Hi!
Add another one to the list of satellites from last weekend's Chinese satellite launch to be active, and open for use by radio amateurs. LilacSat-2, also known as CAS-3H, had its FM transponder activated late in the day Tuesday, and was active for two North American passes Tuesday afternoon/evening (2330 UTC/7.30pm EDT, 0110 UTC/9.10pm EDT). The 144.350 MHz FM uplink frequency was accurate (and no CTCSS/PL tone was needed), but the downlink was 10 to 20 kHz below the published 437.225 MHz FM downlink.
During the later of the two passes, I made a contact with Glenn AA5PK in west Texas, and heard two other stations that didn't complete QSOs (KO6TZ and W7KKE). Since I was focusing on the 70cm FM downlink, I didn't check to see if the 144.390 MHz APRS digipeater on this satellite was active. There's also supposed to be a CW beacon around 437.200 MHz, but didn't hear it as I tuned around to locate the downlink. I used an Icom IC-2820H 2m/70cm FM mobile transceiver, transmitting at 50W to an Elk Antennas handheld 2m/70cm log periodic antenna. There was a strong carrier on the uplink frequency for the last half of the pass, and I could not get through it with either low (5W) or mid (15W) power on the IC-2820H. Only 50W worked.
I posted an MP3 recording with the audio I recorded, starting around 0117 UTC this evening when I worked AA5PK. That recording is at:
https://db.tt/sPOYLsJF
Tweets from M6SIG in England today mentioned that there is telemetry sent down from LilacSat-2 on the 70cm FM downlink, in the space where a CTCSS/PL tone would be used. I may try working this satellite tomorrow night using my SDRplay as the downlink receiver, and then see if I can detect any data in that space.
Good luck!
