AMSAT News Service
ANS-285
October 12, 2025
In this edition:
- 2025 AMSAT Symposium Takes Place October 17-19, Livestream Available
- AMSAT-UK Colloquium Continues
- Japanese CubeSats Deployed from ISS
- Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for October 10, 2025
- ARISS News
- AMSAT Ambassador Activities
- Satellite Shorts From All Over
The AMSAT News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information service of AMSAT, The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation. ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.
The news feed on https://www.amsat.org publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.
Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor [at] amsat.org
You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/
2025 AMSAT Symposium Takes Place October 17-19, Livestream Available
The 2025 AMSAT Symposium will take Place October 17-19, 2025 in Phoenix, AZ. Registration for the Symposium is still available, but banquet registration has closed.
For those of you who are unable to attend in person, a livestream of Symposium presentations will be available.
The tentative schedule of presentations follows:
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 | Telemetry for FoxPlus & GOLF CubeSats |
| 10:45 AM | Burns Fisher, WB1FJ | A New Use for Fox & MESAT-1 Whole Orbit Data Algorithm |
| 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 YouTube 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 AMSAT for the above information]
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
AMSAT-UK Colloquium Continues
As of publication, he AMSAT-UK Colloquium continues. A livestream of Sunday’s proceedings can be found at https://youtube.com/live/RC1p6iS-zwE
Videos of talks will be added to AMSAT-UK’s YouTube channel.
[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]
The 2025 AMSAT President’s Club Coins Are Here!
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
Help Support GOLF and Fox Plus.
Join the AMSAT President’s Club today!
Japanese CubeSats Deployed from ISS
Three Japanese CubeSats were deployed from the ISS using the Japanese J-SSOD on October 10, 2025. Two of the satlelites transmit in the amateur radio bands.
e-kagaku-1
CW, DigiTalker, 1.2kbps AFSK, 9.6kbps GMSK 145.840MHz
https://ekagaku-sat.net/ This web site is in Japanese
https://iaru.amsat-uk.org/fini
BOTAN
APRS 145.825MHz
Digital 437.375MHz
https://sites.google.com/p.chi
https://iaru.amsat-uk.org/fini
[ANS thanks JAXA and Masahiro Arai, JN1GKZ, for the above information]
Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for October 10, 2025
Two Line Elements or TLEs, often referred to as Keplerian elements or keps in the amateur community, are the inputs to the SGP4 standard mathematical model of spacecraft orbits used by most amateur tracking programs. Weekly updates are completely adequate for most amateur satellites. TLE bulletin files are updated daily in the first hour of the UTC day. New bulletin files will be posted immediately after reliable elements become available for new amateur satellites. More information may be found at https://www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-resources/.
The following satellite has been added to this week’s AMSAT TLE distribution:
CSS (TIANHE-1) NORAD Cat ID: 48274 Chinese space station, possible ham gear aboard
We recognize that the entire space station is referred to as “Tiangong”, but use the same identifier as the US Space Force for consistency with other sources of orbital information.
[ANS thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager, for the above information]
Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase an M2 LEO-Pack from the AMSAT Store!
When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
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
1st Radford Semele Scout Group, Radford Semele, United Kingdom, Direct via GB4RSS
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1SS
The downlink frequency is presently scheduled to be 145.800 MHz
The scheduled crewmember is Jonathan (Jonny) Kim KJ5HKP
The ARISS mentor is MØXTD
Contact is go for: Sat 2025-10-18 08:12:55 UTC 81 deg (test pass with color bars)
Contact is go for: Sat 2025-10-18 09:49:40 UTC 43 deg (actual school event pass)
Many times a school may make a last minute decision to do a Livestream or run into a last minute glitch requiring a change of the URL but we at ARISS may not get the URL in time for publication. You can always check https://live.ariss.org/ to see if a school is Livestreaming.
As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios are turned off as part of the safety protocol.
The crossband repeater continues to be active (145.990 MHz up {PL 67} & 437.800 MHz down), If any crewmember is so inclined, all they have to do is pick up the microphone, raise the volume up, and talk on the crossband repeater. So give a listen, you just never know.
Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time.
The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html
The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html
[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors for the above information]
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.
AMSAT Ambassador Clint Bradford, K6LCS, says,
“Think a 75-minute presentation on “working the easy satellites” would be appropriate for your club or event? Let me know by emailing me at k6lcsclint (at) gmail (dot) com or calling me at 909-999-SATS (7287)!”
Clint has NEVER given the exact same show twice: EACH of the 150+ presentations so far has been customized/tailored to their audiences.
Scheduled Events
43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting – October 16 thru 19, 2025
Holiday Inn & Suites Phoenix Airport North
1515 North 44th Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85008
Details at https://www.amsat.org/2025-symposium/
Interested in becoming an AMSAT Ambassador? AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.
For more information go to: https://www.amsat.org/ambassador/
[ANS thanks Bo Lowrey, W4FCL, Director – AMSAT Ambassador Program, for the above information]
Satellite Shorts from All Over
+ October 8, 2025 was the 10th anniversary of the launch of AMSAT’s first Fox-1 satellite, AO-85. Although it suffered from a slightly deaf receiver, AO-85 provided amateur service for four years before succumbing to battery failure, supporting thousands of QSOs. Additionally, the satellite returned 6,411,349 frames of telemetry over its lifetime, including experimental data for Vanderbilt University.
+ ARISS’s SSTV Series 29 highlighting World Space Week concluded last week with over 3,200 people submitting more than 8,000 image decodes so far. To receive a digital certificate, submit your decodes by 23:59 UTC on Sunday, October 12th to https://ariss-usa.org/ARISS_SSTV/ (Thanks to ARISS)
+ A rumor circulated that CAMSAT’s CAS-11 satellite would launch yesterday on the Gravity-1 rocket from a sea launch platform off the coast of Haiyang. Although the launch was successful and the orbital parameters and launch information match the IARU filing for CAS-11, it appears that the satellite was not on board.
Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/
In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:
- Societies (a recognized group, clubs or organization).
- Primary and secondary school students are eligible for membership at one-half the standard yearly rate.
- Post-secondary school students enrolled in at least half time status shall be eligible for the student rate for a maximum of 6 post-secondary years in this status.
- Memberships are available for annual and lifetime terms.
Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.
73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
This week’s ANS Editor,
Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
n8hm [at] arrl.net
ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H Street NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002
