Amateur Radio Payloads Share Ride into Space with Soil Moisture Monitoring Satellite

Four NASA Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNA-X) CubeSats carrying Amateur Radio payloads launched successfully January 31 from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base. The primary payload for the Delta II launcher was the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite. SMAP's onboard radar will share Amateur Radio spectrum at 1.26 GHz. Amateur Radio is secondary on the 23 centimeter band, which covers 1240 to 1300 MHz. “This is a good example of a compatible sharing partner,” ARRL CEO David Sumner, K1ZZ, observed. “Any interference to amateur communication in the band will be brief as the satellite passes overhead.” More

(Source: ARRL - Feb 3)