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May Meeting – Thursday 28th, 7:30pm, Tawa Community Centre

Fri, 29/05/2009 - 13:39 — ZL1VMF

Preparing for KiwiSAT - report

The KiwiSAT project is progressing closer to a possible launch. Terry ZL2BAC, our KiwiSAT representative, gave a very interesting presentation, including:

  • A brief overview of the current status of the KiwiSAT project
  • Spacecraft capabilities, systems, and frequencies
  • The probable orbit mechanics, depending on KiwiSAT’s final orbit
  • Link budgets for transmit and receive
  • Ground station capabilities, radios and antennas
  • Tracking
  • Questions & Answers


    The sequence of events the KiwiSAT will experience when finally launched.

    An excellent set of hand-outs was provided to those who attended, and Supper was enjoyed afterward by those in attendance. Members from Wellington, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt and South Wairarapa branches of NZART were invited and shared the evening with us.

    The night also gave us an excellent opportunity to present to the KiwiSAT team, the sum of $4,000 as part of WVHFG's support to the project:


    Dick ZL2TGQ, President of WVHFG, presents the (novelty, oversized) cheque for $4,000 to Terry ZL2BAC, representing KiwiSAT

    The $4,000 is infact a re-presentation of some of the funds that the KiwiSAT team returned to WVHFG; we had originally donated a sum of $10,000 against the purchase of solar panels for the project. KiwiSAT as it worked out were able to get an excellent deal on solar panels and did not require the whole amount - so were good enough to return $5,000 of it recently. We were very happy to be in a position to re-present $4,000 against specific componentry for the bird, which has made significant progress.