Are these really deep space amateur radio satellites?

Question

In this answer there is a link to an amateur radio website listing what looks like satellites of interest to that community. The list is long (over 400 lines) and has a designator character in the last column. The key is

      Active (*)
  Deep space (d)
     Failure (f)
    Inactive (i)
 Non-amateur (n)
  Re-entered (r)
     Unknown (u)
 Weather sat (w)

I saw Deep space (d) and got curious! I searched and found four entries with the Deep space designator. They are listed below for convenience, but take a moment to view the original site because I may have missed something.

Are these really deep space amateur radio satellites?

note: you can scroll left and right in the gray boxes. The lines are about 121 characters long. --->>

Satellite               Number   Uplink            Downlink          Beacon      Mode                  Callsign
-----------------       -----    -----------       -----------       -------     -----------------     ------------
UNITEC-1                36578       .             5840.000          5840.000     1200bps AFSK,CW       JQ1ZUN           d
4M-LXS                              .              145.980              .        WSJT-JT65B            LX0OHB           d
SHIN'EN2 (FO-82)        40320    145.940-145.960   435.280-435.260   437.385/437.505 Transponder,WSJT/CW  JG6YIG        d
ARTSAT2-DESPATCH(FO-81) 40321       .                 .              437.325     CW                       JQ1ZNN        d

Answer 1

They are in fact in deep space, but there were all carried there by some other mission already heading to deep space as a secondary payload. They were all university payloads, thus operating on the amateur radio frequencies, but not of particular use to more amateur operators.

For reference, one of the easiest ways to tell an amateur satellite is to look for an OSCAR number. OSCAR was the first amateur satellite, Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. FO-81 and FO-82 are OSCAR numbers (The first letter can vary, it depends on the organization that built it usually).

• UNITEC-1
• 4M-LXS
• SHIN'EN2
• ARTSAT2-DESPATCH

Answer 2

The answer is no they are not Ham Radio Satellites, but they are amateur built satellites. These satellites are indeed in deep space, however I would like to point out that there is a difference between 'amateur satellites' and 'amateur radio satellites.' I call them 'amsats' and 'hamsats' respectively. Amsats are built by amateurs, ie non-commercial, non-government, non-military. They are usually built by university teams. They often use amateur radio frequencies for their control and telemetry radios but they are not intended for amateur radio operators.

Hamsats, may have scientific experiments and payload, but they also have amateur radio beacons or transponders intended for amateur radio operators to carry out conversations or to transfer signals such as TV or data. All currently active amsats are in Low Earth orbits (LEO). Hamsats are often built by amateur radio operators in conjunction with university teams.

Answer 3

I think the problem here is not the question, nor the interpretation of the term "AMSAT". The problem we are facing is the definition and classification of "deep space" at the quoted source

This seems to be a website ran by an Radio Amateur with call sign "JE9PEL".

So the question "are these satellites really deep space" comes down to:

• what is JE9PEL's definition of "deep space"
• what criteria did JE9PEL use to classify those satellites as "deep space"

Without contacting this individual, one cannot reliable answer the question of the OP.

Based on internet searching you can guess and compile some initial conclusions:

• UNITEC-1 was developed to be a competition between universities, to see who's computer would last the longest in harsh conditions of a Venus orbit. Given that it was deployed as such you may assume it has not entered back to any orbit near earth, and if you define a Venus orbit as "deep space" then the source is likely to be correct
• 4M-LXS was a Lunar fly-by project. It is uncertain if this bird has re-entered into earth orbit, or that it has gone off on another/unknown trajectory. The project seems to have ended, and links are no longer working. However you can find a website which lists this satellite as active, which would confirm the premis of this answer: how much do you trust the source of the original question.

I did not search for the others, as I do believe that this would not add to the answer of this particular question.

The only conclusion I can give is: without further details; the source of the data of which is the basis of this question is dubious.