The AMSAT-HB is founded -

Deutsche Version: Die AMSAT-HB ist gegründet
Version française: L’AMSAT-HB est fondée
Versione italiana: L’AMSAT-HB è fondata

With QO-100, the interest in the amateur radio service via satellites has strongly increased also in Switzerland. But not only the geostationary satellite fascinates the radio amateurs: Also the ARISS project (space station ISS), low-flying satellites, tracking of scientific deep space missions, etc, are getting more and more attention. More and more experiments with SDR technology are being conducted in these areas.

But also colleges and universities are more and more concerned with this topic and are looking for help from different radio amateurs in Switzerland. These and other radio amateurs now felt that it is time to join forces in Switzerland. For this reason the AMSAT-HB was founded on Friday 26 November 2021 in Nottwil/LU. The association has set itself the goal to promote the amateur radio service via satellites in Switzerland, but also internationally.

The president of AMSAT-DL, Peter Gülzow – DB2OS, was involved in this project at an early stage. He suggested the foundation of an AMSAT-HB at an early stage and also contributed his knowledge to the design. At the foundation Peter Gülzow took over the role as godfather the sponsorship and led, live from Hanover, the foundation meeting.

As founding members the following radio amateurs were involved (alphabetically by callsign – in parentheses the board positions)

DB2OS, Peter Gülzow (founding godfather and now honorary member of AMSAT-HB)
HB9ARK, Martin Klaper (technical officer)
HB9CQK, Frédéric Furrer
HB9DUN/DH2VA, Achim Vollhardt
HB9MFL, Armin Rösch
HB9SKA, Thomas Frey (Actuary and Treasurer a.I.)
HB9RYZ, Wolfgang Sidler (vice president)
HB9WDF, Michael Lipp (President)
One of the first decisions of the association was to apply to USKA for collective membership.

“Swiss AMSAT Operator” will be shut down:

The platform “Swiss AMSAT Operator” operated by HB9WDF will now be shut down, respectively will be transferred to the association of AMSAT-HB. The website www.amsat-hb.org will now be rebuilt accordingly. Soon the first information about the AMSAT-HB will be published there and the possibility to apply for membership will be offered.

A detailed report will appear in the next HB-Radio.