AfriCUBE SDR Ham Radio CubeSat The South African Radio Leage (SARL) reports AMSAT SA is to shift main focus to AfriCUBE a digital SDR amateur radio CubeSat SARL News says: The AMSAT CubeSat development team has shifted their CubeSat development focus from an analogue transponder to a digital SDR based unit. The development of the AfriCUBE digital SDR transponder under the leadership of Anton Janovsky, ZR6AIC has reached an advanced stage and will soon be ready to undergo its first field trials. The team is not abandoning the development of the KLETSKous analogue transponder, which performed well during the BACAR 7 flight on 12 October 2019. Leon Lessing, ZS6LMG has taken the development to this point but unfortunately, due to personal commitments, cannot continue to work on Kletskous. "I would like to thank Leon for his support and wish him well in his future endeavours," Hannes Coetzee, ZS6BZP, AMSAT SA CubeSat project leader said. During the BACAR flight test it showed that some further development is needed to improve the transponder's receiver sensitivity. "Here is a great opportunity for young enthusiastic engineers in the amateur radio community to take on the challenge. I invite interested persons with RF experience to contact me and become part of the team. While there is no financial reward, the experience and achieving something great that will fly in space outweighs this many times. It will certainly look good on anyone's CV", Hannes said. The EPS (electronic power system), space frame and stabilisation system are complete. The development of the solar panel and antenna deployment systems are making good progress. Frik Wolf, ZS6FZ said he will be ready by mid-January 2020 for project review and field testing. Currently work on a new onboard control system has been paused while Fritz Sutherland, ZS6FSJ is working with Anton Janovsky to get AfricaCUBE ready for on-the-air trials. Nico van Rensburg, ZS6QL will continue work on the documentation crucial to secure a launch opportunity and Hans van de Groenendaal, ZS6AKV will work on frequency allocations and explore launch opportunities and the marketing of the project. AMSAT SA is continuing its dialogue with SANSA and its contractor to place a transponder on EOSAT- 1, a planned high performance earth-observation satellite designed to produce data for a broad range of earth observation applications. The development of AfriCUBE will enhance this opportunity. Source SARL News http://www.sarl.org.za/public/_news/read_arch.asp ?file=../../bulletins/sarlnews%2020191207.txt AMSAT SA http://www.amsatsa.org.za/ http://www.southgatearc.org/news/2019/december/africube-sdr-ham-radio-cubesat.htm
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