thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, for the above information]

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Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase an M2 LEO-Pack from the AMSAT Store!

When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.

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ARISS News

Amateurs and others around the world may listen in on contacts between amateurs operating in schools and allowing students to interact with astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The downlink frequency on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.

Scheduled Contacts

Sultanov International Aerospace School, Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, direct via TBD

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS
The scheduled crewmember is Sergey Ryzhikov
The ARISS mentor is RV3DR

Contact is go for Mon 2025-08-11 07:45 UTC (***)

Many times a school may make a last minute decision to do a Livestream or run into a last minute glitch requiring a change of the URL but we at ARISS may not get the URL in time for publication.  You can always check https://live.ariss.org/ to see if a school is Livestreaming.

As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios are turned off as part of the safety protocol.

The crossband repeater continues to be active (145.990 MHz up {PL 67} & 437.800 MHz down),  If any crewmember is so inclined, all they have to do is pick up the microphone, raise the volume up, and talk on the crossband repeater. So give a listen, you just never know.

Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time.

The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html

The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html

[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors for the above information]

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Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
Get an AMSAT car flag and other neat stuff from our Zazzle store!
25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space

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AMSAT Ambassador Activities

AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.

AMSAT Ambassador Clint Bradford, K6LCS, says,

“Think a 75-minute presentation on “working the easy satellites” would be appropriate for your club or event? Let me know by emailing me at k6lcsclint (at) gmail (dot) com or calling me at 909-999-SATS (7287)!”

Clint has NEVER given the exact same show twice: EACH of the 150+ presentations so far has been customized/tailored to their audiences.

Scheduled Events

August 16-17, 2025
Huntsville Hamfest 2025
Von Braun Center South Hall
700 Monroe St. SW
Huntsville, AL 35801

August 21-24, 2025
Northeast HamXposition (HamX) & New England ARRL Convention
Best Western Royal Plaza & Trade Center
181 Boston Post Road W
Marlborough, MA 01752
http://www.HamX.org
W1EME, WD4ASW, WB1FJ

September 6, 2025
Greater Louisville Hamfest
Paroquet Springs Conference Centre
395 Paroquet Springs Drive
Shepherdsville, KY 40165
W4FCL

October 16, 17, 18, 19, 2025
AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting and 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting
Holiday Inn & Suites Phoenix Airport North
1515 North 44th Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85008
Details at https://www.amsat.org/2025-symposium/

Interested in becoming an AMSAT Ambassador? AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.

For more information go to: https://www.amsat.org/ambassador/

[ANS thanks Bo Lowrey, W4FCL, Director – AMSAT Ambassador Program, for the above information]

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Satellite Shorts from All Over

+ The JARL command station for FO-29 plans to activate FO-29’s linear transponder at the following times. The satellite will remain active from the listed times until the satellite’s undervoltage control switches off the transponder (thanks to JARL):

Aug 1 23:44～
Aug 3 00:34～
Aug 9 00:18～　23:23～
Aug 16 00:52～　23:57～
Aug 30 00:16～　23:21～

+ The SpaceX Crew-11 mission to the ISS launched on August 1st. The crew includes three amateur radio operators: Mike Fincke, KE5AIT, Zena Cardman, KJ5CMN, and Kimiya Yui, KG5BPH. Included in the cargo is HDMI adapters to enable HamTV to utilize more cameras aboard the ISS. (Thanks to NASA, SpaceX, and ARISS).

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Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

• Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
• Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate.
• Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the student rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status.
• Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.

Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.

73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!

This week’s ANS Editor,

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
n8hm [at] arrl.net

ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H Street NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002