23cm band: Amateur radio coexistence with Sat-Nav

Galileo LogoThe Chair of IARU Region 1 Spectrum Affairs, Barry Lewis G4SJH, reports on the meeting of the ITU-R Working Party 4C (WP4C) July 5-13 which discussed the amateur radio 1240 MHz band.

On the IARU-R1 site he writes:

During the period 5 – 13 July 2021, the preparatory work for WRC-23 agenda item 9.1b continued in ITU‑R Working Party 4C (WP4C). (See Region 1 Feb 23rd news item for further background). The IARU member representatives from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Japan, Norway, UK and USA, participated in the meeting and delivered additional information on amateur activities in this key microwave band

Preliminary studies came from France based on the ongoing CEPT work to provide initial estimates of separation distances required between RNSS GALILEO receivers and a sample of amateur emissions. The European Commission GALILEO team provided a set of observations pertaining to a RNSS interference event in northern Italy.

The work contributed by France, although needing refinement, is going in a good direction, using ITU‑R recommended propagation models and assumptions based on operating scenarios provided by the amateur community. Further work is needed to take account of the large disparity between the RNSS service receiver bandwidths and the frequency band offsets of the amateur applications based on the measurements carried out by Germany.

The RNSS community have updated their RNSS receiver protection criteria with an update to ITU‑R Recommendation M.1902 that now includes parameters relevant to the GALILEO E6 signal block. However these criteria only distinguish between a narrow band and wide band interferer level at the receiver and take no account of offset frequency in the receiver bandwidth or any time variance.

The IARU is working to ensure the amateur services are realistically represented in the studies as they move forward. It remains vital that national amateur communities present their views on the importance of this band to their national regulators in a consolidated and consistent manner. The work will continue throughout the year and beyond both in ITU‑R and in the regional telecommunications organisations and the IARU is committed to ensure every group hears the amateur position on this important microwave band.

Read Barry’s full post at
https://www.iaru-r1.org/2021/23cm-band-and-sat-nav-coexistence-preliminary-studies-considered-in-itu-r-wp4c/

Read the IARU Summary Meeting Report at
https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Report-from-WP4C_Jul-2021Rev1.pdf

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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AO-109 transponder available for use by efficient modes like FT4/CW

AMSAT FOXAMSAT has announced the transponder on the amateur satellite AO-109 (Fox-1E) is available for use by efficient modes such as FT4 or CW.

A statement on the AMSAT website says:

The AMSAT Engineering and Operations Teams are pleased to announce that AO-109 (RadFxSat-2/AMSAT Fox-1E) is now open for amateur use. Users are advised to use efficient modes such as CW or FT4 for making contacts, since issues with the satellite make SSB voice contacts challenging at best.

Please see the May/June 2021 issue (Vol. 44, No. 3) of The AMSAT Journal for an article by Burns Fisher, WB1FJ, and Mark Hammond, N8MH, detailing the various attempts to characterize AO-109 and its apparent problems.

On behalf of the Engineering and Operations Teams–

73,
Jerry, N0JY and Drew, KO4MA

AO-109 Frequencies
Inverting Linear Transponder
Uplink 145.860 MHz – 145.890 MHz
Downlink 435.760 MHz – 435.790 MHz
1k2 BPSK Telemetry 435.750 MHz (non-operational)

Source AMSAT https://www.amsat.org/ao-109-radfxsat-2-amsat-fox-1e-open-for-amateur-use/

AMSAT Bulletin Board http://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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ISS SSTV 145.800 MHz FM June 21-26

Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) logoARISS report there will be an “Amateur Radio on Shuttle, Mir and ISS” Slow Scan TV (SSTV) event from June 21-26. Transmissions from the International Space Station will be on 145.800 MHz FM using PD120.

The ARISS team will be transmitting SSTV images continuously from June 21 until June 26. The images will be related to some of the amateur radio activities that have occurred on the Space Shuttle, Mir space station and the International Space Station.

The schedule start and stop times are:

Monday, June 21 – Setup is scheduled to begin at 09:40 UTC (transmissions should start a little later).

Saturday, June 26 – Transmissions are scheduled to end by 18:30 UTC.
Downlink frequency will be 145.800 MHz and the mode should be PD120.

Those that recently missed the opportunity during the limited period of MAI transmissions should have numerous chances over the 6 day period to capture many (if not all 12) of the images.

Check the ARISS SSTV blog for the latest information http://ariss-sstv.blogspot.com/

The signal should be receivable on a handheld with a 1/4 wave whip. If your rig has selectable FM filters try the wider filter for 25 kHz channel spacing.

You can get predictions for the ISS pass times at https://www.amsat.org/track/

Useful SSTV info and links https://amsat-uk.org/beginners/iss-sstv/

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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MIR-SAT1 to deploy from ISS

MIR-SAT1 CubeSat

MIR-SAT1 CubeSat

The first amateur radio CubeSat from Mauritius is expected to be deployed from the International Space Station on June 22, 2021 at 10:55 GMT.

The IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination page reports:

MIR-SAT1 is a 1U CubeSat mission with the following objectives:

1. Verify the performance of the on-board subsystems by receiving telemetry from the satellite and establish communication to and from the satellite (command and control).
2. Collect images of Mauritius and the Mauritian EEZ for capacity, building, experiment and research.
3. Experimental communication with other islands via the satellite (for scientific and/or emergency purposes), through a Radio Amateur digipeater payload.
4. V/U 9600bps GMSK digipeater may be open for Radio Amateur communication worldwide when the satellite not used for all above.

A downlink on 436.925 MHz has been coordinated. Decoders for the amateur radio community and schools have been developed by Chris AC2CZ and Daniel EA4GPZ and will be available in the public domain on their WEB sites/Github, Links will be provided before launch on Tweeter, AMSAT-BB and Space Mauritius, see
https://spacemauritius.com/#telemetry

For the digipeater operation it will be necessary to evaluate the power available after deployment to decide on opening same 24/7 or on scheduled time.

IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination pages http://amsat.org.uk/iaru/

Follow 3B8DU on Twiiter at https://twitter.com/3b8du

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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IARU in the CEPT Working Groups

CEPT LogoIARU volunteers have been participating in the CEPT FM and SE Working Groups looking after the amateur and amateur satellite service interests. CEPT WG-SE #88 took place during April and WG-FM #99 took place at the end of May.

The report from the IARU Region 1 site says:

WG-FM’s project teams tackle a wide range of civil spectrum applications and are developing important regulatory deliverables relating to wireless power transfer and the 23cm band RNSS coexistence topic amongst other things. Work on both these topics is ongoing.

The CEPT Radio Amateur Forum Group (RAFG) is hosted by WG-FM and is chaired by the IARU for the time being. Its main task is maintenance of the CEPT Recommendations TR61-01 and TR61-02. A proposal to merge the activities of the RAFG into project team FM58 (Maritime) has been made but the final decision has been held over until the next WG-FM meeting. The RAFG was tasked at this meeting with a new work item to consider the feasibility of developing an electronic database of CEPT wide amateur licensing documentation. This was supported by six administrations.
https://cept.org/ecc/groups/ecc/wg-fm/fm-radio-amateur-fg/client/introduction/

In WG-SE technical spectrum sharing studies are taking place covering;

• Wireless power transfer including consideration of electric vehicle charging (WPT- EV).
• UWB radiodetermination in 116 – 250 GHz.
• Vehicular radar systems in 77 – 81 GHz.
• Security Scanners in the range 60 – 90 GHz.
• 23cm band RNSS coexistence (related to the WRC item and reported in detail elsewhere)
https://www.iaru.org/spectrum/iaru-and-itu/wrc-23/agenda-item-9-1-topic-b/

Amateur service frequency bands are within the scope of all these studies and fall under the remit of the IARU R1 SRLC
https://www.iaru-r1.org/about-us/committees-and-working-groups/srlc/

A summary report of the WG-SE meeting is at
https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/CEPT-WGSE88-April-2021-report.pdf

The WG-FM meeting is at
https://www.iaru-r1.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/WGFM-99-May2021-Report.pdf

Get The Details…

m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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