I remember reading somewhere that PSAT-2 and Bricsat-2, the replacements for PSAT and Bricsat, are going up here very soon...
PSAT2 and BRICSAT2 are slated for launch this spring on SpaceX's heavy lift.
After 4 years with the FCC, we finally have confirmation that the FCC submitted our Notification to the ITU. This has been a long and very frustrating experience. The FCC's insistence that our student projects also be licensed as military sateliltes has essentially blocked our two previous student Amateur packet transponder payloads from ever being activated. QIKCOM1 was launched to the ISS but after sitting in storage on ISS until a year later when the FCC finally authorized its release, the HOST that was to provide the power never activated.
Then, the QIKCOM2 power cord had to be cut right before launch, because again the FCC insisted that although it was an amateur satellite, it was built by students who are actually military employees and so it had to get an NTIA license. And the small NTIA office who is busy enough with BILLION dollar Defense satellites, just simply understandably cannot be bothered with a student project. So that satellite was/is being launched as a dead brick.
I have not announced PSAT2 or BRICSAT2 because I simply don't trust anything anymore. The FCC has simply made it impossible for academy students to participate in small low cost amateur satellite projects. This has occupied all my time for 4 years and it is just not worth it. I have put in my papers to retire at the end of the year.
Though, I do encourage anyone building a cubesat without DoD entnglements to consider using our single board APRS transponders as an excellent comms, command/control and telemetry board. See http://aprs.org/satt4.html
They are basically a Byonics TinyTrack4 board hacked for satellite use...
Bob, WB4APR
-----Original Message----- From: AMSAT-BB Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2019 3:18 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] NO-84 Digipeater Online
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