October 5, 2025

In this edition:

 

 

The AMSAT(R) News Service bulletins are a free, weekly news and information service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.

ANS publishes news related to Amateur Radio in Space including reports on the activities of a worldwide group of Amateur Radio operators who share an active interest in designing, building, launching and communicating through analog and digital Amateur Radio satellites.

 

The news feed on http://www.amsat.org  publishes news of Amateur Radio in Space as soon as our volunteers can post it.

 

Please send any amateur satellite news or reports to: ans-editor [at] amsat [dot] org .

 

Sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List. Join this list at: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

 

AMSAT 43rd Space Symposium Banquet Reservations Close Thursday, October 9, 2025

Those planning to attend the banquet at the 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting must have their reservation made no later than Thursday, October 9, 2025.

 

The banquet menu offers the following buffet features:

 

The keynote speaker for the banquet is Liam Cheney, PMP. Liam is an aerospace consultant and founder of Footstep Aerospace by AG3, LLC, where he supports mission integration, strategy, and business development for the space industry. Over the past decade, he has contributed to the successful launch and deployment of numerous CubeSat missions, including many flown through NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI), where he previously served as a Mission Manager. He has helped launch multiple AMSAT-supported missions during his time at NASA, Tyvak, and SRI International. Liam also served as the launch services Mission Manager for PREFIRE, which launched in 2024 on back-to-back Rocket Lab Electron flights to study polar heat loss and improve climate modeling.

 

Keynote Speaker Liam Cheney
(Photo courtesy Liam Cheney.)

 

He holds a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, where he authored a thesis on safety standards for CubeSat propulsion systems and contributed to the university’s CubeSat Program. A member of AMSAT, Liam lives in Kansas City with his wife and two children and enjoys astrophotography and craft coffee.

Regrettably, walk-in registrations for the banquet cannot be accepted at the Symposium.

 

Make your reservation today at https://launch.amsat.org/Events .

 

[ANS thanks Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, AMSAT Board of Directors, for the above information.]

 

 

Your 2025 AMSAT President’s Club Coin Is Waiting!
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
Help Support GOLF and Fox-Plus.

 

 

Join the AMSAT President's Club today and help
Keep Amateur Radio in Space!
https://www.amsat.org/join-the-amsat-presidents-club/

 

 

ARISS SSTV Event Runs Through October 20, 2025

The ARISS team is working towards two short SSTV activations for October 2025. Both of these are expected to start on a Friday and end on the following Monday.

 

The first event is ARISS' traditional celebration of the launch of the first artificial Earth satellite in 1957. The SSTV activation started on Friday, October 3 and will run to end on Monday, October 6. SSTV will be paused for a short time (~ 60 minutes) on Saturday October 4 for a special student voice contact.

 

(Photo credit: NASA)

 

The second SSTV campaign is tentatively scheduled to start on Friday, October 17, with a short pause (~60 minutes) for a special student contact on Saturday, October 18, and resume until completion on Monday, October 20. This interval roughly coincides with the International Scouting Jamboree on the Air (JOTA) and the SSTV image theme is expected to deal with Scouting.

 

ARISS expects to offer separate electronic award diplomas for participants who receive at least one image from a campaign and submit it to the SSTV gallery.

Tentative times for the first event are:


2025-10-03 1140 UTC start
2025-10-04 1000 UTC pause for a school event
2025-10-04 1100 UTC resume
2025-10-06 TBD UTC stop

 

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information.]

 

 

43rd Annual AMSAT Symposium Speakers List Announced

The 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium has an impressive list of presentations scheduled for October 17 and October 18.

 

(Credit: Holiday Inn Suites Phoenix Airport North)

 

Friday, October 17*

Start

Speaker

Topic

1:00 PM

Introduction/Announcements

 

1:05 PM

AMSAT President

Welcome

1:15 PM

Cameron Castillo, KJ7ILB

ASCENT Team Propulsion

1:45 PM

Jim McCullers, WA4CWI

Oscar to OsTrax

2:15 PM

Andrew Robinson, KA3WDW

FoxPlus Mechanical Layout & Design

3:00 PM

Heimir Thor Sverrisson, W1ANT

Extending Command and Control for GOLF

3:30 PM

Frank Bauer, KA3HDO

ARISS

4:00 PM

Frank Karnauskas, N1UW

Youth Initiative

4:30 PM

Jim White, WD0E

ARDC

 

Saturday, October 18*

Start

Speaker

Topic

8:00 AM

Alan Johnston, KU2Y

CubeSatSim Update & Demonstration

9:00 AM

Agastya Bose, KJ5MSH

CubeSatSim

9:15 AM

Larry Ryan, W7DGP

CubeSatSim

9:30 AM

Frederic Raab, KK6NOW

Bridging Orbit and Classroom: SatNOGS/CubeSatSim

10:15 AM

Burns Fisher, WB1FJ

A New Use for Fox & MESAT-1 Whole Orbit Data Algorithm

10:45 AM

Burns Fisher, WB1FJ

Telemetry for FoxPlus & GOLF CubeSats

11:15 AM

Kipton Moravec, AE5IB

GOLF-TEE Electrical Power Supply (EPS)

1:00 PM

Jerry Buxton, N0JY

Engineering / GOLF-TEE Update

2:00 PM

Mike Moore, K4MVM

FoxPlus Update

2:30 PM

AMSAT President

Annual General Meeting

* All times are Mountain Standard Time (UTC-7). Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings Time.


The presentations will be live streamed on AMSAT's You Tube Channel, recorded and made available for viewing at a later time.
You can view the complete Symposium schedule at https://www.amsat.org/43rd-amsat-space-symposium-and-annual-general-meeting/ .

 

[ANS thanks Frank Karnauskas, N1UW, AMSAT Board of Directors, for the above information.]

 

 

Four US Schools/Organizations Moved Forward in ARISS Selection Process

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) is pleased to announce the US schools/host organizations newly selected for 2026 ARISS contacts. A total of 4 of the submitted proposals during the recent proposal window have been accepted to move forward in the processes of planning to host a scheduled amateur radio contact with crew on the ISS.

 

 

The ARISS program anticipates that NASA will be able to provide scheduling opportunities for the 4 US host organizations during the Jan 2026 – June 2026 time period. They are now at work starting to implement their 4–6 month education plan which was outlined in their proposal. These STEAM based educational activities help prepare students for their contact as well as create an on-going exploration and interest in aerospace and amateur radio topics. They are also completing an acceptable equipment plan that demonstrates their ability to execute the ham radio contact. Once their equipment plan is approved by ARISS, the final selected schools/organizations will be scheduled as their availability and flexibility match up with the scheduling opportunities offered by NASA.

The schools and host organizations are:

 

 

The primary goal of the ARISS program is to engage young people in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM) activities and raise their awareness of space communications, radio communications, space exploration, and related areas of study and career possibilities.

 

[ANS thanks ARISS for the above information.]

 

 

Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase M2 LEO-Packs from the AMSAT Store.

 

 

When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.
https://amsat.org/product-category/hardware/

 

 

A Review of the futureGEO Workshop 2025 in Bochum

On September 19, 2025, the futureGEO workshop took place under the radome of the Bochum Observatory. Organized by AMSAT-DL with the support of ESA, the event brought together international experts, representatives of amateur radio organizations and dedicated radio amateurs who had previously declared their active participation in an appeal and submitted corresponding proposals. In the spring, AMSAT-DL had invited potential interested parties as part of an RFEI. The aim was to build on the experience gained with QO-100 and to jointly define the first concrete mission ideas for a future amateur radio payload in geostationary orbit.

 

 

(Photo courtesy AMSAT-DL)

The workshop was held as a hybrid event. The group was made up of one half who were present on site and the other half who took part online via ZOOM. Andrew Glasbrenner, K04MA, AMSAT VP - Operations represented AMSAT-USA at the meeting.

 

The purpose of the workshop was to collect, cluster and prioritize ideas:

 

 

In a concluding reflection among the participants, it became clear how much QO-100 has revitalized and enriched the amateur radio community:

 

 

The participants hope that radio amateurs can be even more involved in the construction of the hardware of a futureGEO with appropriate personal contribution, transparency and participation than was possible with QO-100 due to NDAs with the manufacturers and owners of the parent satellite.

 

The next steps are clear: The mission ideas developed in the workshop will be further concretized and should be available by the end of 2025 in the form of 1-3 consolidated mission concepts that are both technically exciting and attractive to the international amateur radio community and must also be technically feasible.

 

Read the entire story at https://amsat-dl.org/en/review-futuregeo-workshop-2025-in-bochum/ .

 

[ANS thanks AMSAT-DL for the above information.]

 

 

VUCC & DXCC Satellite Standings October 2025

 

VUCC Satellite Standings for October 2025
VUCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for September 1, 2025 to October 1, 2025

 

JK2XXK

1103

1208

XE1AO

1177

1185

HB9AOF

907

1016

IK3ITB

900

1000

KQ4DO

952

983

W8LR

916

919

KS1G

754

768

LY4AA

670

729

LA6OP

632

663

W0JW

341

654

HB9GWJ

602

631

KO9A

545

547

AB1OC

476

479

K3HPA

400

425

N4QWF

350

376

K5WO

304

326

OH3DP

256

300

AA6DY

New

167

JA9OJM

128

151

WB5TX

135

143

S21DX

New

128

KM6HB

New

104

W5QZ

New

102

 

Congratulations to the new VUCC Satellite holders:


AA6DY New 167
S21DX New 128
KM6HB New 104
W5QZ New 102

 

S21DX is first VUCC Satellite holder from NL51

 

DXCC Satellite Standings for October 2025
DXCC Satellite Award/Endorsement Change Summary for September 1, 2025 to October 1, 2025.

OE9DGV

215

217

HB9RYZ

164

166

LA6OP

154

159

HB9GWJ

143

150

G4BWP

110

134

F6EXV

New

114

I4DOR

109

113

US0SY

New

101

9A1CAL

New

100

KQ4DO

New

100

 

Congratulations to the new DXCC Satellite holders:


F6EXV New 114
US0SY New 101
9A1CAL New 100
KQ4DO New 100

 

9A1CAL is first DXCC Satellite holder from Croatia and JN86.

 

[ANS thanks Jon Goering, N7AZ, for the above information.]

 

 

GridMasterMap Satellite Top 100 Rovers October 2025 Rankings

The October 2025 rankings for the Top 100 Rovers (Mixed LEO/MEO/GEO) in satellite operations, as determined by @GridMasterMap on Twitter, has been released. The ranking is determined by the number of grids and DXCC entities activated, taking into account only those grids where a minimum number of QSOs logged on the gridmaster.fr website have been validated by a third party. Grid numbers do not directly reflect the exact number of activations. Satellite operators are encouraged to upload their LoTW satellite contacts to https://gridmaster.fr in order to provide more accurate data. Updated: 2025-10-02.

 

1

ND9M

26

KX9X

51

KE0PBR

76

KM4LAO

2

NJ7H

27

DJ8MS

52

KE0WPA

77

VA7LM

3

UT1FG

28

KG5CCI

53

JK2XXK

78

VE7PTN

4

JA9KRO

29

ON4AUC

54

EA4NF

79

N4UFO

5

N5UC

30

N5BO

55

PR8KW

80

N6UTC

6

F5VMJ

31

K8BL

56

XE1ET

81

PT2AP

7

DL6AP

32

KE4AL

57

EB1AO

82

AA8CH

8

DP0POL

33

PA3GAN

58

W7WGC

83

VE1VOX

9

OE3SEU

34

F4BKV

59

LU4JVE

84

FG8OJ

10

WI7P

35

KB5FHK

60

N6DNM

85

PT9BM

11

K5ZM

36

AC0RA

61

SM3NRY

86

YU0W

12

WY7AA

37

JO2ASQ

62

F4DXV

87

KI7UXT

13

HA3FOK

38

VA3VGR

63

KI7QEK

88

KJ7NDY

14

LU5ILA

39

KI0KB

64

W8LR

89

AF5CC

15

N6UA

40

VE3HLS

65

W1AW

90

KB2YSI

16

W5PFG

41

KI7UNJ

66

AA5PK

91

VE3GOP

17

N9IP

42

LA9XGA

67

WD5GRW

92

K0FFY

18

DL2GRC

43

HJ5LVR

68

VE1CWJ

93

JM1CAX

19

AK8CW

44

BG7QIW

69

KE9AJ

94

PS8BR

20

N4AKV

45

DF2ET

70

M1DDD

95

BI1MHK

21

AD0DX

46

N7AGF

71

AD7DB

96

W8MTB

22

AD0HJ

47

JL3RNZ

72

HB9GWJ

97

DK9JC

23

ND0C

48

VK5DG

73

SP5XSD

98

WA9JBQ

24

BA1PK

49

K7TAB

74

DL4EA

99

N4DCW

25

WD9EWK

50

XE3DX

75

N8RO

100

KG4AKV

 

[ANS thanks Mitch Ahrenstorff, AD0HJ ANS Rotating Editor and @GridMasterMap for the above information.]

 

 

Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
Get your AMSAT car flag and other neat stuff from our Zazzle store!

 

 

25% of the purchase price of each product goes towards
Keeping Amateur Radio in Space
https://www.zazzle.com/amsat_gear

 

 

Changes to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for October 3, 2025

Two Line Elements or TLEs, often referred to as Keplerian elements or keps in the amateur community, are the inputs to the SGP4 standard mathematical model of spacecraft orbits used by most amateur tracking programs. Weekly updates are completely adequate for most amateur satellites. TLE bulletin files are updated daily in the first hour of the UTC day. New bulletin files will be posted immediately after reliable elements become available for new amateur satellites. More information may be found at https://www.amsat.org/keplerian-elements-resources/ .

 

This week there are no additions or deletions to the AMSAT TLE distribution.

 

[ANS thanks Joe Fitzgerald, KM1P, AMSAT Orbital Elements Manager for the above information.]

 

 

ARISS NEWS

Amateurs and others around the world may listen in on contacts between amateurs operating in schools and allowing students to interact with astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station. The downlink frequency on which to listen is 145.800 MHz worldwide.

 

 

Upcoming Contacts
Paterson P-Tech High School/ Paterson Public Schools, Paterson, New Jersey, direct via W2NPT
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be NA1S .
The scheduled crewmember is Kimiya Yui, KG5BPH.
The ARISS mentor is AB1OC.
Contact is go for Monday, October 6. 2025 at 14:24:46 UTC.

 

Namibia Scientific Society, Windhoek, Namibia, telebridge via ON4ISS.
The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS.
The scheduled crewmember is Kimiya Yui, KG5BPH.
The ARISS mentor is KA3HDO.
Contact is go for Thursday, October 9, 2025 at 10:37:18 UTC.

 

Completed Contacts
Pobeda schools, Aznakaevsky district of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, direct via RC4P.
The ISS callsign was RSØISS.
The crewmember was Sergey Ryzhikov.
The ARISS mentor is RV3DR.
Contact was successful on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 1 10:45 UTC.

 

Instituto Politecnico Nacional: Planetario “Luis Enrique Erro”, Mexico City (Gustavo A. Madero), Mexico, Direct via XE2L.
The ISS callsign was NA1SS.
The crewmember was Zena Cardman, KJ5CMN.
The ARISS mentor was VE3TBD.
Contact was successful on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 16:40:40 UTC.

 

The crossband repeater continues to be active (145.990 MHz up {PL 67} & 437.800 MHz down). If any crewmember is so inclined, all they have to do is pick up the microphone, raise the volume up, and talk on the crossband repeater. So give a listen, you just never know.

 

The packet system is also active (145.825 MHz up & down).

 

As always, if there is an EVA, a docking, or an undocking; the ARISS radios are turned off as part of the safety protocol.

 

Note, all times are approximate. It is recommended that you do your own orbital prediction or start listening about 10 minutes before the listed time.

 

The latest information on the operation mode can be found at https://www.ariss.org/current-status-of-iss-stations.html .

 

The latest list of frequencies in use can be found at https://www.ariss.org/contact-the-iss.html .

 

[ANS thanks Charlie Sufana, AJ9N, one of the ARISS operation team mentors for the above information.]

 

 

AMSAT Ambassador Activities

AMSAT Ambassadors provide presentations, demonstrate communicating through amateur satellites, and host information tables at club meetings, hamfests, conventions, maker faires, and other events.

 

October 11, 2025
North Star Radio Convention
Hennepin Technical College
9000 Brooklyn Boulevard
Brooklyn Park, MN 55445
https://northstarradio.org/
ADØHJ

 

October 16, 17, 18, 19, 2025
AMSAT Board of Directors Meeting and 43rd Annual AMSAT Space Symposium & Annual General Meeting
Holiday Inn & Suites Phoenix Airport North
1515 North 44th Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85008
Details at https://www.amsat.org/2025-symposium/ .

 

[ANS thanks Bo Lowrey, W4FCL, Director – AMSAT Ambassador Program, for the above information.]

 

 

Satellite Shorts From All Over

 

 

 

Join AMSAT today at https://launch.amsat.org/ .

 

In addition to regular membership, AMSAT offers membership to:

 

 

Contact info [at] amsat.org for additional membership information.

 

73 and remember to help Keep Amateur Radio in Space!

 

This week's ANS Editor, Frank Karnauskas, N1UW.
f.karnauskas [at] amsat [dot] org

 

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AMSAT is a registered trademark of the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.