Page 16 - EngineerIT August-September 2025

SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY

Innovative South African proposal

for ESA Geo amateur satellite

By Hans van de Groenendaal, Science and technology writer

AMSAT–DL (Germany) in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA) invited AMSAT
organisations to participate in their Future GEO initiative. AMSAT SA responded with an interesting
proposal: a space based Echolink communication system.

choLink software allows licensed Amateur Radio stations
to communicate with one another over the Internet,
Eusing streaming-audio technology. The program allows
worldwide connections to be made between stations, or
from computer to station, greatly enhancing Amateur Radio's
communications capabilities. There are more than 350 000
validated users worldwide — in 159 of the world's 193 nations —
with about 6 000 online at any given time.

Since 2018, the amateur satellite radio community benefits
from a satellite communications payload that is hosted on the
Es’hail-2 satellite, known as QO-100 (Orbiting Satellite Carrying
Amateur Radio). This payload is the world’s first amateur
satellite payload in geostationary orbit and has a footprint from
Brazil to Indonesia in S- and Ku-Bands. The payload was built
by Mitsubishi in Japan with design lead by the German satellite
community and with support from the UK amateur satellite
community and others AMSAT groups. Therefore proposed, in collaboration with the
international amateur satellite community, to
AMSAT SA’s proposal is based on the EchoLink concept but with investigate the feasibility of designing, developing,
gateways in each country that will allow radio amateurs with hosting and operating an even more advanced
simple handheld radios to connect to any other radio amateur in amateur satellite payload on another geostationary
another country where similar gateways are installed. In simple satellite. This payload could then be built by a
terms the geostationary satellite replaces the internet used in the European prime satellite contractor and hosted on a
existing EchoLink system. According to Anton Janovsky, founder European operator platform.
and owner of Giga Technology and project leader of the AMSAT
SA AfriCUBE initiative, the concept is in theory very doable, but we Such a future payload would spur innovations in the
need to build an experimental system to prove the practicality. field of satellite communications and explore and
He said there are many other opportunities such as incorporating characterise higher frequency bands such as the
a ‘HEARD” system which would automatically connect the two 47 GHz, 77 GHz and 122 GHz bands, which are allocated
gateways based on the country callsign prefixes heard. While to the amateur satellite service on a primary basis. The
the next Geo Amateur satellite may be a few years away, within above frequency bands are very close to commercial
limits, the system could be tested on OSCAR 100. “We however FSS, MSS and intersatellite bands, therefore the
would first need to convince AMSAT- DL, who are managing development of an amateur satellite payload would
OSCAR 100 on behalf of the Qatar Amateur Radio Society. have its spin-off into future commercial equipment
developments.
OSCAR 100 gave an enormous boost to amateur satellite
activity in higher frequency bands. The payload has attracted Experiments with such a payload would include
many young people to satellite communications. Various exploring future satellite communication protocols,
experiments have been performed that have generated spin- IoT technologies, and the use of inter-satellite links
off into commercial applications. While the current payload between LEO and GEO amateurs satellites.
on Es’hail-2 is in good health since 2018 (15 years with
designed lifetime) and is still very relevant, the (IARU) is of the For more information and video presentations visit
opinion that this payload deserves follow up. www.amsatsa.org.za

16 | EngineerIT August/September 2025