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Congratulations to Hector Martinez, CO6CBF and Joe Murphy, EI5EV for completing the first satellite contact between Cuba and Ireland on April 3, 2013 on FO-29.

The distance between CO6CBF and EI5EV is 6955.1 km. Both stations had a 66 second window within the FO-29 footprint. Hector wrote, “Doppler is always in play. We did the calculations based on the great feature implemented on SatPC32 V12.8b using the option of seeing the frequency you are at the satellite receiver. This was our common reference point. I was very satisfied when I heard Joe exactly on the frequency I was expecting!”

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ARRL UHF/Microwave Band Plan Committee Chairman, Rick Roderick, K5UR reports that  the draft documents of the 5 and 10 GHz band plans have been released for review.

The Committee, charted by the ARRL Board of Directors, has prepared draft band plans for 5 centimeters (5.650-5.925 GHz) and 3 centimeters (10-10.500 GHz).

Amateur Satellite allocations in the draft band plans include:

• Amateur Satellite; Up-Link Only 5650.000 – 5670.000 MHz
• Amateur Satellite; Down-Link Only 5830.000 – 5850.000 MHz
• Space, Earth & Telecommand Stations 10450.000 – 10500.000 MHz

The band plan committee is requesting user comments via e-mail to [email protected] by April 30, 2013.

The ARRL Band Plan announcement, including links to the PDF copies of the proposed band plan documents is available on the ARRL Web.

REGISTER NOW for the AMSAT-DC Spring Workshop 2013.  Those who wish to attend the “Workshop on Portable Satellite Ground Stations” on Saturday, March 23, must call Martha in advance at AMSAT headquarters at 301-589-6062 to receive a workshop registration number.  Your unique registration number is your ticket to get in, starting at 9:00 A.M. EDT.  There will be no registration at the door.

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