SO-67 SumbandilaSat control team invites coordination suggestions

Jan-Albert, ZR1JAK, wrote on behalf of the SO-67 SumbandilaSat team, "Given that the SA-AMSAT payload on SO-67 is shared with the satellite's back-up TT&C transponder, there is unfortunately not a way to keep the payload switched on permanently or even semi-permanently. For the lifetime of the satellite we will therefore have to do with active scheduling."

In an effort to make this as painless as possible, ZR1AJK requests comments on the possible use of regional coordinators, which worked quite well for SO-35.
Such coordinators would then be responsible for setting up schedules in advance for their specific regions, taking into account obviously the pool of possible satellite passes, as well as local events / fairs etc. The SO-67 Command Station would then simply load the schedules on a weekly basis.

The initial focus has been on Europe, RSA, South America, North America, Canada, Japan and Australia, and New Zealand, ZR1JAK invites suggestions for amateur radio use of the payload over other regions as well.

In regards to questions of possible activation at night he explained, "This is entirely possible, but would have to be planned and managed more actively, given the power limitations in eclipse. We have yet to experiment with this and see what the available capacity would be.

Interested satellite operators are invited to e-mail responses to the AMSAT bulletin board, or if you prefer, to ZR1JAK's work address: jak "at" sunspace "dot" co "dot" za.

Amsat News, Jan-Albert, ZR1JAK