Frank Karnauskas

ANS-306 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

November 2, 2025 by Frank Karnauskas

November 2, 2025

In this edition:

* AMSAT Receives Two ARDC Grants for Youth Initiative Program
* Alan Johnston, KU2Y, Presents CubeSat Simulator 2025 Updates
* ARISS 2025 Highlights Presented by Frank Bauer, KA3HDO
* GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers November Rankings 2025
* VUCC Satellite Standing November 2025
* DXCC Satellite Standing for November 2025
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
* ARISS News
* AMSAT Ambassador Activities
* Satellite Shorts From All Over

The AMSAT(R) 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 http://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 [dot] org .

Sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List. Join this list at: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

AMSAT Receives Two ARDC Grants for Youth Initiative Program

Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, AMSAT Director/VP-Development is pleased to announce that two grant applications were approved this week by Amateur Radio Digital Communication (ARDC).

BuzzSat.com
The first grant is for additional software licenses for production of the BuzzSat.com series of online courses designed for high school students. The first course, “Introduction to Satellite Meteorology’ was introduced at Hamvention 2025.

The production cycle begins with content development by a volunteer subject matter expert. In the case of the satellite meteorology course, retired high school earth science teacher Eric Sonnenwald, N2XSE created content by harvesting open-source material, both text and illustrations, and organizing it into a frame-by-frame presentation.

From there the frames are loaded into a specialized educational authoring program that adds a complex assortment of interactivity tools that help make the learning experience engaging and effective. Constant interaction required of the student helps prevent the lessons from becoming a mind-numbing “next – next – next” page turning sedative.

The authoring software has several AI assisted capabilities including the ability to generate audio narrative for the text and to translate the courseware into up to seventy different languages.

The theme of the lessons is “Satellites in Space Help Us Live a Better Life on Earth.” Fourteen courses are planned for completion by the end of 2026. The courses are free to students, teachers, at-home educators, scouting leaders and lifelong learners of all ages.

You can experience the “Introduction to Satellite Meteorology” course now at www.BuzzSat.com .

KidzSat.com
The second grant is for production of a satellite-themed coloring book for younger elementary-age kids. The coloring pages in the book show how satellites play important roles in almost every aspect of modern life. Satellites and their role in agriculture, navigation, broadcasting, pollution control and wildfire fighting are a few of the twelve topics shown in the book.

Production of the coloring book began about a month before the application for the grant was made. So, the finished book cover as well as sketches for a few inside coloring pages were shown at the AMSAT Space Symposium held in October.

The coloring books will be available before the end of this year for download free-of-charge from the AMSAT sponsored www.KidzSat.com website.

[ANS thanks Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, AMSAT Director/VP-Development for the above information.]

Only 8 Weeks Left to Get Your Coin!
Celebrate the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
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/

Alan Johnston, KU2Y, Presents CubeSat Simulator 2025 Updates

During one of the always popular CubeSat Simulator (CSS) presentations, Alan Johnston, KU2Y, AMSAT VP-Educational Relations showcased recent improvements to the CSS at last months AMSAT Annual Space Symposium.

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 Science, Technology, Engineering, Math (STEM) exercises.

The pace of development in 2025 was similar to 2024 with several new features rolled out. The v2.1 software release added two new telemetry modes: FunCube Mode and Cross Band Repeater Mode. In addition, the Fox-in-a-Box v4 Beta Raspberry Pi Ground Station disk image was also released.

Cross Band FM Repeater Mode
The CubeSatSim Cross Band FM Repeater mode uses the FM transceiver module in receive mode, with the squelch pin read by the Raspberry Pi Zero to detect a transmission. This mode utilizes the USB sound card connected to the Pi Zero 2 with the OTG cable, and the audio jumper from the Main board to the sound card provides the received audio to the Pi Zero. The Pi Zero 2 then connects the microphone input to the rpitx transmitter. One of the CubeSatSim antennas is receiving the UHF signal, the other is transmitting the VHF signal at the same time, just like a real CubeSat with an FM repeater.

The v2.0 software release had a Repeater mode, but you couldn’t turn it on and off with the pushbutton, and it was unstable in that the repeater function would stop working and require a reboot. It also had uplink and downlink frequencies in the UHF band which made reception difficult. The v2.1 software release has fixed these issues, and moves the downlink to the VHF band. This provides a “U/V” operation with an FM UHF uplink, VHF downlink similar to many AMSAT CubeSats such as AO-91 (RadFxSat / Fox-1B) and AMSAT-UK AO-73 (FunCube).

New FunCube Mode
The CubeSatSim now has a new FunCube Mode 7. This BPSK (Binary Phase Shift Keying) 1200 bps (bits-per-second) transmission mode emulates the AMSAT-UK FunCube CubeSat (AO-73) and several other CubeSats that also use this transmission including Nayif 1 (EO-88), UKube-1, and JY1 Sat (JO-97). The transmission is very similar to the Fox-1E BPSK 1200 bps transmission already supported by the CubeSatSim in BPSK Mode 3. However, it has a different data structure and error correction. Special thanks to Duncan Hills, the lead FunCube Dashboard developer from AMSAT-UK who provided technical details and support to get this code working! If you listen to this mode, it sounds similar to BPSK, except for every four seconds it sounds like there is a “beep” or tone.

To decode FunCube telemetry, you need a FunCube Dongle (FCDPro or FCDPro+) and decoding software (an RTL-SDR dongle will not work). For the FunCube satellites in orbit, there is a Windows Dashboard for each satellite that decodes the telemetry and uploads the data to the AMSAT-UK Data Warehouse. We don’t yet have a Windows Dashboard, but we do have a Raspberry Pi application which will decode it. It is part of the new Fox-in-a-Box-v4 beta image.

The telemetry data is a similar format to JY1 Sat (JO-97) with a camera image and telemetry data in each frame. Unlike the CubeSatSim SSTV mode 4 which uses tones to transmit image pixels in Scottie 2 format, FunCube uses SSDV to encode JPEG images suitable for packetization. It uses the Reed-Solomon codec written by Phil Karn, KA9Q. You can see the image come in block by block, and if a frame is lost, there is a rectangular dropout in the image. Otherwise, the image quality is perfect. This makes an interesting comparison with the analog SSTV Mode 4 in which the image quality degrades as the signal strength decreases.

Future Updates
We are also working on a software update for v2.2 which will add these capabilities:

Improved simulated telemetry providing more realistic data.
Support for humidity and gyroscope/accelerometer sensors attached to Pi Zero 2.
Simulated failures.

Activity Guides
In 2025, we released the first set of CubeSatSim Activity Guides. The problem statement for the Activity Guides is “I just built (or borrowed) a CubeSatSim. What can I do with it?” Activity Guides are step-by-step instructions for how to do a STEM educational activity using a CubeSatSim. Most work with just a CubeSatSim (or even just a Lite). Some are very easy to do, such as listening to the sounds of the different modes on a HT and/or looking at modes on an SDR waterfall. Others are more challenging such as doing telemetry analysis using FoxTelem. Activity Guides include questions for students to answer as they do the activity. Each also has an Instructors Guide which has example data and answers to the questions.

The CubeSatSim Activity Guides are released under a Creative Commons with Attribution license so anyone can edit and modify them as long as they indicate they were originally developed by AMSAT. This allows teachers to customize them and include them in their lesson plans.

To read Alan’s complete presentation, go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/19o1GsO-R3Btt35AqIsXj4EJPn3eNADcd/view .

[ANS thanks Alan Johnston, KU2Y, AMSAT VP-Educational Relations for the above information.]

Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store

When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/

ARISS 2025 Highlights Presented by Frank Bauer, KA3HDO

The 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting featured a special presentation of the Amateur Radio aboard the International Space Station (ARISS) by Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, ARISS Executive Director. The prerecorded presentation highlighted many accomplishments for the year 2025.

A major accomplishment was achieving 25 years of continuous Amateur Radio operation aboard the space station.

While celebrating that achievement, ARISS is aware of substantial changes happening in the space industry and embraces the shift towards commercial missions.

With the upcoming decommissioning of ISS in the next five to six years, ARISS is listening to its NASA and ISS U.S. National Laboratory priorities. As a result, ARISS has modified the emphasis of its mission as follow:

An independent backup communications capability for ISS
Boosts ISS crew morale through enriching youth, community and Amateur Radio engagement
Inspires, engages and educates K-16 youth in STEM/STEAM via 10-minute Amateur Radio contacts with the on-orbit crew – a workforce development powerhouse
During 4-6 month pre-contact preparations, students learn about space exploration and science research, space communications, radio science & technology using Amateur Radio and on-going ISS research activities
Youth contacts keep astronauts proficient in ARISS radio operations and ground stations proficient in support of ISS backup communications.

The main ARISS prime initiatives continue to be STEM/STEAM education, spaceflight hardware development and spaceflight operations. Now, ARISS 2.0 educational vision for the future is to inspire, engage and educate students and lifelong learners. This means:

More extensive educational outcomes for all
Engaging educational projects and lesson plans
Multiple space stations on ISS and commercial missions, and
Lunar orbiters and landers

Bauer described the initiative that are currently underway including:

The ARISS payload is now a facility on ISS, enabling partnerships to employ ARISS facility
Expansion to Axiom commercial space station flights
Expansion to Crew Dragon via Fram2Ham missions
More SSTV opportunities
Educational Extension initiatives
- STEREO/SPARKI kits
- ARISS STAR astronaut contacts
- Student Mission Control program

Frank then spoke in detail about several outstanding successes for the year such as the Fram2Ham mission and the ever popular slow-scan television (SSTV) operations. Both events enjoyed exceptional exposure and impressive participation by students around the world.

Bauer went on to thank NASA, the ISS U.S. National Laboratory, the ARRL and AMSAT for financial and in-kind support and to Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC) for critical resources.

You can view the complete presentation AMSAT’s You Tube channel at https://youtu.be/loM80Jr8RUk .

[ANS thanks Frank Bauer, KA3HDO, ARISS Executive Director for the above information.]

GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers November Rankings 2025

The November 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 October 31, 2025

Updated: 2025-10-31

1	ND9M	26	KX9X	51	KE0PBR	76	SP5XSD
2	NJ7H	27	KG5CCI	52	XE3DX	77	DL4EA
3	UT1FG	28	DJ8MS	53	W7WGC	78	N6UTC
4	JA9KRO	29	N5BO	54	JK2XXK	79	N4UFO
5	N5UC	30	ON4AUC	55	PR8KW	80	VE7PTN
6	F5VMJ	31	K8BL	56	EA4NF	81	PT2AP
7	DL6AP	32	KE4AL	57	XE1ET	82	VE1VOX
8	WI7P	33	KB5FHK	58	N6DNM	83	KB2YSI
9	DP0POL	34	AC0RA	59	EB1AO	84	KI7UXT
10	K5ZM	35	PA3GAN	60	WD5GRW	85	AF5CC
11	OE3SEU	36	KI0KB	61	LU4JVE	86	AA8CH
12	WY7AA	37	F4BKV	62	W8LR	87	KJ7NDY
13	N6UA	38	VE3HLS	63	W1AW	88	BI1MHK
14	HA3FOK	39	KI7UNJ	64	KI7QEK	89	PT9BM
15	LU5ILA	40	VA3VGR	65	SM3NRY	90	FG8OJ
16	W5PFG	41	JO2ASQ	66	KE9AJ	91	YU0W
17	N9IP	42	BG7QIW	67	F4DXV	92	BG5CZD
18	AK8CW	43	HJ5LVR	68	VE1CWJ	93	WA9JBQ
19	AD0DX	44	LA9XGA	69	AA5PK	94	W8MTB
20	AD0HJ	45	VK5DG	70	AD7DB	95	N4DCW
21	ND0C	46	N7AGF	71	KM4LAO	96	VE3GOP
22	N4AKV	47	K7TAB	72	M1DDD	97	JM1CAX
23	WD9EWK	48	DF2ET	73	HB9GWJ	98	PS8BR
24	BA1PK	49	JL3RNZ	74	VA7LM	99	K0FFY
25	DL2GRC	50	KE0WPA	75	N8RO	100	KG4AKV

[ANS thanks ANS thanks Mitch Ahrenstorff, AD0HJ, and @GridMasterMap for the above information.]

VUCC Satellite Standing November 2025

VUCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for October 1, 2025 to November 1, 2025.

WA4NVM	1676	1683
N8RO	1490	1505
JN2QCV	1075	1159
EA2AA	1125	1135
W2GDJ	1022	1075
VU2LBW	902	1000
W8LR	919	921
N8MR	783	801
WA4HFN	727	738
KA9CFD	608	704
N7ZO	669	670
KO9A	547	565
K6SFO	501	550
XE1BJ	304	501
DL8GAM	450	500
W3TI	465	469
KK7OVF	103	300
SV8CKM	215	273
KP4MV	175	200
EI8JB	New	175
WB5TX	144	151
WD9EWK/DM62	130	137
PT2VM	New	100
TI3IES	New	100

Congratulations to the new VUCC Satellite holders.

EI8JB is first VUCC Satellite holder from IO63
PT2VM is first VUCC Satellite holder from GH64
TI3IES is first VUCC Satellite holder from EJ89

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

DXCC Satellite Standing for November 2025

DXCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for October 1, 2025 to November 1, 2025.

EA2AA	164	167
DL6GBM	160	165
PA7RA	147	148
E70A	135	139
W2GDJ	113	122
ZS2Y	New	109
OE3JAG	102	104
IW3SSA	New	100
ZS2Y	New	109
IW3SSA	New	100

Congratulations to the new DXCC Satellite holders.

ZS2Y is first DXCC Satellite holder from KF2S
IW3SSA is first DXCC Satellite holder from JN66

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

Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
Get your 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
https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear

Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for October 31, 2005

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.]

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.

Upcoming Contacts
Petofi Sandor Evangelikus Gimnazium, Kollegium es Altalanos Iskola, Mezobereny, Hungary.
Telebridge via K6DUE.
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS.
The scheduled crewmember is Zena Cardman, KJ5CMN.
Contact is go for Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 09:00:17 UTC.

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.

The packet system is also active (145.825 MHz up & down).

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

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.

None currently scheduled.

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

Satellite Shorts From All Over

With SpaceX’s 10,000th Starlink satellite launched to orbit, and 8,562 active as of Oct 20th, a staggering 2/3rds of humanity’s active satellites in orbit are controlled by a single private company. [ANS thanks The Orbital Index for the above information.]
Two former NASA administrators criticized the agency’s current approach to using SpaceX’s Starship for the Artemis 3 crewed lunar landing, calling for an urgent redirection to reach the moon before China. In a fireside chat at the American Astronautical Society’s von Braun Space Exploration Symposium on Oct. 29, former administrators Charlie Bolden and Jim Bridenstine expressed skepticism that NASA’s current Artemis architecture. China aims to conduct the first launch of its Long March 10 rocket and a lunar-capable crew spacecraft next year, according to a top official. The announcement from the China Manned Space Engineering Office comes as the U.S. prepares to send its Artemis 2 crewed mission around the moon as soon as February 2026.[ANS thanks Space News This Week 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).
* 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, Frank Karnauskas, N1UW.
f.karnauskas [at] amsat [dot] 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-278 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

October 5, 2025 by Frank Karnauskas

October 5, 2025

In this edition:

AMSAT 43rd Space Symposium Banquet Reservations Close Thursday, October 9, 2025
ARISS Announces SSTV Event Begins October 3, 2025
43rd Annual AMSAT Symposium Speakers List Announced
Four US Schools/Organizations Moved Forward in ARISS Selection Process
A Review of the futureGEO Workshop 2025 in Bochum
VUCC & DXCC Satellite Standings October 2025
GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers October 2025 Rankings
Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for October 3, 2025
ARISS News
AMSAT Ambassador Activities
Satellite Shorts From All Over

The AMSAT^(R) 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 http://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 [dot] org .

Sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List. Join this list at: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

AMSAT 43rd Space Symposium Banquet Reservations Close Thursday, October 9, 2025

Those planning to attend the banquet at the 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting must have their reservation made no later than Thursday, October 9, 2025.

The banquet menu offers the following buffet features:

Tossed Garden Salad
Herb Encrusted Chicken Breast
Grilled Salmon with Cilantro Ginger Crust
Grilled Sirloin with Wild Mushrooms
Rice Pilaf
Scalloped Potatoes
Roasted Seasonal Vegetables
Seasonal Cheesecake
Flourless Chocolate Cake
Coffee and Tea

The keynote speaker for the banquet is Liam Cheney, PMP. Liam is an aerospace consultant and founder of Footstep Aerospace by AG3, LLC, where he supports mission integration, strategy, and business development for the space industry. Over the past decade, he has contributed to the successful launch and deployment of numerous CubeSat missions, including many flown through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), where he previously served as a Mission Manager. He has helped launch multiple AMSAT-supported missions during his time at NASA, Tyvak, and SRI International. Liam also served as the launch services Mission Manager for PREFIRE, which launched in 2024 on back-to-back Rocket Lab Electron flights to study polar heat loss and improve climate modeling.

Keynote Speaker Liam Cheney (Photo courtesy Liam Cheney.)

He holds a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he authored a thesis on safety standards for CubeSat propulsion systems and contributed to the university’s CubeSat Program. A member of AMSAT, Liam lives in Kansas City with his wife and two children and enjoys astrophotography and craft coffee.

Regrettably, walk-in registrations for the banquet cannot be accepted at the Symposium.

Make your reservation today at https://launch.amsat.org/Events .

[ANS thanks Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, AMSAT Board of Directors, for the above information.]

Your 2025 AMSAT President’s Club Coin Is Waiting!
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
Help Support GOLF and Fox-Plus.

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

ARISS SSTV Event Runs Through October 20, 2025

The ARISS team is working towards two short SSTV activations for October 2025. Both of these are expected to start on a Friday and end on the following Monday.

The first event is ARISS’ traditional celebration of the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957. The SSTV activation started on Friday, October 3 and will run to end on Monday, October 6. SSTV will be paused for a short time (~ 60 minutes) on Saturday October 4 for a special student voice contact.

The second SSTV campaign is tentatively scheduled to start on Friday, October 17, with a short pause (~60 minutes) for a special student contact on Saturday, October 18, and resume until completion on Monday, October 20.

This interval roughly coincides with the International Scouting Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) and the SSTV image theme is expected to deal with Scouting.

ARISS expects to offer separate electronic award diplomas for participants who receive at least one image from a campaign and submit it to the SSTV gallery.

Tentative times for the first event are:
2025-10-03 1140 UTC start
2025-10-04 1000 UTC pause for a school event
2025-10-04 1100 UTC resume
2025-10-06 TBD UTC stop

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information.]

43rd Annual AMSAT Symposium Speakers List Announced

The 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium has an impressive list of presentations scheduled for October 17 and October 18.

Friday, October 17*

Start	Speaker	Topic
1:00 PM	Introduction/Announcements
1:05 PM	AMSAT President	Welcome
1:15 PM	Cameron Castillo, KJ7ILB	ASCENT Team Propulsion
1:45 PM	Jim McCullers, WA4CWI	Oscar to OsTrax
2:15 PM	Andrew Robinson, KA3WDW	FoxPlus Mechanical Layout & Design
3:00 PM	Heimir Thor Sverrisson, W1ANT	Extending Command and Control for GOLF
3:30 PM	Frank Bauer, KA3HDO	ARISS
4:00 PM	Frank Karnauskas, N1UW	Youth Initiative
4:30 PM	Jim White, WD0E	ARDC

Saturday, October 18*

Start	Speaker	Topic
8:00 AM	Alan Johnston, KU2Y	CubeSatSim Update & Demonstration
9:00 AM	Agastya Bose, KJ5MSH	CubeSatSim
9:15 AM	Larry Ryan, W7DGP	CubeSatSim
9:30 AM	Frederic Raab, KK6NOW	Bridging Orbit and Classroom: SatNOGS/CubeSatSim
10:15 AM	Burns Fisher, WB1FJ	A New Use for Fox & MESAT-1 Whole Orbit Data Algorithm
10:45 AM	Burns Fisher, WB1FJ	Telemetry for FoxPlus & GOLF CubeSats
11:15 AM	Kipton Moravec, AE5IB	GOLF-TEE Electrical Power Supply (EPS)
1:00 PM	Jerry Buxton, N0JY	Engineering / GOLF-TEE Update
2:00 PM	Mike Moore, K4MVM	FoxPlus Update
2:30 PM	AMSAT President	Annual General Meeting

* All times are Mountain Standard Time (UTC-7). Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings Time.
The presentations will be live streamed on AMSAT’s You Tube Channel, recorded and made available for viewing at a later time.
You can view the complete Symposium schedule at https://www.amsat.org/43rd-amsat-space-symposium-and-annual-general-meeting/ .

[ANS thanks Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, AMSAT Board of Directors, for the above information.]

Four US Schools/Organizations Moved Forward in ARISS Selection Process

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is pleased to announce the US schools/host organizations newly selected for 2026 ARISS contacts. A total of 4 of the submitted proposals during the recent proposal window have been accepted to move forward in the processes of planning to host a scheduled amateur radio contact with crew on the ISS.

The ARISS program anticipates that NASA will be able to provide scheduling opportunities for the 4 US host organizations during the Jan 2026 – June 2026 time period. They are now at work starting to implement their 4–6 month education plan which was outlined in their proposal. These STEAM based educational activities help prepare students for their contact as well as create an on-going exploration and interest in aerospace and amateur radio topics. They are also completing an acceptable equipment plan that demonstrates their ability to execute the ham radio contact. Once their equipment plan is approved by ARISS, the final selected schools/organizations will be scheduled as their availability and flexibility match up with the scheduling opportunities offered by NASA.

The schools and host organizations are:

ASU STEM Preparatory Academy Mesa, AZ
Conn Magnet Elementary School Raleigh, NC
The Center for Creativity, Innovation, and Discovery Providence, UT
EcoTarium Worcester, MA

The primary goal of the ARISS program is to engage young people in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) activities and raise their awareness of space communications, radio communications, space exploration, and related areas of study and career possibilities.

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information.]

Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store.

When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/

A Review of the futureGEO Workshop 2025 in Bochum

On September 19, 2025, the futureGEO workshop took place under the radome of the Bochum Observatory. Organized by AMSAT-DL with the support of ESA, the event brought together international experts, representatives of amateur radio organizations and dedicated radio amateurs who had previously declared their active participation in an appeal and submitted corresponding proposals. In the spring, AMSAT-DL had invited potential interested parties as part of an RFEI. The aim was to build on the experience gained with QO-100 and to jointly define the first concrete mission ideas for a future amateur radio payload in geostationary orbit.

The workshop was held as a hybrid event. The group was made up of one half who were present on site and the other half who took part online via ZOOM. Andrew Glasbrenner, K04MA, AMSAT VP – Operations represented AMSAT-USA at the meeting.

The purpose of the workshop was to collect, cluster and prioritize ideas:

Mission & Services – Which communication services and experiments should a new GEO payload enable?
Payload & antennas – What technical solutions are conceivable?
Ground station & operation – How can control and operation be organized?
User segment – Who should have access and how?

In a concluding reflection among the participants, it became clear how much QO-100 has revitalized and enriched the amateur radio community:

Affordable entry into microwave communication with low-cost SDRs and LNBs.
Development of open source software such as DVB-S2 encoders and decoders.
Educational projects from schools to schools contacts with Antarctica and other events.

The participants hope that radio amateurs can be even more involved in the construction of the hardware of a futureGEO with appropriate personal contribution, transparency and participation than was possible with QO-100 due to NDAs with the manufacturers and owners of the parent satellite.

The next steps are clear: The mission ideas developed in the workshop will be further concretized and should be available by the end of 2025 in the form of 1-3 consolidated mission concepts that are both technically exciting and attractive to the international amateur radio community and must also be technically feasible.

Read the entire story at https://amsat-dl.org/en/review-futuregeo-workshop-2025-in-bochum/ .

[ANS thanks AMSAT-DL for the above information.]

VUCC & DXCC Satellite Standings October 2025

VUCC Satellite Standings for October 2025
VUCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for September 1, 2025 to October 1, 2025

JK2XXK	1103	1208
XE1AO	1177	1185
HB9AOF	907	1016
IK3ITB	900	1000
KQ4DO	952	983
W8LR	916	919
KS1G	754	768
LY4AA	670	729
LA6OP	632	663
W0JW	341	654
HB9GWJ	602	631
KO9A	545	547
AB1OC	476	479
K3HPA	400	425
N4QWF	350	376
K5WO	304	326
OH3DP	256	300
AA6DY	New	167
JA9OJM	128	151
WB5TX	135	143
S21DX	New	128
KM6HB	New	104
W5QZ	New	102

Congratulations to the new VUCC Satellite holders.
AA6DY New 167
S21DX New 128
KM6HB New 104
W5QZ New 102

S21DX is first VUCC Satellite holder from NL51

DXCC Satellite Standings for October 2025
DXCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for September 1, 2025 to October 1, 2025.

OE9DGV	215	217
HB9RYZ	164	166
LA6OP	154	159
HB9GWJ	143	150
G4BWP	110	134
F6EXV	New	114
I4DOR	109	113
US0SY	New	101
9A1CAL	New	100
KQ4DO	New	100

Congratulations to the new DXCC Satellite holders.
F6EXV New 114
US0SY New 101
9A1CAL New 100
KQ4DO New 100

9A1CAL is first DXCC Satellite holder from Croatia and JN86

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

GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers October 2025 Rankings

The October 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: 2025-10-02

1	ND9M	26	KX9X	51	KE0PBR	76	KM4LAO
2	NJ7H	27	DJ8MS	52	KE0WPA	77	VA7LM
3	UT1FG	28	KG5CCI	53	JK2XXK	78	VE7PTN
4	JA9KRO	29	ON4AUC	54	EA4NF	79	N4UFO
5	N5UC	30	N5BO	55	PR8KW	80	N6UTC
6	F5VMJ	31	K8BL	56	XE1ET	81	PT2AP
7	DL6AP	32	KE4AL	57	EB1AO	82	AA8CH
8	DP0POL	33	PA3GAN	58	W7WGC	83	VE1VOX
9	OE3SEU	34	F4BKV	59	LU4JVE	84	FG8OJ
10	WI7P	35	KB5FHK	60	N6DNM	85	PT9BM
11	K5ZM	36	AC0RA	61	SM3NRY	86	YU0W
12	WY7AA	37	JO2ASQ	62	F4DXV	87	KI7UXT
13	HA3FOK	38	VA3VGR	63	KI7QEK	88	KJ7NDY
14	LU5ILA	39	KI0KB	64	W8LR	89	AF5CC
15	N6UA	40	VE3HLS	65	W1AW	90	KB2YSI
16	W5PFG	41	KI7UNJ	66	AA5PK	91	VE3GOP
17	N9IP	42	LA9XGA	67	WD5GRW	92	K0FFY
18	DL2GRC	43	HJ5LVR	68	VE1CWJ	93	JM1CAX
19	AK8CW	44	BG7QIW	69	KE9AJ	94	PS8BR
20	N4AKV	45	DF2ET	70	M1DDD	95	BI1MHK
21	AD0DX	46	N7AGF	71	AD7DB	96	W8MTB
22	AD0HJ	47	JL3RNZ	72	HB9GWJ	97	DK9JC
23	ND0C	48	VK5DG	73	SP5XSD	98	WA9JBQ
24	BA1PK	49	K7TAB	74	DL4EA	99	N4DCW
25	WD9EWK	50	XE3DX	75	N8RO	100	KG4AKV

[ANS thanks Mitch Ahrenstorff, AD0HJ ANS Rotating Editor and @GridMasterMap for the above information.]

[ANS thanks _ for the above information.]

Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
Get your 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
https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear

Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for October 3, 2025

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.]

ARISS NEWS

Upcoming Contacts
Paterson P-Tech High School/ Paterson Public Schools, Paterson, New Jersey, direct via W2NPT
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1S .
The scheduled crewmember is Kimiya Yui, KG5BPH.
The ARISS mentor is AB1OC.
Contact is go for Monday, October 6. 2025 at 14:24:46 UTC.

Namibia Scientific Society, Windhoek, Namibia, telebridge via ON4ISS.
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS.
The scheduled crewmember is Kimiya Yui, KG5BPH.
The ARISS mentor is KA3HDO.
Contact is go for Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 10:37:18 UTC.

Completed Contacts
Pobeda schools, Aznakaevsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, direct via RC4P.
The ISS callsign was RSØISS.
The crewmember was Sergey Ryzhikov.
The ARISS mentor is RV3DR.
Contact was successful on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 1 10:45 UTC.

Instituto Politecnico Nacional: Planetario “Luis Enrique Erro”, Mexico City (Gustavo A. Madero), Mexico, Direct via XE2L.
The ISS callsign was NA1SS.
The crewmember was Zena Cardman, KJ5CMN.
The ARISS mentor was VE3TBD.
Contact was successful on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 16:40:40 UTC.

The packet system is also active (145.825 MHz up & down).

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

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.

October 11, 2025
North Star Radio Convention
Hennepin Technical College
9000 Brooklyn Boulevard
Brooklyn Park, MN 55445
https://northstarradio.org/
ADØHJ

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/ .

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

Satellite Shorts From All Over

Suryono Adisoemarta, YD0NXX/N5SNN, Amateur Radio Organization of Indonesia, reports “September 28, 2025, was the 10th anniversary of IO-86 (Indonesia OSCAR 86) Satellite. The host vehicle, LAPAN A2 satellite, was launched from India using a PSLV rocket. This 10 years of almost problem-free satellite is beyond imagination, as the service year was designed only for 2 years. Currently the FM voice repeater payload is still working good , only the APRS digipeater is showing reduced sensitivity . The same digipeater box, a Tracker2, that was purchased at the same time in 2008 currently on my bench is also showing the same symptom. Hopefully we can have another 10 years of service from this satellite.” [ANS thanks Suryono Adisoemarta, YD0NXX/N5SNN, Amateur Radio Organization of Indonesia for the above information.]

M2 Antenna Systems Sales Manager Robert Brown, KR7O reports that LEO Pack antenna systems are back in stock and once again available in the AMSAT Store Despite the factory working nearly around the clock, the LEO Pack had been out-of-stock for several months due to a suddden increase in commercial and government orders. The good news is, at this time, there is no price increase. [ANS thanks M2 Antenna Systems Sales Manager Robert Brown, KR7O, 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).
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, Frank Karnauskas, N1UW.
f.karnauskas [at] amsat [dot] 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-250 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

September 7, 2025 by Frank Karnauskas

September 07, 2025

In this edition:

* AMSAT Ambassadors Show at HamXposition Convention
* AMSAT Announces Two New GridMaster Award Recipients
* Register Now – AMSAT Symposium Prices Increase September 16th
* AMSAT Board of Directors Election Ends September 15, 2025
* GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers – September 2025 Rankings
* VUCC Satellite Standing September 2025
* DXCC Satellite Standing for September 2025
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for September, 5, 2025
* ARISS News
* AMSAT Ambassador Activities
* Satellite Shorts From All Over

The news feed on http://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 [dot] org .

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 Ambassadors Show at HamXposition Convention

AMSAT was well represented at the 2025 HamXposition held in Marlborough, MA. The event was also the ARRL New England Convention.

AMSAT Senior Software Engineer Burns Fisher, WB1FJ; AMSAT Hamvention Chair Phil Smith, W1EME; and AMSAT Board of Director Barry Baines, WD4ASW staffed the booth during the weekend of August 21-24.

AMSAT booth staffers Barry Baines, WD4ASW, Phil Smith, W1EME, and Fisher, WB1FJ. (Mike Raisbeck, K1TWF photo)

The booth was appropriately decked out with the AMSAT Ambassador flag as well as other signage from previous events. An Arrow antenna was displayed on a Portable Rotation System plus a 3D printed model of the 3U GOLF-TEE satellite with deployable solar panels. An AMSAT CubeSat Simulator was operating during the event and sold on Sunday.

AMSAT provided a door prize, a copy of SatPC 32 software that was won by Roger Pushor, NK1I.

On Saturday afternoon, Burns Fisher presented “AMSAT Golf-TEE Software-How Does it Work” during the forum. His talk was about the flight software on Golf-TEE including how multiple processors are coordinated.

A second presentation, titled “SDR Transponder/Transceiver,” was delivered by Ray Roberge, WA1CYB. Ray is a member of the AMSAT Engineering Team.

[ANS thanks Barry Baines, WD4ASW, for the above information.]

Your 2025 AMSAT President’s Club Coin Is Waiting!
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
Help Support GOLF and Fox-Plus.

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

AMSAT Announces Two New GridMaster Award Recipients

It is with great pleasure that AMSAT announces two new recipients of the GridMaster Awards in the past week.

Bruce Robertson, VE7PTN, has achieved the AMSAT GridMaster Award #74 by confirming all 488 maidenhead grid squares in the continental United States. In his announcement Bruce thanked “everyone for the QSOs, and especially the rovers—thanks for roving.” His recognition of the portable operators who make rare grids possible underscores the community spirit at the heart of this award.

Grace Papay, K8LG, has also earned the AMSAT GridMaster Award, becoming recipient #73. Like all GridMasters, this reflects years of dedication in working and confirming all 488 CONUS grids. Her achievement places her in the very small circle of operators who have reached this milestone.

[ANS thanks Mitch Ahrenstorff, AD0HJ, for the above information.]

Register Now – AMSAT Symposium Prices Increase September 16th

Discounted registration for the 2025 AMSAT Symposium, to be held October 17-19, 2025 in Phoenix, AZ will be available through September 15th. Prices increase on September 16th.

For details, visit https://www.amsat.org/43rd-amsat-space-symposium-and-annual-general-meeting/ .

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 f.karnauskas [at] amsat [dot] org .

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information]

AMSAT Board of Directors Election Ends September 15, 2025

Four seats on the Board of Directors are up for election this year. The four candidates receiving the largest number of votes shall be declared elected to the seats and the candidate receiving the next largest number of votes shall be declared the First Alternate. Members’ opportunity to vote ends on Monday September 15, 2025. Results will be announced no later that September 30, 2025.

The following candidates who have been duly nominated are as follows:

Barry Baines, WD4ASW
Jerry Buxton, NØJY
Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA
Frank Karnauskas, N1UW
Douglas Tabor, N6UA

AMSAT members may review the candidate statements and cast their ballots at https://launch.amsat.org/2025-BoD-Election .

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

Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store.

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

https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/

GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers – September 2025 Rankings

The September 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: 2025-09-04

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

[ANS thanks Mitch Ahrenstorff, AD0HJ, and @GridMasterMap for the above information.]

VUCC Satellite Standing September 2025

Here are the VUCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for August 01, 2025 to September 01, 2025.

Call	August	September
W5CBF	1554	1788
EA2AA	1100	1125
K8LG	1030	1106
JA1QJI	600	1006
W8LR	911	916
E70A	796	840
KC4CJ	751	776
KP3V	526	600
K5ND	530	531
HP2VX	516	527
JO4JKL	401	511
DJ7NT	432	510
K3HPA	375	400
WA3YDZ	271	353
WD5GRW (EM13QC)	213	313
WD5GRW	213	312
OH3DP	226	256
PU5DDC	213	241
NK0S	171	175
W4BB	100	159
WB5TX	128	135

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

DXCC Satellite Standing for September 2025

DXCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for August 01, 2025 to September 1, 2025.

Call	August	September
DK9JC	152	180
I3BUI	172	180
G4GIR	172	176
ZS1LS	168	175
SV8CS	165	167
YO2KHK	158	165
EA2AA	162	164
PS7JN	126	150
E70A	125	135
IK8YSS	111	133
TF1A	113	116
W8LR	114	115
TA4SO	New	101
DF5SF	New	100
EI6KC	New	100

Congratulations to the new DXCC Satellite holders.

TA4SO is first DXCC Satellite holder from Turkey and KM47
EI6KC is first DXCC Satellite holder from Ireland and IO63

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

Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
Get your 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

https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear

Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for September, 5, 2025

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.]

ARISS NEWS

Upcoming Contacts

Taka Town Board of Education Children’s Future Division, Taka Town, Japan, direct via JA3YRL.
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS.
The scheduled crewmember is Kimiya Yui, KG5BPH.
The ARISS mentor is Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ .
Contact is go for Thursday, September 11, 2025 at 09:22:34 UTC.

Completed Contacts

Ethiopian Space Science Society, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Telebridge via VK4KHZ.
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS.
The crewmember was Kimiya Yui, KG5BPH.
The ARISS mentor was Peter Kofler, IN3GHZ.
Contact was successful on Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 08:23:14 UTC.

Research Vessel E/V Nautilus in the Pacific, (was near Howland and Baker Island, US Territory; but then headed to Rarotonga, Cook Islands for repairs). Telebridge via K6DUE.
The ISS callsign was NA1SS.
The crewmember was Zena Cardman, KJ5CMN.
The ARISS mentor was Ana Guzman, KI5SDP.
Contact was successful on Thursday, September 4, 2025 at 09:03:21.

The packet system is also active (145.825 MHz up & down).

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

Scheduled Radio Power-down and Power-up Times

Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 08:15 UTC Power-down due to Progress 91P Undock
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 at 14:00 UTC Power-up due to Progress 91P Undock
Saturday, September 13, 2025 at 12:35 UTC Power-down due to Progress 93P Arrival
Sunday, September 14, 2025 at 14:00 UTC Power-up due to Progress 93P Arrival

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.

September 27, 2025
Radio Society of Tucson Autumn Hamfest
Calvary Lutheran Church
8711 E. Speedway
Tucson, AZ
https://k7rst.club/2025/08/rst-autumn-hamfest-2025/
N1UW

October 11, 2025
North Star Radio Convention
Hennepin Technical College
9000 Brooklyn Boulevard
Brooklyn Park, MN 55445
https://northstarradio.org/
ADØHJ

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
https://www.amsat.org/2025-symposium/

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

Satellite Shorts From All Over

AMSAT Ambassador Tom Schuessler, N5HYP had a great opportunity to present a “Getting Started with Amateur Satellites” talk on Monday, August 25th to the Denton County Amateur Radio Association, DCARA, of Denton, Texas. There were at least 50 in attendance in the room plus a few more by Zoom. After Tom’s presentation Andrew Koenig, KE5GDB delivered a wrap-up report on Richardson Wireless Klub’s August 23rd high altitude balloon launch. Their craft had multiple amateur radio payloads and cameras on board. The balloon was launched from Old Celina Park in Celina TX, and ascended to a maximum altitude of 105,528 feet before bursting and (rapidly) descending back to the ground just north of Justin TX. The cross-band VHF/UHF repeater was the star of the show, with hams in all directions reporting clear communications including Johnson Space Center and Pearland to the South, Abilene and Amarillo to the West, and several stations in Arkansas to the Northeast. The report with some great images can be found on the K5RWK web site https://www.k5rwk.org/2025/08/24/rwk-high-altitude-balloon-launch-wrapup-august-23rd/ . [ANS thanks Tom Schuessler, N5HYP for the above information.]
The RSGB 2025 Convention will be held on October 1-12 at the Kents Hill Conference Centre, Milton Keynes. The program is full of entertaining, intriguing and thought-provoking presentations and have been organized into three streams: Discover. Learn. Progress. The organizers are also excited to offer three workshops to help attendees learn and develop skills in a practical setting. Young hams who are under 21 you can attend the Convention free of charge. Attendees who are under the age of 16 you must be accompanied by a responsible adult. The presentations will be streamed live by the BATC and recorded for later viewing on You Tube. Streaming links will be made available as the event gets closer. Information on the complete presentation schedule and registration details can be found at https://rsgb.org/main/rsgb-convention-2025 . [ANS thanks the RSGB for the above information.]
The 5th Edition of the AM1SAT Biennial Contest Organized by URE and AMSAT-EA, will take place from September 15-21, 2025, as part of the activities of the IberRadio 2025 event, the 10th Radiocommunications Fair, the largest amateur radio event in Spain (see https://www.iberradio.es/). The goal is to establish the longest possible radio contacts during the competition through satellites orbiting Earth in LEO orbits. In total, the 15 longest contacts during the competition period will be evaluated. The use of a GEO satellite is deliberately avoided, as equal treatment among participants cannot be guaranteed either on the GEO satellite itself or worldwide. Complete rules for the contest can be found at https://www.amsat-ea.org/app/download/14094293/AM1SAT+2025+Contest+-+English.pdf . [ANS thanks AMSAT-EA for the above information.]
SpaceX’s Dragon cargo spacecraft successfully finished a test reboost of the International Space Station on September 3rd according to NASA. The freighter fired two of its Draco engines for 5 minutes and 3 seconds during the maneuver, agency officials wrote in a Wednesday statement. The ISS orbits roughly 250 miles above Earth on average but naturally falls back to our planet due to atmospheric drag. Visiting cargo spacecraft therefore take on the job of lifting the orbiting complex higher every few months. On Wednesday, Dragon’s efforts got the station to an orbit of 260.9 by 256.3 miles according to NASA. “The new boost kit in Dragon will help sustain the orbiting lab’s altitude through a series of longer burns planned periodically throughout the fall of 2025,” agency officials added. NASA has said these tests will also be important for another SpaceX job down the road: deorbiting the ISS itself. Read the full story at https://www.space.com/space-exploration/international-space-station/spacex-dragon-cargo-capsule-boosts-iss-higher-above-earth-in-key-test . [ANS thanks Space.com 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).
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, Frank Karnauskas, N1UW
f.karnauskas [at] amsat [dot] 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-194 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletin

July 13, 2025 by Frank Karnauskas

In this edition:

* ARISS SSTV Event Starts July 14
* Registration Opens for 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting
* ARISS Call for Proposals for School Contacts Began July 9
* 2025 President’s Club Members Hit $65,000 YTD
* SDR Provides New Capabilities For Next AMSAT CubeSats
* Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
* ARISS News
* AMSAT Ambassador Activities
* Satellite Shorts From All Over

The news feed on http://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

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/

ARISS SSTV Event Starts July 14

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) has announced Slow Scan Television (SSTV) Series 28 to run from July 14-20, 2025.

The theme will be the Apollo Soyuz mission and STS-51F which pioneered SSTV on Shuttles.

This series of 12 images will be transmitted from the ISS on 145.800 MHz using PD120 encoding. Software needed to decode the pictures is free and is available for PC’s, Mac’s, Android smartphones, and iPhones. Search “SSTV software” on Google and your phone’s app store for a variety of options.

Transmissions from the ISS are powerful enough so images can be received with a handheld radio and its stock rubber duck antenna, albeit quite noisy. The addition of a simple homemade 3-element beam to the handheld can produce in pixel perfect images. Persons who are not familiar with SSTV operations can visit https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/.

You are invited to upload decoded images in the ARISS gallery, area “ARISS Series 28 Apollo Soyuz and STS-51F” at: https://ariss-usa.org/ARISS_SSTV/. Once you’ve submitted your pictures, just click on the dedicated button to apply for the official ARISS SSTV award.

Transmissions will begin on Monday, July 14 at 09:15 UTC (05:15 AM Eastern time). Transmissions will cease on Sunday, July 20 at 18:00 UTC (2:00 PM Eastern time).

[ANS thanks ARISS and AMSAT-UK for the above information.]

Your 2025 AMSAT President’s Club Coin Is Waiting!
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
Help Support GOLF and Fox-Plus.

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

Registration Opens for 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting

Registration is now open for the 43rd Annual Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting to be held October 16-19 in Phoenix, Arizona. You can catch the ground-breaking presentations, enjoy good food and exchange ideas with your friends, old and new, in the world of amateur satellites. The overall schedule is:

Thursday, October 16th
0900 – 1700 Board of Directors Meeting

Friday, October 17th
0900 – 1200 Board of Directors Meeting
1300 – 1700 Symposium Presentations
1800 – 2100 Reception & Auction

Saturday, October 18th
0900 – 1200 Symposium Presentations
1300 – 1500 Symposium Presentations
1500 – 1700 Annual General Meeting
1800 – 1900 Reception
1900 – 2100 Banquet

Sunday, October 19th
0800 – 1000 Members Breakfast

Register Now and Save!
Good News! No price increase over previous years’ Symposiums if you register now. Register for the Symposium before September 15 and save $20.

Early Bird Registration
* Symposium Registration is $75
* Banquet registration is $55

Regular Registration
* Symposium Registration is $85
* Banquet registration is $65

Save $20 and Register Today at:
https://launch.amsat.org/events.

Reserve Your Hotel Room Now!
* The Holiday Inn & Suites Phoenix Airport North is located minutes away from Phoenix Sky Harbor airport and features:
* Free airport shuttle and free parking
* Resort-style facility with beautiful courtyard
* Outdoor pool
* Brew pub
* Fitness center
* Free breakfast
* Fully updated rooms
* All rooms are two-room suites with choice of 2 Queen beds or 1 King Bed
* Affordable rates of only $129 plus tax.

Rooms at these Discounted Rates are Limited.
You must make your reservation directly with the hotel to enjoy this special rate.

Call Reservations at 877-424-2449.
Use Group Code: P7C and Group Name: AMSAT.

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information.]

ARISS Call for Proposals for School Contacts Began July 9

The Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) Program is seeking formal and informal education institutions and organizations, individually or working together, to host an Amateur Radio contact with a crew member on board the ISS. ARISS anticipates that the contact would be held between January 1, 2026 and June 30, 2026. Crew scheduling and ISS orbits will determine the exact contact dates. To maximize these radio contact opportunities, ARISS is looking for organizations that will draw large numbers of participants and integrate the contact into a well-developed education plan.

Crew members aboard the International Space Station will participate in scheduled Amateur Radio contacts. These radio contacts are approximately 10 minutes in length and allow students to interact with the astronauts through a question-and-answer session.

The deadline to submit a proposal is August 29th, 2025. Proposal information and more details such as expectations, proposal guidelines and the proposal form can be found at www.ariss.org.

An ARISS Introductory Webinar session will be held on July 30th at 7 PM ET. The Zoom link to sign up is: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/E0qy2calSqudqufl09PL8A

Questions should be directed to [email protected].

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

Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store.
When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/

2025 President’s Club Members Hit $65,000 YTD

AMSAT President, Robert Bankston, KE4AL thanks 2025 President’s Club members who have so far this year donated an amazing $65,544. It is because of these especially generous donors that AMSAT has the resources to Help Keep Amateur Radio in Space. With the Fox-Plus and GOLF-TEE satellites nearing flight readiness, AMSAT especially appreciates these contributions to help purchase flight-proven parts, specialized software licenses, test fees, shipping and travel costs. It just couldn’t be done without your support.

Contributors to date include:

Titanium ($4,800+)
Barry Baines, WD4ASW
Alan Biddle, WA4SCA
William Brown, K9LF
Bruce Paige, KK5DO
Walter Wittenberg, K0CEH

Platinum ($2,400+)
Ray Crafton, KN2K
Douglas Tabor, N6UA

Gold ($1,200+)
Mark Hammond, N8MH
Frank Karnauskas, N1UW
John Kludt, K7SYS
Glenn Miller, AA5PK
Mary Lou Monteiro

Silver ($600+)
Joseph, Lynch,N6CL
Jason Schwarz, N4JJS
Scott Shaheen, WB8OOJ

Bronze ($300+)
Keith Baker, KB1SF
Edward Krome, K9EK
Donald Pettigrew, K9ECT
Dave Taylor, W8AAS

Core ($120+)
Mitch Ahrenstorff, AD0HJ
Alan Boggs, K7IIV
Richard Dittmer, KB7SAT
David Hartrum, WA3YDZ
Doug Papay, K8DP
William Pesci, N4WLP
Tim Pierce, N9PN
Martin Shinko, KB3AEV
Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
Wayne Wagner, AG1A
Jim Wilmerding, W2NNU

There are still nearly six months left to become a member of the 2025 President’s Club. Join today at https://www.amsat.org/product-category/amsat-presidents-club-donations/.

[ANS thanks ANS for the above information.]

SDR Provides New Capabilities For Next AMSAT CubeSats

Rich Gopstein, KD2CQ and Bill Schell, W2WZ highlighted new systems aboard AMSAT’s new GOLF CubeSat at Hamvention 2025. Rich detailed the software defined radio (SDR) module while Bill explained how the SDR communicates with other systems on the upcoming GOLF satellites.

Rich explained, “The diagram above is a block diagram of the GOLF-TEE 3U CubeSat. The purple rectangle located in the middle of the diagram represents a (SDR). The Fox series of satellites before had transponders. Some were FM transponders. They acted like a repeater up in the sky. A single FM channel up with a single FM channel down. Other Fox satellites had linear transponders with wide bandwidths for several SSB or CW signals. Whatever you sent up to the satellite, either on 2 meters or 440, would come down on the other band.

“You could communicate with people that way, operate either FM or linear transponder, but that’s all you could do with a transponder. On the other hand, the SDR allows us to do much more interesting things. Instead of the radio being permanently built into the hardware like it was in the Fox series, with an SDR it’s all done in software. We don’t have to change the hardware to implement different modes like SSTV or any of the voice, data or image operations we want to try. With an SDR we can do it in software. It’s much easier much quicker to do.

“The SDR communicates with the RF matrix, represented by the light gray rectangle to the right of the SDR. The SDR communicates and is controlled by other circuits in the satellite through the Controller Area Network (CAN) bus shown to the left of the SDR. That control bus is used to activate and deactivate the radio system as well as command it to perform a variety of operations.”

Specifically the SDR for the first GOLF satellites is the Ettus Research™ E310 Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP™). Rich explained, “The Ettus 310 SDR has two receive and two transmit antenna connections, which gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of what we want to do. For example, we can create cross-band transponders with it. We will use the radio at 5 GHz and 10 GHz, but it can’t do 10 GHz natively. We need to implement some RF hardware externally to increase the original frequency range to 10 GHz.

“The Ettus runs on a Linux operating system so we will use GNU Radio software to program radio functions. So, if we want to have the radio operate as a transponder, for Morse code, telemetry, SSTV, or whatever, we can do it can through programming.”

It is a free and open-source software development toolkit that provides signal processing blocks to implement software radios. Gopstein remarked, “GNU Radio makes programming easier! The talent and skills of AMSAT engineers are a precious resource. The GNU building block approach saves time while elevating consistency, quality and production rates for the benefit of all AMSAT satellite end users.

“We’re using GNU Radio to support radio necessities such as the spacecraft transponder, telemetry and other modes of data transmission for the GOLF satellites. These are just a portion of the functions we’re capable of using.

“Because the Ettus E310 SDR connects to the RF matrix, various antennas on the satellite can be connected to the SDR. As I said before, the output from the SDR will have a 10 GHz frequency converter and we will also have a solid-state power amplifier. That combination will increase frequency and output power for transmission at 10 GHz then sending the RF to an X band patch antenna.”

“One element of RF operation that we’re definitely going to try with the SDR is a 1 megabits per second (Mbps) data transmission. Another exciting experiment with the SDR could be ‘five-and-dime’ 5GHz/10GHz microwave radio transponder. On future missions, we expect to use the SDR to try all sorts of other functions with the SDR, yet to be determined,” Rich concluded.

Next, Bill Schell, W2WZ went on to say, “This block diagram is a detailed look at part of the original diagram. It shows the Ettus E310 SDR connected to the main control processor of GOLF-TEE, the RT-IHU (Radiation Tolerant Internal Housekeeping Unit). The two are connected over the CAN bus, over which messages flow in each direction.”

“The RT-IHU control software communicates with a python application running on the E310 called ‘SDR Server’. This application receives request messages from the RT-IHU to execute various SDR related actions. It also sends E-310 related status and telemetry information back to the RT-IHU”, Bill added.

According to Bill, “One of the most important actions the RT-IHU requests through SDR server is to start and stop GNU radio flows on the E-310. These flows are the software that implement the radio functions of the SDR. A flow might implement a transponder, the transmission of a periodic morse code ID, or the transmission of a data file to a ground station. Flows are created from building blocks in the GNU radio user interface. Common types of blocks include signal sources, filters, modulators, demodulators, FFT’s, math operations, etc. Blocks are combined to implement a flow which accomplishes a particular radio or signal processing task.”

“Other actions the SDR server performs are the sending of IMU and temperature data to the RT-IHU, receiving a file for later transmission (by a flow), shutdown, and other housekeeping functions”, Bill concluded.

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information]

Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
Get your 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
https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear

Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for July 11

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

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

ARISS NEWS

There are no scheduled contacts at this time.

The packet system is also active (145.825 MHz up & down).

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

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.

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

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

Satellite Shorts From All Over

+ AMSAT SA has announced that its 2025 Space Symposium will be held on August 2, 2025 and has issued the first call for papers. The theme of the symposium is “Embracing 68 years of space science innovation in Amateur Radio”. Papers are invited covering all aspects of space science and communication impacting and enhancing the Amateur Radio experience, from the technical to operational aspects. Presentations are typically 30 minutes a with a 10-minute Q&A. Send proposals in MS Word to [email protected] by July 9, 2025. The symposium will be held online on Webex. Register at https://forms.gle/vY9oGJekxzcg5j4c9.

+ ESA, Telesat and the Science and Technology Facilities Council’s (STFC) RAL Space have reported a groundbreaking milestone in telecommunications technology, successfully establishing a Q-Band (38-39 GHz) link over LEO, between the RAL Space Chilbolton Observatory and the Telesat LEO 3 demonstration satellite. A Q-Band receiver was mounted on Chilbolton Observatory’s large 25m dish. The team at the observatory used this radar tracking capability to monitor the state of the satellite and its orbit during each pass. The team established a stable link with a collocated Ka-Band uplink antenna to the Telesat LEO 3 satellite. The Telesat LEO 3 satellite also provided frequency up-conversion to Q-Band, amplification and retransmission to ground. The Telesat satellite station transmitted a DVBs signal. Full story at https://tinyurl.com/ANS-194-Q-Band.

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

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

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

73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!

This week’s ANS Editor, Frank Karnauskas, N1UW
f.karnauskas [at] amsat [dot] 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.