SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS014
ARLS014 Chinese Amateur Radio Satellite Launch Now Scheduled for
September 18
ZCZC AS14
QST de W1AW
Space Bulletin 014 ARLS014
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT September 17, 2015
To all radio amateurs
SB SPACE ARL ARLS014
ARLS014 Chinese Amateur Radio Satellite Launch Now Scheduled for
September 18
Nine Amateur Radio satellites will be among 20 satellites set to
launch on September 18 from China. China Amateur Satellite Group
CAMSAT CEO Alan Kung, BA1DU, told ARRL that the satellites will head
into space at 2300 UTC and separate from the rocket 15:14 after
launch. Four of the microsatellites and two of the CubeSats included
in the launch have been designated as XW-2A through XW-2F. The other
three satellites, a CubeSat, a nanosatellite, and a picosatellite,
carry the designations CAS-3G through CAS-3I, respectively.
The nine satellites carrying Amateur Radio payloads were delivered
to the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in Central China in August.
The launch has been postponed twice. Initially CAMSAT had planned to
launch the satellites in mid-July. Then the launch was put off until
"September 7 or 8."
XW-2 Keplerian Elements Provided by CAMSAT
1 99999U 15261.96885740 .00004980 00000-0 28369-3 0 00000
2 99999 097.4712 269.8396 0010382 266.0521 270.6645 15.12847582000010
The XW-2 series satellites are equipped with substantially identical
Amateur Radio payloads - a U/V mode linear transponder, a CW
telemetry beacon and an AX.25 19.2k/9.6k baud GMSK telemetry
downlink, CAMSAT has said. Each Amateur Radio complement has the
same technical characteristics, but will operate on different 70
centimeter uplink and 2 meter downlink frequencies. XW-2A through
XW-2F have identical quarter-wavelength deployable monopole whip
antennas made of steel tape.
In August the IARU informed CAMSAT that it was only able to
coordinate uplink and downlink frequencies for two of the nine
spacecraft (XW-2D and XW-2E). In a public statement released on
August 20 by IARU Secretary Rod Stafford, W6ROD, the IARU reiterated
that coordinated frequencies must comply with band plans common to
all three IARU regions. "Satellites coordinated outside these plans
could cause interference to terrestrial amateur operations in other
regions," the IARU said.
CAMSAT worked with three entities to complete the other three
satellites: CAS-3G (DCBB), a 2U CubeSat being built by Shenzhen HIT
Satellite Ltd of China for educational purposes; CAS-3H
(LilacSat-2), a Harbin Institute of Technology of China
microsatellite for science experiments and Amateur Radio, and CAS-3I
(NDT-Phone Sat), a National University of Defense Technology of
China picosatellite for carrying out technical experiments. CAS-3G
and CAS-3I will downlink digital telemetry on amateur frequencies,
while CAS-3H will carry a U/V FM transponder and APRS.
Kung said a Long March-6 rocket will carry the XW-2 and CAS-3
satellites as well as the other spacecraft into orbit.
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/EX
