NU8V

A group of students at Cornell University is seeking participation from radio amateurs who are equipped with satellite stations for help in listening for signals from a retroreflective laser sail that is scheduled to be deployed later this week. The sail is currently attached to a 1U CubeSat that was launched early Tuesday, December 2, 2025, from the International Space Station, but will separate and become its own free-flying spacecraft equipped with four tiny “ChipSat” flight computers that will transmit telemetry data back to Earth.

This is the first flight of their ChipSats, and it is this data that the students seek help detecting, according to Ph.D. candidate Joshua Umansky-Castro, who has an amateur radio license, call sign KD2WTQ. The light sail’s ChipSats will be transmitting data using the LoRa digital protocol on 437.400 MHz. The sail, stowed within the CubeSat, is expected to be released a couple of days after deployment – tentatively this Thursday, December 4 – and will likely function independently for no more than 48 hours due to the drag created by the sail.

Additional information, including LoRa parameters and links to a list of compatible receivers and the decoder file, may be found at the https://alphacubesat.cornell.edu site in the ChipSat Ground Station Guide located at https://cornell.app.box.com/s/n4se5ku0ltjb1of2piagfz1y7xa92n47.

It is hoped that the ChipSat and light sail will become the trailblazers for future missions around the solar system, and one day to our closest stellar neighbor, Alpha Centauri.

In the US, yet another part of the radio spectrum is being prepared for auction. Jack Parker W8ISH tells us what’s next.

The Federal Communications Commission is exploring reallocation of part of the upper C-band in the US. In a unanimous vote at its November 20th meeting, the commission studied a draft version of a Notice of Proposed rulemaking which will guide its actions going forward. The FCC will be asking broadcasters and satellite users for comment on a number of options for reallocating 4.0 through 4.2 GHZ before it moves to the competitive-bidding stage no later than July of 2027.

The FCC will also be inviting comment from other users of the C-band who may be using frequencies near the portion being eyed for reallocation.

When the lower half of the C-band was reallocated five years ago, its use was assigned for wireless services. Broadcasters’ satellite services were moved from there to the upper half of the band.

Top story this week takes us to Washington, D.C. The US Federal Communications Commission has announced that the government will be collecting a payment from an unlicensed radio operator in Massachusetts, settling an enforcement case from last year. We have more from Kent Peterson KCØDGY.

KENT: The operator of a pirate radio station in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, has agreed to pay $7,200 to the US Treasury as part of a consent decree with the FCC. According to a recent report on the RadioWorld website, the FCC said that the radio operator, Robert Bellinger, had been broadcasting on 93.1 FM without a license. The payment, which is part of his consent decree, was substantially reduced from the agency’s original proposed forfeiture of $40,000 which it sought in 2024 in a notice of apparent liability. The RadioWorld report said that Bellinger responded to the notice at the time and told the FCC he was not able to pay the amount.

An FCC review of his finances resulted in an alternative solution — a consent decree in which Bellinger admitted to his illegal broadcasts and a commitment to make the voluntary contribution specified.