Bought a small hotplate for SMD soldering. Not tried this before, but need to build this demo IQ modulator for image transfer at 18kbs QPSK for AMSAT-UK FUNcube+ mission.

Yes!! New country on satellite.

Holiday break over, but had some fun. Thanks GU6EFB, IU1OZH, F5RRS, PD1B ON6TM for the SSB QSOs on AO-73. Put up a half wave for 160m + 49:1 transformer with G1YGY. Contributed 4kg of cooked chicken towards the rescue greyhounds Christmas lunch at Wimbledon Greyhound Welfare HNY

70cm pre-amplifier kits for mode V/U satellite reception are finally available to members via the @AmsatUK shop. shop.amsat-uk.org/product/70… Should have some here for direct sales in about a week.

70cm Pre-amp update. I have one assembled. Active device is a PGA103 from Mini-Circuits. The 2m notch works very nicely with -36dB at 145M. Gain on 435MHz is a fraction under +16dB. I need to look at the output low pass filter matching to make the response a little smoother.

Need a UHF preamp? I've just received these boards from PCBWay. Should be 16dB gain on 435 with a 2m notch filter on the input. N F. Less than 0.7dB with power via the coax. Should have the first one assembled tomorrow.

It's official ! Given a choice of RG213, Messi & Paoloni, or rotator cable. Squirrels, herons and foxes prefer to eat Messi & Paoloni ultraflex 7. A QSO with FP5KE will be left for another day. :(

Arrived in Bochum for the FutureGEO workshop. On the way we managed to visit our old friends at Isispace and collect some flight hardware for our next satellite mission.

On my way to the ESA GEO satellite workshop in Bochum. Hope this gets us a GEO that covers Europe and The USA

Destined for the 6U Jovian-1 satellite, this mode U/V FM transponder had its first on-air test yesterday. 20W ERP on 70cm over a distance of 59km and a path loss of -150dB was received on a QFH antenna and retransmitted on 145.895MHz. Thanks to G0MJW and G3VZV for its first QSO.

Etlaq Spaceport: Ever heard of that? This week, this up and coming spaceport in Southern Oman will host a sub orbital launch to 500km. The 12m Kia-1 rocket from @stellarkinetics will carry a UK student 6U payload called Jovian-O, including 70cm hardware supplied by @AmsatUK

What an excellent Ham Radio weekend at Friedrichshafen. Special thanks to Nina and friends for organising the AMSAT-DL QO-100 dinner on Saturday. Plenty to see at the show. A 10GHz patch array and some new 10G products including a 1.5W PA from Hi-Des of Taiwan were impressive.

Very pleased to work Roger N1NN on the RS-44 satellite in CW very early this morning. Despite being on the satellites for decades, this was my first transatlantic QSO on a LEO satellite. 😀🚀