ANS-228 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service

ANS-228
August 16, 2026

In this edition:

* Call for Presentations: 44th AMSAT Space Symposium
* AMSAT CubeSatSim Featured in QST Magazine
* More AMSAT Contests and Awards
* Norwegian Amateurs Experiment with Satellite Voice Control
* ARISS Receives Challenger-7 Recognition
* Voting Still in Progress for Board of Directors
* Satellite DXpedition To The Bahamas This Week
* Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for August 14, 2026
* 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/


Call for Presentations: 44th AMSAT Space Symposium

Do you have a story to tell the amateur satellite community? AMSAT invites proposals for presentations at the 44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting, to be held October 8-11, 2026, at the Wyndham Jacksonville Hotel & Conference Center in Jacksonville, Florida.

Presentations are welcome on any topic of interest to the amateur satellite community. Suggested subjects include current and future satellite projects such as the GOLF program and the CubeSatSim; ARISS and human spaceflight activities; ground station, antenna, and portable station design; software-defined radio; telemetry collection and analysis; satellite operating techniques and achievements; educational programs and youth outreach; and reports from DXpeditions and roving operations. Whether you have built it, flown it, coded it, taught it, or worked it through a satellite, your fellow attendees want to hear about it.

Prospective presenters should email a tentative presentation title and a brief abstract to symposium [at] amsat.org as soon as possible. Presentation time slots are limited, so early submissions are encouraged, and information on submitting final papers and presentation materials for inclusion in the Symposium Proceedings will be provided to presenters. A digital copy of the Proceedings is included with every Symposium registration.

Symposium presentations begin Friday afternoon, October 9, and continue through Saturday, October 10, leading into the Annual General Meeting. Live streaming will bring the sessions to members unable to attend in person – all the more reason to make sure your work is on the program.

Registration for the Symposium is now open at https://launch.amsat.org/event-6789663, with early bird pricing available through September 8. Hotel reservations at the Wyndham Jacksonville – the property formerly known as the Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Airport/I-95 – may be made through the booking link at https://www.amsat.org/2026-amsat-symposium/ or by phone at 1-800-227-6963 using group code AMS.

[ANS thanks the AMSAT Symposium Team for the above information.]


Registration is Now Open!


AMSAT CubeSatSim Featured in QST Magazine

The AMSAT CubeSatSim, the CubeSat Simulator, is a small, low-cost, spacecraft simulator that serves as a tool for academic education, public demonstrations, and theory and design disciplines. It can be used in a classroom, lab or training setting to introduce the basics of satellite operations, or it can be used to teach STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) exercises.

 

First page of the QST Magazine article by Mark Samis, KD2XS. (Image credit: QST Magazine)

The September issue of QST Magazine has an article about the project. The article “Meet the CubeSatSim” is written by Mark Samis, KD2XS. Mark is a long-time key contributor to the CubeSatSim Project and is the Project Manager for the ARISS STAR Project.

ARRL members will find the article beginning on page 54 of the September issue, available by logging in on the ARRL site, https://www.arrl.org/qst. By special permission from ARRL and QST, all may read a PDF version of the article on the CubeSatSim project website at: https://CubeSatSim.org/Meet-the-CubeSatSim.pdf.

The CubeSatSim and the low-cost CubeSatSim Lite are available on the AMSAT Store.

[ANS thanks Alan Johnston, KU2Y,  AMSAT Vice President – Educational Relations, for the above information.]


It’s August! Time is running out for the 2026 President’s Club Coin!
Help Support GOLF and FoxPlus.

Annual memberships start at only $120

Join the AMSAT President’s Club today and help
Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/


More AMSAT Contests and Awards

Steve Greene, KS1G, Earns GridMaster Award #80

For the second week in a row, AMSAT has a new GridMaster. Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards, has announced that Steve Greene, KS1G, of northern Virginia has been awarded GridMaster Award #80, following close behind Adrian, N8AJM, who claimed award #79 just one week earlier.

The GridMaster Award is earned by completing confirmed two-way satellite contacts with operators in all 488 Maidenhead grid squares of the contiguous United States – a feat accomplished by just 80 operators since the award was introduced by the Star Comm Group in 2014. Written confirmations, via QSL card or Logbook of The World, are required for every grid, and all contacts must be made from a single location or from locations within a 200-kilometer circle. With many of the 488 grids home to few or no resident satellite operators, the award is as much a testament to patience as to skill – and to the rovers who venture into rare grids so the chasers can finish the map.

KS1G will be a familiar callsign to many on the birds. A fixture of the northern Virginia satellite scene, Steve has spent years introducing newcomers to the hobby through his “Your First FM Satellite Contact” presentations at area radio clubs, has captained Field Day satellite operations, and helped put Virginia on the air via satellite as one of the K2B activators during the 13 Colonies special event. It is only fitting that an operator who has helped so many others make their first satellite contact has now confirmed his 488th grid.

In announcing the award, Paige offered his congratulations along with his customary encouragement to the rover community to keep on rovin’.

Complete details on the GridMaster Award, including rules and the application form, are available at https://www.amsat.org/gridmaster/, and upcoming rover operations – the lifeblood of every GridMaster chase – are listed at https://hams.at.

Congratulations, Steve!

MØNKC’s portable setup (Photo: Kris Conkas)

Kristijan Conkas, MØNKC, Earns AMSAT Rover Award #94

The AMSAT Rover Award program is on a roll. Just one week after award #93 went to Brazil, Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards, has announced that AMSAT Rover Award #94 has been earned by Kristijan Conkas, MØNKC, of the United Kingdom – back-to-back awards spanning two continents, and a reminder that roving is a worldwide pursuit.

A satellite enthusiast, Linux user, and self-described occasional maker, Kristijan is also known to many in the hobby as the author of NKCCluster, a mobile DX cluster client for operators on the go – so it is fitting that his award celebrates operating on the go, too.

The Rover Award recognizes operators who take their satellite stations on the road, and is granted upon accumulating 25 points from grid squares activated outside the rover’s home grid: one point per grid via a single-channel FM transponder, two points via a linear SSB/CW transponder, and three points via a digital transponder, with a bonus point for each grid activated in a state, province, or DX entity other than the rover’s own. Five-point bonuses reward publicizing an activation at least 24 hours in advance – by tagging @amsat or #amsat on social media, or via the AMSAT-BB – and posting photos of the operation afterward, while activating a grid while maritime mobile is worth ten points and a /MM endorsement on the certificate. For European rovers, national borders come thick and fast, and every outing hands fresh grids to chasers across the continent and, on the right pass, well beyond.

In announcing the award, Paige offered his congratulations along with his customary encouragement to rovers everywhere to keep on rovin’.

Complete rules and application details for the AMSAT Rover Award are available at https://www.amsat.org/amsat-rover-award/, and upcoming rover operations may be found – and publicized – at https://hams.at.

Congratulations, Kristijan!

[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards, for the above information]


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AMSAT is offering a limited-time promotion for new and renewing members
that includes a free digital copy of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites.
The promotion is being offered as AMSAT begins the 2026 membership year.

Getting Started

Anyone who joins or renews their AMSAT membership during the promotional period
will receive a download link for the latest edition of
Getting Started with Amateur Satellites in their membership confirmation email.
JOIN TODAY at https://launch.amsat.org/ (Remember! Students join for FREE!)


ARISS Receives Challenger-7 Recognition

ARISS (Amateur Radio on the International Space Station) is honored to receive the prestigious Challenger-7 Recognition, a national honor celebrating organizations whose work reflects the spirit, vision, and values of the Challenger 51-L crew.

“This recognition is a tribute, not a competition,” says the Challenger Center. “It honors those who embody the Challenger crew’s values of exploration, learning, and inspiration, while also celebrating trailblazing organizations and programs that will carry this mission forward into the future.”

Nominations from nonprofit national STEM programs that have a national-level impact on STEM learning and other STEM advocates were submitted by members of the broader Challenger Center community, with honorees selected by an appointed committee. The recognitions are part of the Challenger Center’s 40th Anniversary celebrations.

“The ARISS team is humbled to receive the Challenger-7 recognition,” said ARISS-USA Executive Director and ARISS International Chair, Frank Bauer, KA3HDO. “We thank the Challenger Center community for this honor as well as treasure our long-standing partnership with them. The outcomes of our ARISS on-board astronaut experiences emulate the exploration and education spirit of the Challenger crew—to engage and educate our next generation of explorers in STEM while giving them the tools and inspiration to prepare them for future STEM careers.”

Jackie Blumer, KC9LEH, ARISS-USA Associate Director, and Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, ARISS-USA Executive Director and ARISS International Chair,
hold the Challenger-7 Recognition certificate. (Credit, ARISS)

Other awardees this year include AIAA, American Rocketry Challenge, and Janet’s Planet.

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is a cooperative venture of international amateur radio societies and the space agencies that support the ISS. In the United States, sponsors are the American Radio Relay League (ARRL), Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC), Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT), NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program (SCaN) and the ISS National Lab—Space Station Explorers. The primary goal of ARISS is to promote exploration of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics topics. ARISS does this by organizing scheduled contacts via amateur radio between crew members aboard the ISS and students. Before and during these radio contacts, students, educators, parents, and communities take part in hands-on learning activities tied to space, space technologies, and amateur radio. For more information, see http://www.ariss.org.

[ANS thanks Dave Jordan, AA4KN, ARISS PR Team, for the above information.]


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Norwegian Amateurs Experiment with Satellite Voice Control

Amateur radio operators from the Oslo Group of the Norwegian Radio Relay League (NRRL), using an experimental satellite and homebrew ham equipment, successfully reprogrammed the satellite to respond to voice control.

On July 27, 2026, a verbal command, sent via a 23-centimeter signal from the roof of the Oslo Group’s club station, was received, transcribed, and executed on board the OPS-SAT PRETTY satellite. The satellite then activated the game DOOM in response, and downloaded images of the game as confirmation. Voice control of a satellite was a reality, performed by radio amateurs in the Oslo Group!

The satellite composed this postcard on board and downlinked it to the ground after launching DOOM on the evening pass, the one commanded by a live human voice. An operator spoke into the microphone: “LIMA ALFA FOUR OSCAR, PRETTY PLAY DOOM DOOM DOOM, PRETTY PLAY DOOM DOOM DOOM.” That is the club call sign for legal identification, then the command twice, with DOOM repeated each time. Printed across the postcard is what the onboard speech-to-text made of it. The model is small enough to fit the satellite’s limited computer, so the transcription is rough, but the repeated DOOM trigger word still got through. (Image credit: tanagraspace.com)

The spacecraft is operated by Graz University of Technology in Austria and the experimentation is coordinated by the European Space Agency’s European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.

The OPS-SAT PRETTY is a 3U CubeSat (10 x 10 x 34 cm) with a reconfigurable processing platform that allows a wide range of custom software and firmware experiments, and is tightly connected to an onboard software defined receiver (SDR).

Everyone involved in the experiment agreed that amateur radio infrastructure can support technically meaningful spacecraft experiments when RF design, signal processing, craft software, and disciplined operations are treated as one system.

“For this satellite, the Satellite Experimental Processing Platform (SEPP) where the experiments run, is connected to an SDR, receive only,” said team member Eskil Hadland, LB6AJ. “As far as I know, the TMTC (Telemetry and Telecommand) is outside of the SEPP. So I do not believe this satellite will be able to talk back to us. Unlike other satellite operations for amateurs, where you can listen when you are aiming directly, we have been shouting towards the stars, and gotten data back hours later.”

The Project Page at partner Tanagra Space tells the whole story from end to end, with the postcard the satellite composed on board and the gameplay sequence it captured as it flew: https://tanagraspace.com/opssat-pretty-doomed/.

Thanks to the Oslo Group of the Norwegian Radio Relay League for taking time to talk with the ARRL Letter about their accomplishments.

[ANS thanks the ARRL Letter for the above information.]


SDR Gen 2 Ad - 2026


Voting Still in Progress for Board of Directors

AMSAT members are reminded that voting remains open in the 2026 AMSAT Board of Directors election. Three seats on the Board are being filled this year. The three candidates receiving the highest number of votes will be elected to the Board, while the candidates receiving the next highest vote totals will be named First Alternate and Second Alternate, respectively.

Voting opened on July 15, 2026, and will conclude on September 15, 2026. Election results will be announced no later than September 30, 2026.

Current AMSAT members may review the official candidate statements and cast their ballots on the AMSAT 2026 Board of Directors Election website at https://launch.amsat.org/2026-BoD-Election

Members are encouraged to take a few minutes to review the candidates’ statements and cast their ballots. Your participation helps shape the future of AMSAT and its mission to Keep Amateur Radio in Space.

[ANS thanks Douglas Tabor, N6UA, AMSAT Secretary, for the above information]


Satellite DXpedition To The Bahamas This Week

Philippe, EA4NF, will be active on FM LEO satellites from the BAHAMAS (Providence Island & Discovery Island) under the callsign C6AUB from August 19 to 23, 2026.
(DXCC : C6 BAHAMAS / GRID : FL15 / IOTA : NA-001)

He will be operating in full-duplex mode using a portable transceiver equipped with his standard Arrow antenna and his whip antenna.

August 19-23, 2026
FM LEO SATELLITES
QSL via LoTW as C6AUB

Keep an eye on Philippe’s Twitter feed for further updates : @EA4NF_SAT

[ANS thanks Philippe Chateau, EA4NF, for the above information.]


Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for August 14, 2026

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/.

The following satellites have been added to this week’s AMSAT TLE distribution:
CO-128 (MARMOTSat) NORAD Cat ID 69872

General Perturbations Data Support

AMSAT is pleased to announce that modern forms of what are called General Perturbations data are being disseminated via modern formats including JSON, XML and KVN at https://newark192.amsat.org/gpdata/current/. The reason this change is being made is that we are running out of 5-digit catalog numbers and the TLE format is not viable for satellites launched after July of this year. See https://celestrak.org/NORAD/documentation/gp-data-formats.php for details.

These data are presently considered in beta test for the next two months while hosted on the test server newark192.amsat.org, and we are very open to community feedback at webmaster at amsat.org. Testers may experience outages and errors while we make improvements. We intend to put this into production on our main web server in July as we expect that satellites launched after this summer will require one of the new formats to accommodate longer object numbers. AMSAT will continue to publish TLE bulletins for satellites launched before July 2026 indefinitely.

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


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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.

Recently Completed

Challenger Learning Center National Conference, Framingham, MA, telebridge via VK4ISS
The ISS callsign was scheduled to be NA1SS
The scheduled crewmember was Sophie Adenot KJ5LTN
The ARISS mentor was KA3HDO
Contact was successful: Wed 2026-08-12 16:31:39 UTC 58 degrees max. elevation
Congratulations to the Challenger Learning Center National Conference students, Sophie, mentor KA3HDO, and telebridge VK4ISS!

Australian Air League (AAL), Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, telebridge via IK1SLD
The ISS callsign was scheduled to be OR4ISS
The scheduled crewmember was Jack Hathaway KJ5NIV
The ARISS mentor was VK4ISS
Contact was successful: Fri 2026-08-14 10:56:13 UTC 76 degrees max. elevation
Live Stream was at http://www.ariotti.com/ starting about 10-15 min before AOS
Congratulations to the Australian Air League, Jack, mentor VK4ISS, and telebridge IK1SLD!

Many times, a school makes a last-minute decision to do a Livestream or runs 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:

Mon 2026-08-17 19:05 UTC radio power down
Tue 2026-08-18 U.S. Orbital Segment (USOS) EVA (spacewalk by flight engineers Anil Menon and Sophie Adenot, KJ5LTN)
Wed 2026-08-19 10:45 UTC radio power up

The crossband repeater remains configured in the Columbus Module (145.990 MHz up {PL 67} & 437.800 MHz down). If a crewmember decides to pick up the microphone and turn up the volume, you may hear them on the air—so keep listening, as you never know when activity might occur.

​Kenwood D710GA in the Zvezda Service Module – Call sign RSØISS. Please note we’re still in the process of troubleshooting and testing this radio. APRS is currently active on 437.825 MHz. Feel free to check out status reports at https://ariss-usa.org/ARISS_APRS/.

Ham TV is currently transmitting a test signal at 2395.00 MHz.

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]


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


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.

August 28-30, 2026
Wyoming HamCon, ARRL Rocky Mountain Division Convention
Best Western (Downtown)
123 W. E St.
Casper, WY 82601
http://wyohamcon.org/
K0NMR

October 8-11, 2026
44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Membership Meeting
Wyndham Jacksonville Hotel & Conference Center
14670 Duval Road
Jacksonville, FL 32218
https://www.amsat.org/2026-amsat-symposium/
Registration is Now Open!

AMSAT Ambassador News Logo

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]


Satellite Shorts from All Over

+ As many may have noticed, UNNE-1B (HADES-E2) was not included in the TR-17 mission. It is now expected to fly on the SpaceX Transporter-18 mission in October. UNNE-1B is a 1.5P PocketQube that uses the same satellite hardware and software as the original UNNE-1 but will be launched on a SpaceX mission instead of the originally planned RFA launch due to delays to the latter. Like UNNE-1, the satellite will provide licensed radio amateurs worldwide with an FM voice transponder and support for FSK-based digital modes. It will also transmit telemetry reporting the satellite’s status, a CW beacon, and a prerecorded CODEC2 digital voice message. All these functions are implemented using an SDR-based FM/FSK repeater. The FM/FSK repeater will be continuously available and activated by carrier squelch, with no access tone required. As an educational payload, students from Universidad Nebrija (Spain) are developing a small “guessing game.” The satellite will transmit one clue per week as part of its telemetry, and radio amateurs will have to collect all the clues to solve the mystery. Details of the game will be published on the AMSAT-EA and Universidad Nebrija websites, and all transmitted data will be publicly available. (ANS thanks Félix Páez, EA4GQS, president of AMSAT EA, for the information.)

+ HamClock version 4.28 adds direct integration with Hams.at to provide satellite operators with personalized information about upcoming satellite activations. By configuring a Hams.at API key in HamClock, users can receive upcoming pass alerts and additional details tailored to their station and location. The integration includes satellite co-visibility calculations, allowing an operator to determine when both their station and a rover or other station will have the same satellite in view. HamClock can also display probability or match information from Hams.at when evaluating opportunities to contact a rover activating a particular grid square. Other satellite features in HamClock include Doppler tracking, satellite group scheduling for planning passes, and a Sky View mode that displays satellites relative to the stars. Additional information about HamClock, including the Open HamClock Backend project, is available at https://ohb.works/. (ANS thanks Brian Wilkins, KO4AQF, for the above information.)

+ While expanding InstantTrack to support the modern GP formats would require the source code, AMSAT Executive VP Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, asked ChatGPT to develop a patch that allows InstantTrack 1.55 to use Alpha5 TLEs. Running the patch utilities requires a DOS install with debug.exe. The patch is available at https://github.com/prstoetzer/InstantTrack-Alpha5-Patch. InstantTrack can be downloaded at https://www.mustbeart.com/software/it/getit.html. (ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT Executive VP, for the above information.)

+ The Federal Communications Commission voted on August 6 to advance a proposal to enable satellites to beam data to consumer and IoT devices already equipped with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chips. This includes harnessing the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands commonly used by Wi-Fi routers. The Association for Broadband Without Boundaries, which represents wireless internet service providers, has been urging the FCC to revise the proposal, which tentatively concludes that opening up the spectrum “will not present an increased harmful interference risk to authorized services.” ARRL, the National Association for Amateur Radio, is also raising concerns, telling the FCC, “Amateur radio terrestrial operations would be uniquely impacted by any interference resulting from adoption of the proposals.” In addition, Intel and Cisco chimed in, urging the FCC to only seek proposals that won’t disrupt access to existing consumer devices and equipment. Nevertheless, the Commission voted unanimously to continue exploring the issue. (ANS thanks PC Magazine and fcc.gov for the above information. Read the full article at https://www.pcmag.com/news/fcc-plan-to-share-wi-fi-bands-with-satellites-raises-interference-alarms.)

+ The Department of Transportation is proposing to exempt commercial space launch licensing from many environmental regulations, a move praised by industry but criticized by environmental groups. The department announced July 28 its intent to file a proposed rule for public comment that would exempt Federal Aviation Administration licenses for commercial launches and reentries, as well as launch sites, from 13 federal laws and associated regulations. Environmental groups, though, strongly oppose the proposal, noting it would waive the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. (ANS thanks SpaceNews for the above information. Read the full article at https://spacenews.com/proposed-rule-would-exempt-commercial-launch-licensing-from-environmental-regulations/?utm_source=ActiveCampaign&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Top%20Stories%3A%20Transportation%20Department%20proposes%20waiving%20environmental%20regulations%20for%20launches&utm_campaign=SNTW%20-%202026-07-31.)

 


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

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

  • Societies (recognized groups, clubs or organization).
  • Students are eligible for FREE membership up to age 25.
  • 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,

Mark Johns, KØJM
mjohns [at] amsat.org

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

ANS-172 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service

ANS-172
June 21, 2026

In this edition:

* 2026 AMSAT Field Day Next Weekend!
* 2026 AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting
* Satellites Are The New Fire Towers
* Announcing OrbitDeck
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
* Dragon Returns Packed with Space Station Science
* 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/


2026 AMSAT Field Day Next Weekend!

It’s that time of year again; summer and Field Day! Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as a “picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!” The event takes place during a 27-hour period on the fourth weekend of June.

For 2026 the event takes place from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 27, 2026 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 28, 2026. Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 27 can operate only 24 hours. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event.

This year should be as much fun as last year since we have more than 10 transponders and repeaters available. For AMSAT purposes, a transponder on a satellite would count as two if you could do phone and CW. We count them by modes, not the satellite names.

Users should check the AMSAT status page at http://www.amsat.org/status/ and the pages at https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/ for what is available in the weeks leading up to field day. To reduce the amount of time to research each satellite, see the current FM satellite table at https://www.amsat.org/fm-satellite-frequency-summary/ and the current linear satellite table at https://www.amsat.org/linear-satellite-frequency-summary/ .

If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellites, there are ISS and SO-50. The congestion on FM LEO satellites is always so intense that we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite. This includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice.

It was suggested during past field days that a control station be allowed to coordinate contacts on the FM satellites. There is nothing in the rules that would prohibit this. This is nothing more than a single station working multiple QSO’s. If a station were to act as a control station and give QSO’s to every other field day station, the control station would still only be allowed to turn in one QSO per FM satellite while the other station would be able to submit one QSO.

The format for the message exchange on the ISS or other digital packet satellite is an unproto packet to the other station (3-way exchange required) with all the same information as normally exchanged for ARRL Field Day, e.g.:

W6NWG de KK5DO 2A STX
KK5DO de W6NWG QSL 5A SDG
W6NWG de KK5DO QSL

If you have worked the satellites on Field Day in recent years, you may have noticed a lot of good contacts can be made on some of the less-populated, low-earth-orbit satellites like AO-7, RS-44, AO-73, FO-29 and JO-97. During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend. The good news is that the transponders on these satellites will support multiple simultaneous contacts. The bad news is that you can’t use FM, just low duty-cycle modes like SSB and CW.

[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director of Contests and Awards for the above information.]


Buying from Ham Radio Outlet? Add AMSAT’s Getting Started With Amateur Satellites to your order.

Available for $29.95 from HRO https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-019238


2026 AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting

The 44th AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting will be held in Jacksonville, FL on October 8-11, 2026 at the Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Airport/I-95.

Registration details and Call for Papers will be coming soon.

To book hotel rooms online, click here: AMSAT Conference Rooms

Reservations can also be made by phone at 1-800-227-6963. The group code is AMS. The direct hotel phone number is 1-904-741-4404.

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information.]


The 2026 Coins Are Here! Help Support GOLF-TEE and Fox-Plus.
Annual memberships start at only $120.

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Join the AMSAT President’s Club today and help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
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Satellites Are The New Fire Towers

The Bezos Earth Fund announced a $26 million grant for the nonprofit Earth Fire Alliance and its satellite-based wildfire detection program, Axios’ Ben Geman reports.

The money — alongside support from Google and others — will help fund the launch of three FireSat satellites this summer.

The groups say they’ll “provide wildfire monitoring at least twice daily over critical geographies, including a focus on the Amazon Basin — one of the most fire-vulnerable regions on Earth.”

The funding is the largest-ever single philanthropic grant for wildfire detection, the groups say. They add that the program could help protect homes, communities and biodiversity — and cut CO2 emissions from wildfires by up to 10% annually.


Earth Fire Alliance’s first three FireSats at a clean room in Mountain View, Calif. (Photo: Muon Space)

Wildfires are a major driver of deforestation, which worsens climate change. They accounted for 42% of tree cover loss in 2025, per World Resources Institute data.

The Earth Fire Alliance says it hopes to have dozens of satellites operating by the early 2030s that can “monitor every point on Earth every 20 minutes.”

[ANS thanks Axios for the above information. Read the full article at https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-pm-f6fe1278-52eb-43c8-8bfe-7a1fe85b1c56.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiospm&stream=top]


Announcing OrbitDeck

A new open-source desktop application called OrbitDeck brings the classic OSCARLOCATOR into the software age, pairing a faithful recreation of the beloved paper tracking aid with a built-in classroom of orbital-mechanics lessons. Written in Python and released under the MIT license, OrbitDeck runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux — including the Raspberry Pi — and is tracking-and-analysis software only; radio and rotator control are intentionally left to the excellent dedicated tools already serving that role.

 

OrbitDeck map screen (Image credit: Paul Stoetzer)

Longtime operators will remember the OSCARLOCATOR: a polar map overlaid with a rotating ground-track transparency that let you predict a pass with nothing but a pencil and a clock. OrbitDeck rebuilds that experience as an interactive on-screen OSCARLOCATOR. You drag the map to rotate the path-arc overlay across a polar or QTH-centered base map, watching the satellite’s position and your station’s footprint move in real time. A protractor-style rim with per-degree tick marks and longitude and azimuth labels frames the disc. You can drive the overlay live, position it by hand to any equator-crossing longitude, drag the marker along the arc to step through the minutes after the crossing, or seed it directly to your next visible pass. A compact next-equator-crossings list is built in.

Crucially, OrbitDeck also closes the loop with paper. Any satellite — real or hypothetical — can be exported as a printable PDF OSCARLOCATOR, ready to drop onto a clipboard for portable, screen-free operating in the field or in the classroom.

That classroom focus runs throughout the program. A dedicated Learn section presents orbital mechanics across grouped, interactive tabs — Kepler’s equal-areas law, anomalies and the vis-viva relation, nodal precession and sun-synchronous orbits, slant range and footprint geometry, Doppler tune-through, eclipse and beta-angle sunlight, a link-budget sandbox, and element-set aging — each with a live diagram you can manipulate rather than merely read. A printable “Orbits 101” handout rounds it out.

The standout teaching tool is the lab satellite. From within the OSCARLOCATOR simulator, you can invent a hypothetical bird and edit its orbital elements with sliders and entry boxes — altitude (with the period updating live), eccentricity, inclination, RAAN, argument of perigee, mean anomaly, and direct apogee and perigee control. The ground track, footprint, and range circle respond instantly, plain-language explainers describe the effect of every change, and a gallery of presets loads recognizable archetypes from ISS-like LEO to Molniya and geostationary. Design an orbit to a requirement, compare two designs side by side, then name and print your creation as an OSCARLOCATOR exactly like a catalog satellite.

OrbitDeck reads modern GP/OMM data, ships its own SGP4 propagator and an offline catalog so it works without a connection, and is free to download. It is an inviting on-ramp for newcomers and a genuinely useful operating and teaching aid for veterans.

OrbitDeck builds and source code are available at https://github.com/prstoetzer/OrbitDeck

[ANS thanks Paul Stoetzer, N8HM, AMSAT Executive Vice President and developer of OrbitDeck, for the above information]


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Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for June 19, 2026

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/.

There are no changes to this week’s TLE distribution.

General Perturbations Data Support

AMSAT is pleased to announce that modern forms of what are called General Perturbations data are being disseminated via modern formats including JSON, XML and KVN at https://newark192.amsat.org/gpdata/current/. The reason this change is being made is that we are running out of 5-digit catalog numbers and the TLE format is not viable for satellites launched after July of this year. See https://celestrak.org/NORAD/documentation/gp-data-formats.php for details.

These data are presently considered in beta test for the next two months while hosted on the test server newark192.amsat.org, and we are very open to community feedback at [email protected]. Testers may experience outages and errors while we make improvements. We intend to put this into production on our main web server in July as we expect that satellites launched after this summer will require one of the new formats to accommodate longer object numbers. AMSAT will continue to publish TLE bulletins for satellites launched before July 2026 indefinitely.

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


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Dragon Returns Packed with Space Station Science

Scientists await a big splash in the Pacific Ocean as one of the most research-packed Dragon spacecraft to date returns, completing the 34th SpaceX commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Biological and materials samples, along with tested hardware, are heading back to research teams on Earth for further analysis, advancing NASA’s work to prepare humans for exploration beyond low Earth orbit and to deliver benefits back home.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir prepares samples in the Life Sciences Glovebox to study how weightlessness affects crew blood clotting and immune function for the Megakaryocyte Flying-One investigation. (Photo Credit: NASA)

Some samples returning are for NASA’s Hematopoietic Stem Cell Expansion in Space: Pathfinder Investigation (InSPA-StemCellEX-H2), which seeks to use the microgravity environment to scale up the production of stems cells. On Earth, lab-produced blood stem cells lose their ability to form different cell types, like red and white blood cells that are critical to treating patients with certain blood diseases and cancers. In microgravity, researchers believe this ability will be better preserved while also growing these stem cells in greater numbers. The returning samples will undergo further analysis to determine if space-based efforts produce larger quantities of enhanced stem cells suitable for clinical use.

The team behind NASA’s Streptococcus pneumoniae (Spn) Infection of Cardiac Tissue (MVP Cell-09) experiment is awaiting the return of stem cell-derived heart tissues that were intentionally infected with a pneumonia-causing bacterium as part of ongoing microgravity research. Pneumonia increases the risk of heart disease, which is not fully understood. Because bacteria tend to become more active and virulent in microgravity, this experiment could amplify their effects, making it possible to detect cellular responses that cannot be observed on Earth.

NASA’s Megakaryocyte Flying-One (MeF1) samples are returning to Earth to help understand how large cells found in bone marrow, known as megakaryocytes, and the platelets they produce adapt to spaceflight. Megakaryocytes and platelets play important roles in the formation of blood clots and immune responses. The returning samples, including those taken from astronauts, could show us how the human immune system reacts aboard the space station and help prepare for future exploration missions.

Semiconductor research samples as part of NASA’s In-Space Production of Semimetal-Semiconductor Composite Bulk Crystals in Microgravity (SUBSA-InSPA-SSCug) investigation are returning to Earth for further analysis. This study manufactured semimetal-semiconductor composite alloy crystals in space, which have applications in many electronics, including sensors and lasers. Researchers believe microgravity could enable the production of significantly greater and higher-quality crystals, supporting the development of next-generation semiconductor technologies.

Additional experiments being returned include NASA’s Zero Boil-Off Tank Noncondensables (ZBOT-NC) investigation, NASA’s DNA Nano Therapeutics-3 space-assembled DNA-inspired materials, NASA’s InSPA-Sachi Nanoligomer investigation, European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) Green Bone investigation, NASA’s 3D Bone Marrow Analog research, and NASA’s InSPA-Auxilium Bioprinter-Cell Printing is investigation. To read more about these experiments, see the full article at https://www.nasa.gov/missions/station/iss-research/nasas-spacex-crs-34-dragon-returns-packed-with-space-station-science/.

[ANS thanks NASA for the above information.]


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

+ Recently Completed

Youth on the Air Camp 2026 (YOTA Camp 2026), Huntsville, AL, direct via W4Y
The ISS callsign was NA1SS
The scheduled crewmember was Chris Williams, KJ5GEW
The ARISS mentor was K4RGK
Contact was successful: Thu 2026-06-18 16:36:25 UTC 37 degrees maximum elevation
Congratulations to the Youth on the Air Camp 2026 students, Chris, mentor Youth on the Air Camp 2026, and ground station W4Y!
Watch for Livestream at https://www.youtube.com/live/eVo288DAH4U

+ Upcoming Contacts

National STEM Festival, Washington, DC, telebridge via VK6MJ
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
The scheduled crewmember is Chris Williams, KJ5GEW
The ARISS mentor is W4NTR/ KM4YHZ
Contact is go for: Thu 2026-06-25 13:31:42 UTC 49 degrees maximum elevation

Many times, a school makes a last-minute decision to do a Livestream or runs 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.

ARISS News

There is a lot of traffic on Facebook and on other social media sites with people asking why they are not hearing the crew make general contacts. First off the crew is very busy on the ISS and they simply may not have the time to just pick up the microphone and talk. Also, one needs to be aware of their normal daily schedule:

Wakeup to Workday start= 1.5 hours
Workday start to Workday end=12 hours
Workday end to Sleep= 2 hours
Sleep to wakeup= 8.5 hours

The crew’s usual waking period is 07:30 – 19:30 UTC. The most common times to find a crew member making casual periods are about one hour after waking up and about an hour before sleeping, when they have personal time. They’re usually free most of the weekend, as well.

The APRS packet system is also active (437.825 MHz up & down).

Ham TV is currently transmitting a test signal at 2395.00 MHz. The color bar test generator portion of the Ham TV system is experiencing unexpected technical issues. ARISS is working to troubleshoot the issue with NASA’s payloads support team and the ISS crew.

As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios are turned off as part of the safety protocol. Radios will be powered down in support of an upcoming spacewalk in late June: Power down: June 29 at 15:15 UTC Power up: July 1 at 10:15 UTC

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.]


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 News LogoScheduled Events

June 27, 1800 UTC – June 28, 2100 UTC, 2026
ARRL Field Day
https://www.amsat.org/field-day/

July 11, 2026
Moon Day
Frontiers of Flight Museum
6911 Lemmon Ave.
Dallas, TX 75209
https://flightmuseum.com/events/moonday/
N5HYP

October 8-11, 2026
44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Membership Meeting
Crowne Plaza JAX Airport
14670 Duval Road
Jacksonville, FL 32218
Details to follow

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

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


Satellite Shorts from All Over

+ HamSat (free) and HamSat Pro (one-time purchase), iOS satellite tracking apps for iPhone/iPad by Vasco Barreiros, CT1OY, have recently been updated with new features, including compatibility with Apple Watch. HamSat is available on the iPhone App Store. (ANS thanks Peter Green, GØABI, for the above information.)

+ The upper stage from a commercial Chinese rocket that launched last week has broken apart in space, spreading debris in a heavily trafficked part of low-Earth orbit — home to the International Space Station and a significant portion of SpaceX’s Starlink broadband network. The breakup occurred shortly after the Zhuque-2E rocket reached orbit on June 9 with two satellites providing direct-to-cell communications, perhaps around the time the upper stage was expected to perform a disposal burn. The U.S. Space Force confirmed the breakup event stating, “There are currently no threats to human spaceflight.” (ANS thanks ArsTechica for the above information. Read the full article at https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/06/a-chinese-rocket-breaks-apart-dangerously-close-to-the-starlink-constellation/.)

+ A new paper from researchers at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California reports that 73.3 percent of images the agency’s new SPHEREx space telescope collected between May and September of last year were contaminated by at least one artificial satellite trail. Typically this type of light pollution is associated with ground telescopes. But SPHEREx is an orbital satellite about 700 kilometers above the Earth’s surface. Apparently even that wasn’t enough to escape from the light trails. (ANS thanks IEEE Spectrum for the above information. See the full article at https://spectrum.ieee.org/satellite-light-pollution-spherex-hubble.)

+ A dazzling fireball streaked through the skies above the Midwest on June 14, crashing through Earth’s atmosphere at a staggering 56,000 mph (90,123 km.h per hour) before burning up. More than 500 witnesses reported the event to the American Meteor Society,— some of whom uploaded footage of the fiery event. NASA’s all-sky camera network also captured the fireball from three locations. (ANS thanks Space.com for the above information. Read the full article, with some of the images, at https://www.space.com/stargazing/meteor-showers/watch-a-fireball-burn-a-300-mile-path-above-the-midwest-us-video.)

+ An Ariane 6 with upgraded solid rocket boosters successfully launched three dozen Amazon Leo satellites June 17. So far, 367 Amazon Leo satellites have launched on Ariane 6, Atlas V and Falcon 9. However, there is only one more Atlas 5 launch for Amazon Leo, scheduled for July 3, forcing Amazon to lean more on Arianespace. The company still has a July 2029 deadline to deploy the full constellation, as part of the FCC’s waiver decision on June 5. (ANS thanks SpaceNews for the above information. If registered with a SpaceNews account, see the full article at https://spacenews.com/upgraded-ariane-6-launches-amazon-leo-satellites/.)

+ NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman, responding to questions about the agency’s selection of an all-male crew for the Artemis 3 mission, said the astronauts were chosen based solely on their experience, skill sets and availability. Isaacman strongly defended the crew selection, saying he had “personally been to space twice with 50 percent female crews. My closest advisors and some of the smartest engineers I know are women. In our latest NASA leadership organization, nearly 50 percent of the center directors and mission directorate leadership are women.” (ANS thanks SpaceflightNow for the above information. Read the full article at https://spaceflightnow.com/2026/06/10/nasa-chief-defends-selection-of-all-male-artemis-iii-crew/.)


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

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

  • Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
  • Students enrolled in at least half-time status are eligible for free membership to age 25.
  • 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,

Mark Johns, KØJM
mjohns [at] amsat.org

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

ANS-151 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service

ANS-151
May 31, 2026

In this edition:

* AMSAT Opens Candidate Nominations for 2026 Board of Directors Election
* 2026 AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting
* AMSAT Field Day 2026
* RADIANT Project Aims to Bring Delay-Tolerant Networking to Amateur Radio
* SpaceX Starship V3’s First Test Flight Largely Successful
* China Launches Shenzhou 23 Spacecraft
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
* Blue Origin Explosion
* 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/


AMSAT Opens Candidate Nominations for 2026 Board of Directors Election

AMSAT has officially opened the nomination period for its 2026 Board of Directors election, which will take place during the third quarter of the year.

Three director positions are set to expire in 2026. The current board members whose seats are up for election are:

  • Mark Hammond, N8MH
  • Bruce Paige, KK5DO
  • Paul Stoetzer, N8HM

In addition to these three full Director roles, up to two Alternate Directors may also be elected to serve one-year terms.

To nominate a candidate, a written submission is required. Nominations must include the nominee’s name, call sign, and contact information, along with the same details for either five AMSAT members in good standing or one Member Society endorsing the candidate.

Nominations should be directed to the AMSAT Secretary:

Douglas Tabor, N6UA
1133 Verlan Way
Cheyenne, WY 82009

Per AMSAT’s bylaws, all nominations must follow the format specified by the Secretary. Doug Tabor has indicated that nominations will be accepted in both hard copy (via postal mail) and digital formats (including email or scanned documents). However, fax submissions are not permitted.

Email nominations should be sent to: dtabor [at] amsat [dot] org

All nomination petitions must be received by the Secretary no later than June 15. After the submission deadline, the Secretary will confirm the eligibility of each candidate and the supporting members or societies, with final notification to candidates provided by the end of June.

[ANS thanks Doug Tabor, N6UA, AMSAT Secretary, for the above information.]


Buying from Ham Radio Outlet? Add AMSAT’s Getting Started With Amateur Satellites to your order.

Available for $29.95 from HRO https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=H0-019238


2026 AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting

The 44th AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting will be held in Jacksonville, FL on October 8-11, 2026 at the Crowne Plaza Jacksonville Airport/I-95.

Registration details and Call for Papers will be coming soon.

To book hotel rooms online, click here: AMSAT Conference Rooms

Reservations can also be made by phone at 1-800-227-6963. The group code is AMS. The direct hotel phone number is 1-904-741-4404.

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information.]


AMSAT Field Day 2026

It’s that time of year again; summer and Field Day! Each year the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) sponsors Field Day as a “picnic, a campout, practice for emergencies, an informal contest and, most of all, FUN!” The event takes place during a 27-hour period on the fourth weekend of June. For 2026 the event takes place from 1800 UTC on Saturday June 27, 2026 through 2100 UTC on Sunday June 28, 2026. Those who set up prior to 1800 UTC on June 27 can operate only 24 hours. The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT) promotes its own version of Field Day for operation via the amateur satellites, held concurrently with the ARRL event.

This year should be as much fun as last year since we have more than 10 transponders and repeaters available. Users should check the AMSAT status page at http://www.amsat.org/status/ and the pages at https://www.amsat.org/two-way-satellites/ for what is available in the weeks leading up to field day. To reduce the amount of time to research each satellite, see the current FM satellite table at https://www.amsat.org/fm-satellite-frequency-summary/ and the current linear satellite table at https://www.amsat.org/linear-satellite-frequency-summary/

If you are considering ONLY the FM voice satellites, there are ISS, SO-50, AO-123, SO-125, and SONATE-2. It might be easier this year to make that one FM contact for the ARRL bonus points with so many FM birds. The congestion on FM LEO satellites is always so intense that we must continue to limit their use to one-QSO-per-FM-satellite. This includes the International Space Station. You will be allowed one QSO if the ISS is operating Voice.

It was suggested during past field days that a control station be allowed to coordinate contacts on the FM satellites. There is nothing in the rules that would prohibit this. This is nothing more than a single station working multiple QSO’s. If a station were to act as a control station and give QSO’s to every other field day station, the control station would still only be allowed to turn in one QSO per FM satellite while the other station would be able to submit one QSO.

The format for the message exchange on the ISS or other digital packet satellite is an unproto packet to the other station (3-way exchange required) with all the same information as normally exchanged for ARRL Field Day, e.g.:

W6NWG de KK5DO 2A STX
KK5DO de W6NWG QSL 5A SDG
W6NWG de KK5DO QSL

If you have worked the satellites on Field Day in recent years, you may have noticed a lot of good contacts can be made on some of the less-populated, low-earth-orbit satellites like AO-7, RS-44, AO-73, and JO-97. During Field Day the transponders come alive like 20 meters on a weekend. The good news is that the transponders on these satellites will support multiple simultaneous contacts. The bad news is that you can’t use FM, just low duty-cycle modes like SSB and CW.

The complete rules for AMSAT Field Day may be found at: https://www.amsat.org/field-day/.

[ANS thanks Bruce Paige, KK5DO, AMSAT Director Contests and Awards, for the above information.]


 


RADIANT Project Aims to Bring Delay-Tolerant Networking to Amateur Radio

RADIANT, short for Radio Amateur Delay-tolerant Interplanetary Networking Testbed, is an open-source project seeking to bring NASA-inspired Delay-Tolerant Networking (DTN) concepts to amateur radio. The effort aims to create communication systems capable of handling intermittent, disrupted, or long-delay links ranging from terrestrial amateur radio networks to future cislunar communication systems. Project developers describe RADIANT as a stepping stone toward Earth-Moon networking experiments using technologies and operating practices accessible to the amateur radio community. The initiative is supported by AMSAT-UK, AMSAT-DL, and Goonhilly Earth Station, and is actively seeking collaborators.

The project is built around NASA Glenn Research Center’s High-rate Delay Tolerant Networking software, known as HDTN, which implements Bundle Protocol version 7 (BPv7). Rather than assuming a continuous network path between endpoints, DTN stores and forwards data bundles whenever communication opportunities become available. This approach allows communication systems to survive outages, long propagation delays, and interruptions that would break conventional internet-style connections. Project developers say these networking methods are essential for future deep-space operations where connectivity may be intermittent or unpredictable.

RADIANT incorporates amateur radio techniques directly into its design. The protocol stack uses Licklider Transmission Protocol carried over KISS framing and conventional amateur radio hardware operating at 9600 baud G3RUH packet speeds. Callsigns are embedded into DTN Endpoint Identifiers to preserve amateur radio regulatory compliance while allowing efficient network routing. Current demonstrations include store-and-forward operation, systems designed for persistent storage through power interruptions, priority handling of traffic, and telemetry monitoring through HDTN interfaces.

  RADIANT project infographic illustrates DTN networking concepts from terrestrial amateur radio links to future cislunar communications. [Credit: RADIANT]

Among the project’s early accomplishments is a functioning three-node cislunar simulation capable of introducing realistic packet propagation delays. Developers report demonstrations simulating Earth–Moon delays of approximately 1.3 seconds and Earth–Mars delays ranging from three to twelve minutes. Contact Graph Routing is used to calculate communication paths through relay nodes, demonstrating multi-hop relay in simulation similar to what future space networking architectures may require. The project deliberately avoids encryption and cryptographic methods to maintain compatibility with amateur radio regulations.

Development is planned in phases beginning with terrestrial validation using readily available amateur radio equipment. Phase 1 testing currently uses Raspberry Pi systems, Mobilinkd TNC4 hardware, and Yaesu FT-817 radios to validate networking functions across ground-based links. Future plans include demonstrations through the QO-100 geostationary satellite, a CubeSat engineering model, and eventually an orbital Low Earth Orbit payload operating on amateur frequencies. Longer-term ambitions include experiments supporting amateur participation in cislunar communications, the region of space between Earth and the Moon.

Project organizers emphasize that amateur operators possess unique experience relevant to difficult communications environments, including weak-signal work, scheduled links, and operation over challenging propagation paths. RADIANT developers are seeking participation from amateur radio clubs, universities, CubeSat teams, microwave experimenters, and packet radio operators interested in contributing to future testing and development. Users registering through the project website can also access additional information and requirements associated with each development phase. Additional information and project details are available on the RADIANT website at https://radiant.amsat-uk.org/.

[ANS thanks Dave Johnson, G4DPZ, AMSAT-UK Hon. Secretary, and the RADIANT project for the above information]


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Annual memberships start at only $120.

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Join the AMSAT President’s Club today and help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
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SpaceX Starship V3’s First Test Flight Largely Successful

SpaceX has flown Starship V3 for the first time, in a test flight that met most of its goals. The company had to step down from a launch attempt on the evening of May 21, due to a technical issue. Specifically, a hydraulic pin holding the spacecraft’s tower arm in place would not retract. But on May 22, nothing prevented SpaceX from launching the upgraded version of its spacecraft designed for journeys to the moon and Mars.

SpaceX Starship V3 Launch (Credit: SpaceX)

The launch vehicle ignited all 33 of its Super Heavy booster’s new Raptor 3 engines and then lifted off at 22:30 UTC from Starbase, Texas. During ascent, one of the booster’s engines shut down, but Starship continued its flight until it was time for the stages to separate. The booster was able to perform a directional flip maneuver, which the company wanted to test for future missions. However, it was unable to light all the engines needed to perform a successful boostback burn, the other maneuver necessary for the rocket to be able to travel back towards its landing site. It wasn’t a loss, however: SpaceX had been catching Super Heavy boosters with its launch tower’s mechanical arms in previous flights, but it never intended to recover this one.

Despite the engine failures, SpaceX chief Elon Musk congratulated his team “on an epic first Starship V3 launch and landing,” telling them they “scored a goal for humanity.” SpaceX managed to pull a largely successful test flight, just in time for its Initial Public Offering (IPO). The company just publicly filed its IPO paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Reuters has reported that SpaceX shares are expected to start trading on June 12.

[ANS thanks Engadget for the above information. Read the full article at: https://www.engadget.com/2180020/spacex-starship-v3-first-test-flight-success/]


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China Launches Shenzhou 23 Spacecraft

China launched the Shenzhou 23 spacecraft on May 24 with three astronauts heading to its space station, including one set to stay in space for a year. The spacecraft blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China. The much-anticipated launch comes as China prepares for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030.

The Shenzhou-23 manned mission launches from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Jiuquan,
northwestern China on Sunday, May 24, 2026. (Credit: Xinhua/Lian Zhen)

The astronauts on the mission are Zhu Yangzhu, the commander, Zhang Zhiyuan and Lai Ka-ying, also identified by Chinese authorities as Li Jiaying using the Mandarin transliteration of her name. Lai, who was born and raised in Hong Kong and has a doctoral degree in computer forensics, is the first astronaut from the city on a space mission.

One of the three astronauts on the Shenzhou 23 mission is scheduled to stay at the orbiting space station for a year in what would be among the world’s longest single stays in space. The astronaut’s mission is to “explore human adaptability and performance limits” in long-duration spaceflight environments, state media reported.

[ANS thanks NPR News and the Associated Press for the above information. Read the full article at: https://www.npr.org/2026/05/25/g-s1-124179/china-launches-shenzhou-23-spacecraft?utm_campaign=npr&utm_source=bsky.app&utm_medium=social&utm_term=nprnews]


AMSAT Remove Before Flight Key Tags Now Available
Yes, These are the Real Thing!

Your $20 Donation Goes to Help Fly a Fox-Plus Satellite
Includes First Class Postage (Sorry – U.S. Addresses Only)
Order Today at https://www.amsat.org/product/amsat-remove-before-flight-keychain


Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for May 29, 2026

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/.

The following satellites have been removed from this week’s AMSAT TLE distribution:

  • SilverSat NORAD Cat ID 66909 Decayed from orbit on or about 23 April 2026
  • HYDRA-W NORAD Cat ID 63490 Decayed from orbit on or about 24 April 2026
  • HADES-ICM (SO-125) 63492 Decayed from orbit on or about 22 May 2026

General Perturbations Data Support

AMSAT is pleased to announce that modern forms of what are called General Perturbations data are being disseminated via modern formats including JSON, XML and KVN at https://newark192.amsat.org/gpdata/current/. The reason this change is being made is that we are running out of 5-digit catalog numbers and the TLE format is not viable for satellites launched after July of this year. See https://celestrak.org/NORAD/documentation/gp-data-formats.php for details.

These data are presently considered in beta test for the next two months while hosted on the test server newark192.amsat.org, and we are very open to community feedback at [email protected]. Testers may experience outages and errors while we make improvements. We intend to put this into production on our main web server in July as we expect that satellites launched after this summer will require one of the new formats to accommodate longer object numbers. AMSAT will continue to publish TLE bulletins for satellites launched before July 2026 indefinitely.

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


Blue Origin Explosion

A Blue Origin New Glenn rocket blew up on the launch pad in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on Thursday night, May 28, during an engine-firing test ahead of a satellite launch next week.

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and Amazon.com, at Blue Origin’s West Texas launch site. (Photo: Blue Origin)

No one was hurt. The explosion shook nearby homes and briefly painted the sky orange.

Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin’s founder, wrote on X: “It’s too early to know the root cause but we’re already working to find it. Very rough day, but we’ll rebuild whatever needs rebuilding and get back to flying. It’s worth it.”

[ANS thanks Axios for the above information.]


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

+ Recently Completed

Minamigaoka Elementary School, Tsu, Japan, direct via JJ2YJC
The ISS callsign was presently scheduled to be OR4ISS
The scheduled crewmember is Jack Hathaway KJ5NIV
The ARISS mentor is JE1MUI/JA1CJP/MØXTD
Contact was successful: Thu 2026-05-28 11:23:58 UTC 29 degrees maximum elevation
Congratulations to the Minamigaoka Elementary School students, Jack, mentors JE1MUI, JA1CJP, and MØXTD, and ground station JJ2YJC!

+ Upcoming Contacts

Ecole Henri Clément, Saint-Rémy, France, direct via F6KMF joint contact with Collège Jorge Semprun, Gueugnon, France direct via F6KJS
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS
The scheduled crewmember is Sophie Adenot KJ5LTN
The ARISS mentor is F6ICS
Contact is go for: Fri 2026-06-05 09:26:47 UTC 34 degrees maximum elevation

Many times, a school makes a last-minute decision to do a Livestream or runs 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 remains configured in the Columbus Module (145.990 MHz up {PL 67} & 437.800 MHz down). If a crewmember decides to pick up the microphone and turn up the volume, you may hear them on the air—so keep listening, as you never know when activity might occur.

​Kenwood D710GA in the Zvezda Service Module – Call sign RSØISS. Please note we’re still in the process of troubleshooting and testing this radio. APRS is currently active on 437.825 MHz. Feel free to check out status reports at https://ariss-usa.org/ARISS_APRS/.

Ham TV is currently transmitting a test signal at 2395.00 MHz.

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.]


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.

Scheduled Events

44th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual Membership Meeting – October 8 thru 11, 2026
Crowne Plaza JAX Airport
14670 Duval Road
Jacksonville, FL 32218

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

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


Satellite Shorts from All Over

+ NASA confirmed on May 21 that the Russian segment of the International Space Station has begun leaking atmosphere into space again. It’s an old problem that NASA recently hoped was resolved. In January, NASA said that after multiple inspections and sealant applications, the pressure inside this segment, known as the PrK module, had reached a “stable configuration.” The PrK module is essentially a transfer tunnel attached to the Zvezda Service Module on the Russian segment of the space station. Unfortunately, the leak returned three weeks ago after Russian cosmonauts unloaded cargo from the Progress 95 cargo spacecraft. Although there is no impact on astronauts aboard the station, nor any immediate concerns about the station’s health, the returning leak issue raises new questions about the long-term viability of the ISS. (ANS thanks Ars Technica for the above information. See the full article at: https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/05/uh-oh-the-international-space-station-is-leaking-again/)

+ NASA has released the images Psyche space probe took when it did a Mars flyby to get a gravity assist from the red planet on its way to the metallic asteroid 16 Psyche. The photos are available at the main mission site: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/psyche-raw-images/. After getting gravity assist from Mars, Psyche will resume using its solar-electric propulsion system to continue its journey. The spacecraft started its six-year trip to its namesake asteroid back in October 2023. During the flyby, it got closer to Mars than the planet’s own moons and passed within 2,800 miles of its surface at its closest approach. The spacecraft is expected to reach its destination in 2029, after which it will spend two years orbiting and observing the asteroid. 16 Psyche is the largest known metallic asteroid in our solar system, and scientists believe data from observing it could give us insight about the formation of our own planet’s core. (ANS thanks Engadget and NASA for the above information. Read More: https://www.engadget.com/2180093/nasa-shares-psyche-spacecraft-photos-of-mars/.)

+ New satellite tracking software by Japan’s Rymansat Group is available at https://t.co/sIYzK22XQE. (ANS thanks Yutaka Murata, JA1COU, for the above information.)

+ Don Friend, WA4MCM, has begun selling a light-duty satellite antenna rotor kit for Arrow or Elk antennas that is designed to be mounted on a standard camera tripod with 1/4-20 mounting bolt. Information at https://wa4mcmkits.com/psr-100/. (ANS thanks Don Friend, WA4MCM, for the above information.)


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

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

  • Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
  • Students enrolled in at least half-time status are eligible for free membership to age 25.
  • 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,

Mark Johns, KØJM
mjohns [at] amsat.org

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

ANS-140 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

ANS-140 May 20, 2026

In this special edition:

* OrigamiSat-2 is Designated Fuji-OSCAR 126

The AMSAT® News Service bulletins are a free, 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/


OrigamiSat-2 is Designated Fuji-OSCAR 126

The OrigamiSat-2 satellite was launched April 23rd, 2026, on an Electron launch vehicle from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand. Developed by the Institute of Science Tokyo, the satellite will demonstrate on-orbit high-gain antenna technology for small satellites and a 5.8 GHz downlink transmitter.

“OrigamiSat-2” Credit: ORIGAMI PROJECT  origami.titech.ac.jp

 

At the request of the Institute of Science Tokyo, AMSAT hereby designates OrigamiSat-2 as Fuji-OSCAR 126 (FO-126). We congratulate the Institute of Science Tokyo, thank them for their contribution to the amateur satellite community, and wish them continued success on this and future projects.

[ANS thanks Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, AMSAT President / OSCAR Number Administrator, for the above information.]


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

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

  • Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
  • Students are eligible for FREE membership up to age 25.
  • 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, Mark Johns, KØJM
mjohns [at] amsat.org

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

AMSAT is a registered trademark of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.