As announced by AMSAT in the USA on Saturday afternoon, John, DK9JC and Mark, VK6PY beat the previous distance world record on "GreeCube" on Tuesday. The former record was 12,966km and was set in January 2023.
"This took a few weeks of preparation. I first contacted Mark, VK6PY, at the beginning of October. Over the next few weeks, the overlaps (the so-called "footprint") were calculated and updated based on the current radar data. We had to find the optimum footprint. This was not so easy, as there was hardly any overlap. Mark also had to drive about 1,200km (each way) to get from his home in Perth, Australia, to the far north-western tip of Australia. This was unclear until about a day before the date, because while it was raining constantly in Germany, Mark had bushfires at the planned location," says John DK9JC.
In the end, everything worked out.
The new confirmed distance of 13,056km (8,112 miles) is now listed on the AMSAT website under " Satellite Distance Records". DK9JC was in JN39NE and Mark, VK6PY was in OG78BE.
Both stations were portable and battery powered. They each used 15-element yagis with 14.8 dBi gain and low-noise preamplifiers.
The following gear was used:
VK6PY: 15 ele diamond A430S15, JG LNA JG-ULNA70VOX (blue tube), IC-9700
DK9JC: 15 ele diamond A430S15, JG LNA ULNA70VOX-E, IC-910
DK9JC: 15 ele diamond A430S15, JG LNA ULNA70VOX-E, IC-910
GreenCube (also known as Italy OSCAR 117, or IO-117 for short) is an Italian technology testing and amateur radio satellite in a medium earth orbit (MEO) at an altitude of around 5800 km.The digipeater transmits in the 70cm band and is currently the only usable satellite in such a high orbit.
