SRI LANKA'S BIRDS-X CUBESAT IS IN ORBIT

The BIRDS-X Dragonfly CubeSat has marked a milestone for Sri Lanka, becoming that nation's third nano satellite in space. Developed with help from the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies an the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan, it began its orbit last month following its launch from SpaceX-33.

Its mission is to serve as an APRS digipeater and to test a new low-cost communication system. It will also demonstrate the relay of store-and-forward data. Its callsign is JG6YOW. The APRS FM digipeater frequency is 145.825 MHZ and its CW beacon is on 437.375 MHz.

The 2U CubeSate project was funded by Amateur Radio Digital Communications. To file a reception report for the CW beacon, follow the link in the text version of this week's newscast at arnewsline.org.