Cheap Satellites and Amateur Radio Bands

[Guest]

k4hg writes "Remember the US Naval Academy satellite with the measuring tape antennas? Well, not only is it still alive(http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi) after nearly four years in orbit (be sure to read the 2001(http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi) Slashdot articles to see who was right and wrong about it working at all!), but the latest satellite to come out of the same lab, called PCSat2, was installed Wednesday on the International Space Station. It is bolted to the space station on the P6 truss, but is otherwise independent, only benefiting from the high mass to drag ratio of the ISS to prolong orbital life. The satellite is alive and transmitting on amateur radio frequencies, I could hear it on a marginal elevation in the Florida Keys. When it come in range of a ground station with better coverage, the data will be viewable here in real time. This new system is in addition to the amateur radio station already operational on the ISS. And yes, they used tape measure antennas again, you could see them deploy on Nasa TV!"

From Slashdot