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photo: ARICA project / Nanosats Database – ARICA-2 satellite during laboratory work before launch into orbit.
Japanese satellite ARICA-2 will begin a new phase of its amateur radio mission on September 29. The Aoyama Gakuin University project will enable licensed radio amateurs to transmit messages via the satellite. The operation is scheduled for the period from September 29 to October 13, 2026. The information was published by the project team and confirmed by AMSAT News Service on September 27.

ARICA-2 is a CubeSat belonging to a project developed by Sakamoto Laboratory at Aoyama Gakuin University. In the amateur-satellite service, it uses the callsign JS1YSD.

During the upcoming campaign, radio amateurs will be able to send short messages to the satellite for other operators. ARICA-2 will thus serve as an orbital message relay. AMSAT describes the period beginning on September 29 as the first full operational phase of this part of the satellite’s amateur mission.

This is an interesting example of using small academic satellites for experiments that are also accessible to the amateur-radio community. Unlike a conventional voice repeater, an operator does not hold a regular conversation through the satellite here—the essence of the experiment is transmitting messages via the ARICA-2 system.