CAS-7A - Chinese HF Satellite

[IK0ZCW]

Sep 11, 2020 - HF - Tom, DF5JL

CAMSAT has announced in spring 2020 the launch of CAS-7A for 15.09.2020. The project was announced several years ago, but has been postponed again and again.

The special thing about CAS-7A is that HF is used with two transponders. The transponder configuration of the Chinese satellites is similar to that of the Russian RS satellites of that time. A sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 98° is planned. The orbit height shall be 500 km. The transponders have a bandwidth of 30 kHz and the frequencies were coordinated by IARU [1]:

HF linear transponder:

uplink: 21.245 — 21.275 kHz
Downlink: 29,435 — 21,465 kHz
CW beacon: 29.425 kHz

HF/UHF transponder:

Uplink: 21.3125 — 21.3275 kHz
Downlink: 435,3575 — 435,3725 kHZ
CW beacon: 435.430 kHz

[1] http://www.amsatuk.me.uk/iaru/finished_detail.php?serialnum=658