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| UK radio amateurs receive ANDE Deorbit Award |
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Recently Henk PA3GUO and Mike DK3WN sponsored an ANDE award to encourage reception of telemetry during the last few weeks of life of the Amateur Radio satellite ANDE. ANDE was build by students from the US Naval Academy and deployed from the Space Shuttle (STS-116) on a return mission from the International Space Station (ISS) on 21 December 2006. Due to it's low orbit it had a short lifetime and re-entered the earths atmosphere just over a year later on 25 December 2007. It operated an APRS AX25 packet digipeater on 145.825 MHz as well as a Voice Synthesizer and other communications experiments.
One of the proud recipients of the award is AMSAT-UK member John Heath G7HIA (pictured left with his award). On receiving his award John said "Trying to capture the very last telemetry frames from ANDE as it de-orbited was a lot of fun. Chasing the award made it even more exciting."
The United Kingdom Amateur Satellite organisation AMSAT-UK publishes a quarterly newsletter full of the latest information on Amateur Satellites. Join now online at secure.amsat.org.uk/subscription For further information contact the secretary Jim Heck G3WGM |
One aspect of Amateur Satellite operating that has been growing in popularity is capturing telemetry data from the many Amateur satellites now in orbit. It's a lot of fun and Amateurs can provide invaluable research data that would otherwise be lost.
The ANDE award was awarded to anyone who made QSOs via ANDE or received telemetry during its final 10 days in space. Amongst the list of international participants there was a good showing from the UK with reports submitted by G4HYG, G0BHX, G0SJF, G7THL, G0ISW and G7HIA.
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