The 2015 edition of Getting Started with Amateur Satellites by Gould Smith, WA4SXM, will be available from AMSAT at Dayton Hamvention. This latest edition will discuss how to get ready for the Fox-1 satellites, set to launch later this year. Additional chapters will talk about tracking software, orbital mechanics, antennas, radios, Doppler tuning, and operating techniques.

Other new chapters will review the new satellites soon becoming available for Amateur Radio. It also will provide a complete reference for new satellite users to assemble a basic station and to make their first satellite contacts as well as how hams can incrementally upgrade an initial FM satellite station to include automated tracking and for operation via the CW/SSB linear-passband satellites. A companion Fox-1A reference sheet is also being planned for release at Dayton.

AMSAT’s “Getting Started with the FM Satellites” is now available for download from the AMSAT website. AMSAT Director of Field Operations Patrick Stoddard, WD9EWK, said the FieldOps team is working to make information on how to operate on the satellites more readily available on the web.

Written by Stoddard, “Getting Started with the FM Satellites” outlines the basic equipment and techniques needed to operate successfully on the satellites. The guide offers specific information on how to operate via SO-50, the only currently available FM satellite. A Spanish version is also available. — Thanks to AMSAT News Service