[amsat-bb] Fitsat-1

[Mike Seguin]

I arrived home yesterday and found a rather large package in my mailbox.

The return address was from the FITSAT-1 (Niwaka) Team.

Enclosed in the package was a document that reported on the two years
of research, development, and measurement activities carried out by the
FITSAT Project. Although it was in Japanese, the figures give a very 
good idea of the scope of this project.

There were two missions for the satellite. The first was an experiment 
on transmitting images taken by the satellite at the high-speed of 115.2 
kbps using 5.84 GHz microwave communication for the first time.

The second was to create, for the first time, an "artificial star" using 
LEDs mounted on the outside of the satellite.

Both of these missions were successful! I was fortunate to receive the 
5.84 GHz downlink here in Vermont using my modified 5.76 GHz terrestrial 
microwave system.

I have to say this was one of the most exciting times for me and ranks 
up there with the first successful AO-40 QSO I had using the 24 GHz 
downlink and the first time I successfully sent a command to AO-7! (I 
changed the beacon code speed)

Congratulations to the FITSAT-1 team on a wonderful satellite and hope 
for more in the future!

-- 

73,
Mike, N1JEZ
AMSAT 29,649
"A closed mouth gathers no feet"