SumbandilaSat Oscar 67

The South African satellite SumbandilaSat has been formally issued with an OSCAR number and is now SO-67

Bill Tynan W3XO issued this statement on behalf of
AMSAT-NA:

I am in receipt of an e-mail sent to the AMSAT-NA Board of Directors by Hans van de Groenendaal, Secretary SA AMSAT.

The e-mail states that the amateur radio payload on SumbandilaSat was developed by SA AMSAT and incorporated by the University of Stellenbosch into the main payload and that the SA AMSAT payload was officially coordinated through IARU Satellite Frequency Coordination Panel with an uplink of 145,880 and downlink of 435,350 MHz.

The e-mail further states that the amateur radio transponder on SumbandilaSat was successfully switched on from the ground by ZS6BPZ during the test phase on Sunday 18 October 2009 and that several QSOs were made through the transponder.

The e-mail also requests that an OSCAR number be allocated to this spacecraft.

Therefore, by the authority vested in me by the AMSAT-NA President, I hereby designate this latest amateur radio satellite as SumbandilaSat Oscar 67 or SO-67.

On behalf of AMSAT-NA and the world's amateur radio satellite community I congratulate those responsible for building, testing and launching this new satellite.
May it have a long and successful life.

73,

William A. (Bill) Tynan, W3XO

OSCAR (Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio) Numbers Policy
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/
information/faqs/numbers.php

Sumbandila Mission Blog
http://sumbandilamission.blogspot.com/

Southern African Amateur Radio Satellite Association
(SA AMSAT)
http://www.amsatsa.org.za/

First contacts via SumbandilaSat
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/october2009/
first_contacts_via_sumbandilasat.htm