AMSAT/Vanderbilt RadFXSat-2/Fox 1E Open for Amateur Use (update 7)

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Updated 2021-AUG-14 – AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin ANS-201 (source)

AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) Open For Amateur Use

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-201.01
ANS-201 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 201.01
From AMSAT HQ WASHINGTON, DC
DATE July 20, 2021
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-201.01

AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) Open For Amateur Use

The AMSAT Engineering and Operations Teams are pleased to announce that
AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) is now open for amateur use. Users are
advised to use efficient modes such as CW or FT4 for making contacts, since
issues with the satellite make SSB voice contacts challenging at best.

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See the following link for an article by Burns Fisher, WB1FJ, and Mark Hammond, N8MH, detailing
the various attempts to characterize AO-109 and its apparent problems.

https://www.amsat.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Debugging-AO-109-update.pdf

 
Previous updates:
2021-JAN-17 17:17 CST – Virgin Orbit’s Cosmic Girl released LauncherOne for launch at 1:38 PM CST from the racetrack off Long Beach.
At 4:28 PM Virgin Orbit tweeted:

Payloads successfully deployed into our target orbit! We are so, so proud to say that LauncherOne has now completed its first mission to space, carrying 9 CubeSat missions into Low Earth Orbit for our friends @NASA.

From ANS-017 AMSAT News Service Weekly News Bulletin:

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SB SAT @ AMSAT $ANS-017.01
ANS-017 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

AMSAT News Service Bulletin 017.01
From AMSAT HQ Washington, DC
January 17, 2021
To All RADIO AMATEURS
BID: $ANS-017.01

RadFxSat-2 Launch Delayed Until Sunday, January 17, 2021

Virgin Orbit announced a new launch date of No Earlier Than (NET) Sunday, January 17, 2021
with additional windows in January if needed. The specific window is 10:00 to 14:00 PST
(1800 to 2200 UTC). Virgin Orbit seems to be using its Twitter account to make their
public announcements, so that may be worth watching at https://twitter.com/Virgin_Orbit.

AMSAT does not have preliminary TLE for the upcoming launch. If you are hoping to snag the
first contact, Jerry Buxton, N0JY, AMSAT VP – Engineering suggests checking the
nasabare.text TLE just prior to launch, maybe thirty-minutes after launch or until they
are posted.

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information.]
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Via ARRL News and additional links:

SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS001
ARLS001 AMSAT/Vanderbilt RadFXSat-2/Fox 1E Set to Launch

ZCZC AS01
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 001 ARLS001
>From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT January 12, 2021
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS001
ARLS001 AMSAT/Vanderbilt RadFXSat-2/Fox 1E Set to Launch

Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne is a go for launch on Wednesday, January
13, at 1500 UTC, carrying the AMSAT/Vanderbilt RadFXSat-2/Fox-1E
CubeSat into space.

The LauncherOne vehicle will carry 10 other satellites.
RadFXSat-2/Fox-1E carries an inverting linear transponder, with
uplink at 145.860 MHz – 145.890 MHz, and downlink at 435.760 MHz –
435.790 MHz.

Telemetry will downlink on 435.750 MHz. More information is on the
Space Launch Now website at,
https://spacelaunchnow.me/launch/launcherone-launch-demo-2/ .
NNNN
/EX

Additional links related to RadFxSat 2 Fox 1E including frequencies:

ANS-0103 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins for Jan. 10, 2021

https://amsat-uk.org/2020/12/03/launch-window-for-amsat-radfxsat-2-fox-1e/
https://www.amsat.org/foxtelem-software-for-windows-mac-linux/

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2019/all2019/55/
https://www.nanosats.eu/sat/radfxsat-2
http://www.arrl.org/news/launch-window-for-amsat-s-radfxsat-2-fox-1e-opens-on-december-19