Space Bulletin 015 ARLS015
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington, CT November 20, 2017
To all radio amateurs
SB SPACE ARL ARLS015
ARLS015 RadFxSat (Fox-1B) Launched Successfully, Designated AO-91
The latest CubeSat in the Fox series – RadFxSat (Fox-1B) – launched
November 18 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The Delta
II vehicle lifted off at 0948 UTC.
“Following a picture-perfect launch, RadFxSat was deployed at 1109
UTC,” AMSAT reported. “Then the wait began. At 1212 UTC, the AMSAT
Engineering team, watching ZR6AIC’s WebSDR waterfall, saw the
characteristic ‘Fox Tail’ of the Fox-1 series FM transmitter,
confirming that the satellite was alive and transmitting over South
Africa. Shortly after 1234 UTC, the first telemetry was received and
uploaded to AMSAT servers by Maurizio Balducci, IV3RYQ, in Italy.
Initial telemetry confirmed that the satellite was healthy.”
In the wake of the successful launch, deployment, and reception,
OSCAR Number Administrator Bill Tynan, W3XO, designated the new
satellite as AMSAT-OSCAR 91 (AO-91).
AMSAT Engineering reminds stations that the satellite will not be
available for general use until the on-orbit checkouts are complete.
AMSAT asks listeners to submit telemetry from RadFxSat (Fox-1B) to
assist the Engineering team in completing the commissioning process.
Experiment telemetry is downlinked via the DUV sub-audible telemetry
stream, which can be decoded using FoxTelem software, available
online at,
https://www.amsat.org/
