Over the holiday break I did some Google searches on the use of the AX5043 in satellite service and found the following references.

These two publications cover the OreSat developed at Portland State University.  The Ax5043 is employed as UHF transceiver as well as IF for an L-Band receiver.

As of yet, I have not received a signal from OreSat0 but as it is a telemetry only satellite the transmitter is possibly only activated for passes over the Oregon area.

I’ve reached out to them via email but have yet to receive a response.

https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5110&context=smallsat

https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6639&context=open_access_etds

This paper deals with detection of UHF uplink interference using the AX5042 similar to the AX5043 and makes an interesting case not to use 70cm uplinks due to interference caused by the shared services in the 70cm band.

They used a single antenna and LNA into a 4-way splitter similar to what is planned for Pacsat.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0273117721007778

The final paper is an interesting study of the AX5043 capabilities.  They examined the radiation resistance of the AX5043 and found it held up well.

Also is an interesting discussion of LNA requirements as well as radiation resistance of various transistor types.

It should be noted the original project was canceled and a follow on is due to launch in 2023.  How it might vary in configuration is not published.

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/295596877.pdf

Jim McCullers

WA4CWI