AMSAT News Service

ANS-327
November 23, 2025

In this edition:

The AMSAT 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 https://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.org

You can sign up for free e-mail delivery of the AMSAT News Service Bulletins via the ANS List; to join this list see: https://mailman.amsat.org/postorius/lists/ans.amsat.org/

September/October 2025 Edition of The AMSAT Journal Now Available

The September/October 2025 issue of The AMSAT Journal is now available to members on AMSAT’s Member Portal.

Click here to download your copy now

The AMSAT Journal is a bi-monthly digital magazine for amateur radio in space enthusiasts, published by the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation (AMSAT). Each issue is your source for hardware and software projects, technical tips, STEM initiatives, operational activities, and news from around the world.

Inside the Current Issue:

[ANS thanks AMSAT for the above information]

AMSAT Remove Before Flight Key Tags Now Available
Yes, These are the Real Thing!

Your $20 Donation Goes to Help Fly a Fox-Plus Satellite
Includes First Class Postage (Sorry – U.S. Addresses Only)
Order Today at https://www.amsat.org/product/amsat-remove-before-flight-keychain

New AMSAT CubeSatSim Lite Available on AMSAT Store Sunday

The new AMSAT CubeSatSim Lite will be available on the AMSAT Store starting on Sunday November 23 at 7:00 pm U.S. Eastern Time. The product page can be found at https://www.amsat.org/product/cubesatsim-lite-complete/

The CubeSatSim Lite comes fully assembled and includes a Pi Zero 2W with CubeSatSim micro SD card installed, SMA antennas, USB sound card, Pi Camera, and USB power cord and plug. Just plug it into a power outlet and you will receive simulated telemetry in seven modes including the new FUNcube mode and Cross Band Repeater Mode.
 
For full information see this Wiki page: https://github.com/alanbjohnston/CubeSatSim/wiki/CubeSatSim-Lite or the CubeSatSim ReadMe file: https://cubesatsim.org/download/cubesatsim-lite-readme.pdf
 
This is a small initial batch - the next batch should be available early in the new year.
 
] 
CubeSatSim Lite Complete

[ANS thanks Alan Johnston, KU2Y, AMSAT Vice President - Educational Relations, for the above information]

The 2025 AMSAT President’s Club Coins Are Here!
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Amateur Radio on Human Spaceflight
Help Support GOLF and Fox Plus.
Join the AMSAT President’s Club today!

Happy 12th Birthday to AO-73 (FUNcube-1)

AO-73 celebrated its 12th birthday on November 21, 2025. The satellite is still operating well in full-time transponder mode.

On November 21, 2013 FUNcube-1 (AO-73) was launched from the Yasny launch base located in the Orenburg Region, Russia on a Dnepr Launch Vehicle into a 600 km, 97.8º inclination sun-synchronous orbit. In this orbit the satellite passes over the British Isles and Europe approximately 3 times in the morning, and 3 in the evening, every day, perhaps allowing the morning passes to be used for educational purposes and the evening passes for Amateur Radio communications.

FUNcube carries a UHF to VHF linear transponder that has 300 mW PEP output and which can be used by Radio Amateurs worldwide for SSB and CW communications.

Communication subsystem:
• 145.935 MHz BPSK Telemetry 30/300 mW
• Inverting SSB/CW transponder 300 mW
– 435.150 – 435.130 MHz Uplink
– 145.950 – 145.970 MHz Downlink

The passband may be up to 15 kHz higher depending on on-board temperatures. Low temperatures give higher frequencies

As of writing, ground stations from around the world have collected 11,631,536 frames of telemetry throughout the satellite's life. The satellite's recently received telemetry values can be found on AMSAT-UK's Data Warehouse at http://data.amsat-uk.org/ui/fc1-fm.

 

[ANS thanks AMSAT-UK for the above information]

Successful Reception of CatSat 10 GHz Downlink

Mike Seguin, N1JEz, reports the successful reception of the University of Arizona's CatSat's 10 GHz downlink on 10.47 GHz on the morning of November 21, 2025. The satellite's  linear transponder uses 10 GHz down and 5 GHz up. More information is available at https://catsat.arizona.edu/

Mike reports that signals were quite good in FN34xn in Vermont! His next step is to try the uplink on 5 GHz on 5.663 GHz.

Below is a link to a portion of the pass. It is an I&Q file recorded with HDSDR using the Winrad format.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15cuuhi-U5WDkVjiKHJeuP_argBhH0Cpz/view?usp=drive_link

Congrats to the CatSat team!!

[ANS thanks Mike Seguin, N1JEZ, and the University of Arizona's CatSat Team for the above information]

SO-124 Nears End of Orbital Life

Simulations indicate that the decay of our satellite HADES-R (SO-124) is approaching and will likely occur during the first two weeks of January 2026. If you can, take the opportunity to make use of this satellite, which has been working very well and has brought much joy to radio amateurs around the world. Any old FM equipment will work, since the repeater is level-activated and does not require a sub-tone.

The frequencies and operating modes are as follows:

SO-124

145.925 MHz uplink, Modes: FM voice (no sub-tone) and FSK 200 bps, AFSK, AX.25, APRS 1200 / 2400 bps
436.888 MHz downlink,  Modes: FM voice, CW, FSK 200–2400 bps

[ANS thanks Félix Páez, EA4GQS, AMSAT-EA for the above information]

Changes to AMSAT TLE Distribution for November 21, 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 changes to the AMSAT TLE Distributions.

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

Need new satellite antennas?
Purchase an M2 LEO-Pack from the AMSAT Store!

When you purchase through AMSAT, a portion of the proceeds goes towards Keeping Amateur Radio in Space.

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.

Scheduled Contacts

MAI students, Russia direct via TBD

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS 
The ARISS mentor is RV3DR 

Contact is go for Mon 2025-11-24 14:50 UTC

Students from the Aznakaevsky District of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia, direct via TBD

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be RSØISS 
The scheduled crewmember is Oleg Platonov
The ARISS mentor is RV3DR 

Contact is go for Tue 2025-11-25 12:30 UTC

Istituto Di Istruzione Superiore "Il Tagliamento" Di Spilimbergo (Pn), Spilimbergo, Italy, telebridge via IK1SLD

AND

Istituto Comprensivo “G. Mazzini”, Livorno, Italy, telebridge via TBD

The ISS callsign is presently scheduled to be OR4ISS
The scheduled crewmember is Zena Cardman KJ5CMN
The ARISS mentor is IZ2GOJ

Contact is go for: Fri 2025-11-28 11:40:17 UTC 34 deg

Due to the scheduled docking of the Soyuz scheduled for Thu 2025-11-27 12:38 UTC, the radios will be powered down.  Here is the schedule for power down and power up:

Service module radio power down Thu 2025-11-27 10:35 to 10:40 UTC

Columbus module radio power down Thu 2025-11-27 10:40 to 10:45 UTC

Service module radio power up Fri 2025-11-28 10:15 to 10:20 UTC

Columbus module radio power up Fri 2025-11-28 10:20 to 10:25 UTC

Many times a school may make a last minute decision to do a Livestream or run into a last minute glitch requiring a change of the URL but we at ARISS may not get the URL in time for publication.  You can always check https://live.ariss.org/ to see if a school is Livestreaming.

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

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.

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]

Want to fly the colors on your own grid expedition?
Get an 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

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.

AMSAT Ambassador Clint Bradford, K6LCS, says,

“Think a 75-minute presentation on “working the easy satellites” would be appropriate for your club or event? Let me know by emailing me at k6lcsclint (at) gmail (dot) com or calling me at 909-999-SATS (7287)!”

Clint has NEVER given the exact same show twice: EACH of the 150+ presentations so far has been customized/tailored to their audiences.

Scheduled Events

No events currently scheduled

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

For more information go to: https://www.amsat.org/ambassador/

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

Satellite Shorts from All Over

+ China is set to launch an uncrewed Shenzhou spacecraft to the Tiangong space station to provide the Shenzhou-21 astronauts with a means of returning home. An airspace closure notice issued Nov. 17 indicates that China is preparing the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft and a Long March 2F rocket for launch at around 04:10z. on Nov. 25. (ANS thanks SpaceNews Weekly for the above information)

+ Reports indicate the Lobachevsky (RS83S) will be launched in late December. Although the IARU coordination request indicated that it would carry a digital repeater, the satellite's website indicates that it carries an FM transponder with a 70cm uplink and a 2m downlink. (ANS thanks SpacePi and PV8DX for the information)

+ The Iowa State University Amateur Radio Club is planning to launch a high altitude balloon carrying a linear transponder. The transponder will have an uplink on 10m and a downlink on 2m. The launch was originally planned for November 21, 2025, but this was scrubbed due to weather. The next opportunity will be after December 1st. More information can be found at https://stuorgs.engineering.iastate.edu/carc/balloon-lauch/ (ANS thanks the Iowa State University ARC for the information)

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,

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM
n8hm [at] arrl.net

ANS is a service of AMSAT, the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation, 712 H Street NE, Suite 1653, Washington, DC 20002