The amateur radio satellite UNITEC-1 launched on 17 May by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency on a deep space mission to Venus has had its CW and FSK signals heard at a distance of 300,000 km.
UNITEC-1
While no other hamsat has gone that far into space previously, it has another 50 million km to go. It is travelling with another satellite named Planet-C containing imagery and other experiments.
Ground stations in Japan report hearing signals on 5839.91 MHz from the 15 kg, 35cm cubed nano-satellite developed by a consortium of 22 universities and colleges.
UNITEC-1 is intended to fly-by Venus with the aim of studying the effects of interplanetary flight on spacecraft computers.
Members of AMSAT-DL have become the first radio amateurs to bounce signals off another planet.
AMSAT Oscar 27 that failed in December 2008 is back on air thanks to ground control teams who adopted a strategy of draining its batteries to re-set a locked up modem.
AMSAT
