Todays ARISS contact went a bit different compared to the “regular” contacts.

The contact was scheduled between Paolo Nespoli in the ISS and the Youngsters On The Air 2017 event at Gilwell Park in the UK.
When the contact came round, it was clear that after a few attempts, Paolo could hear us, but we could not hear him over the downlink. HamTV did pick up some of the audio, but due to delays, this audio is difficult to use during the contact.

The Flight Director kindly rescheduled the contact on the next ISS pass and moved it to the service module, to be able to use other equipment on the station.
The second attempt was a great success!

ARISS contact between astronaut Jack Fisher K2FSH on the International Space Station and Space Center Houston, Houston, TX, USA.
HAMTV Video received in Delft

I have attended the 52nd “VERON Pinkster Kamp” radio camp last weekend. During the camp, Ivo PA1IVO and myself gave an amateur radio satellite introduction and demo.

I made videos of the opening, demo and closure of the camp, which can be found below (in Dutch!)

For the PI6WL ATV repeater, I have built a new (temporary) outdoor unit. This should reduce losses in the feed cable and also provides visual indication of the internal fuse state

This video is a recording of the hamvideo downlink from the international space station, as received in Delft. JO21ex. It was part of a school contact between Thomas Pesquet on the ISS and Ecole primaire Elie Desplan, Boissières, France and Marie Castang, Saint Dionisy, France.

On the 15th of February, Nayif-1 was launched on a PSLV with 103 other satellites.

I have been spending the past week at the American University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, in the mission control centre. Also, we have been visiting the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre to give a training to their education team.

Today, 17th of February, we are two days into the flight and everything looks healthy.
The LEOPS status page shows good results, and the warehouse is receiving data from all over the world!

One of the Proudest Moments! Nayif-1, the first-ever CubeSat of #UAE, launched successfully & entered its orbit! #space #Satellite #Dubai pic.twitter.com/Xx61xIPZbe

— MBR Space Centre (@MBRSpaceCentre) February 15, 2017

We have received one pass with FUNcube and Nayif-1 in view at the same time.
In the doppler plot below, you can see both satellites.

Today, the International Space Station transmitted live video during a school contact between Thomas Pesquet on the ISS and Collège André Malraux, Chatelaillon-Plage, France. The signals were received in Delft and forwarded to a central server.

The video received in delft can be found below.

I have been trying to use the new BY70-1 transponder lately.
Information is still a bit sparse, as this satellite is Chinese.

It is quite busy on the transponder. At one moment I almost worked G3VZV, but lots of QRM prevented that QSO from happening. A small clip is here and the full recording can be found here

Working conditions are:
TX via Home QTH: Diamond X50 vertical and IC-910h
RX via the TU Delft station.
RX operator: Nils von Storch
Recording by Nils

Today, we were visiting the beach, and found loads of starfish washed on the shores.
Apparently, a strong current in the Noth Sea loosened them from the seabed. A beautiful but cold day, but its a sad sight to see all these dying starfish. Nature is cruel.

Today I managed to get the first signals through the 23cm input of the test repeater that should become PI6W.
I used a yagi from the window on the front side of my apartment. This gave B4 images on the repeater.

The transmit section of this repeater was built by me, together with other radio amateurs (pb0ahx, pd3t, pb0ner and pa0qy) in the area.
The website of the repeater can be found here.

The received images are the signal received by Jaap PA3HGL in Spijkenisse, from a reflection and Herman PB0AHX in Delft.