[amsat-bb] AO-7 10m bcn, switch-on delay

["Jay, kf6rmg" <kf6rmg@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

   I heard the 29.502 beacon during orbit 26381. Signal strength was abt s2 
to s3 at its strongest. I tried unsuccessfully at uplinking, but I wasn't 
surprised as I was using the PTT of my 2m HT to xmit cw and an arrow antenna 
while indoors.
   One thing I found interesting about this pass: AO-7 was supposed to exit 
eclipse around 0319 UTC and AOS was supposed to be at 0323, but I didn't 
hear the beacon until about 0334. I think I remember others mentioning a 
considerable time delay between AOS and hearing the bird. This raises a few 
questions in my mind:

   1. Is this delay of approximately 15 minutes between the satellite 
entering sunlight and sitching-on occuring during every orbit?
   2. Is the delay always the same duration?
   3. Is the delay only occuring when the satellite resets in a certain mode 
or modes?
   4. Could the delay be the time it takes for the satellite's systems to 
reset, ot should it be reseting instantly as it hits sunlight?
   5. Could the delay be why some are reporting passes as being "dead"?

   In my free time, I'll try studying the data that Yoshi JF6BCC has 
collected on his website and the asmat-bb archives from the past week to see 
if I can find answers to some of these questions, but I don't want to 
reinvent the wheel if someone else has already done the research or 
otherwise knows why the switch-on delay is occuring. If I can figure out 
anything about the delay, I'll let you all know.

------------------------------------------------
            73 DE Jay Dotson, KF6RMG
Napa, CA USA       Napa County       Grid CM88
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