• China Launches Satellites Carrying Amateur Radio Transponders

    From ARRL de WD1CKS@VERT/WLARB to QST on Thu Jun 15 23:22:18 2017
    06/15/2017

    China's CAMSAT has announced that two Amateur Radio payloads piggybacked on the optical remote-sensing microsatellites OVS-1A and OVS-1B were launched on June 15 from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. The primary launch mission is a hard X-ray modulation telescope satellite (HXMT). The Amateur Radio payloads are designated CAS-4A and CAS-4B.

    CAS-4A (call sign BJ1SK) carries an inverting U/V inverting transponder, with a CW telemetry beacon at 145.888 MHz and 4.8 kb GMSK telemetry at 145.835 MHz. The transponder uplink is 435.220 MHz, ;the downlink is 145.870 MHz.

    CAS-4B (call sign: BJ1SL) carries an essentially identical inverting U/V linear transponder, with a CW telemetry beacon at 145.910 MHz and GMSK telemetry at 145.890 MHz. The transponder uplink is 435.280 MHz; the downlink is 435.280 MHz.

    "The frequencies of transponders are center frequencies, and uplinks/downlinks are both 20 kHz wide," CAMSAT's Alan Kung, BA1DU, explained. "The transponders are linear and good for SSB/CW operation."

    Both CAS-4A and CAS-4B are equipped with quarter-wave monopole antennas for VHF and UHF. - Thanks to Alan Kung, BA1DU/CAMSAT

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