A new FM amateur satellite in the sky / 2015-10-05

Recently nine (!!) small satellites were launched from China with one rocket. Six of these have each digital telemetry, CW beacon and a linear transponder in the amateur bands (I really should make some time to practise making contacts on SSB), two only have telemetry downlinks and one has a beacon, APRS transponder and an FM transponder, which should be easy to work.

The one with the FM transponder is LilacSat-2 (or CAS-3H, 2015-049K). I created a preliminary transponder file 40908.trsp for gpredict with:

[FM V/U]
UP_LOW=145350000
DOWN_LOW=437225000
MODE=FM

At this time untested.

The satellite has a schedule for operating the FM transponder (which probably has to do with power budget and other experiments on board):

LilacSat-2 is scheduled to switch on the FM transponder for 24 hours at about 2200 UT each Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Now to find time to try this satellite transponder at the available times.

Links for more information:

• LilacSat-2 - Amsat-UK
• LilacSat-2 FM Transponder Schedule - Amsat-UK
• LilacSat-2 radio info page