[amsat-bb] Re: Baa ba little lamb.

[John Hackett]

Jan, 
      That's precisely the conclusion I came to ... though I'm being e-mailed some wierd and wonderful 'theories' ... everything from the amount of illumination to the colour of my underpants on the days in question.

One of the problems is of course finding precise eclipse software (that is agreement with other softeware). The "trick" is to use three different ones and bat for an average.

(very! scientific ... he he he).

I've made an application for the documentation you mentioned but whether I'll manage to get my grubby little hands on it is another matter. I'll keep you posted.

In the words of the Wallies, Good on yer' mate, no worries!.

73 John.   <la2qaa at amsat.org>

From: jking at eclipticenterprises.com
To: la2qaa at amsat.org; eu-amsat at yahoogroups.com
CC: amsat-bb at amsat.org; allan_gm1sxx at hotmail.com; sv1bsx at yahoo.gr; k3szh at netzero.net
Subject: RE: Baa ba little lamb.
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 2007 10:11:55 +0100























John,

Are you sure it’s not because there
is now some eclipse time that is taking the bird down?  It only takes a few seconds without a
battery and the timer will be reset or come up random (I think it resets, as I
recall).  The way the orbit of the
Earth around the sun works, the minimum eclipse duration for sun sync orbits
should be on about February 10 and the maximum eclipse should be on about June
1.  The orbit has drifted so far in
the sunward direction (toward a 6 AM – 6 PM ascending node) that there
may be no eclipse at all now (which is good) but, you would expect to have this
problem you are describing more like in June than in September if it is due to
eclipse.  Curious!  I suppose the timer could have failed
but, it’s funny to think that it would fail after 31 years and other
stuff would not have.  There is
nothing special about those two CMOS gates that would make that circuit any
more prone to failure than any other that is still working.  I’d rather suspect something with
the power system driven by orbit changes. 
One power glitch would reset the timer.

Jan

 









From: John
Hackett [mailto:archie.hackett at hotmail.com] 

Sent: Thursday, 6 September 2007
9:00 AM

To: Eu-amsat at yahoogroups.com

Cc: amsat-bb at amsat.org;
allan_gm1sxx at hotmail.com; jking at eclipticenterprises.com; sv1bsx at yahoo.gr;
k3szh at netzero.net

Subject: Baa ba little lamb.



 

So much for the (convenient) 24
hours timer theory proffered in response to my previous mails regarding the
timing of AO-7.

 

This is the 3rd consequtive day the 24 hour timer is *NOT* playing ball.

 

05/06 Septembert 2007.



TIME.  ORBIT.  MODE.



23:46  50133    B

23:51  50133    A

01:35  50135    A

01:36  50134    B

01:44  40135    A



I have received confirmation mails from AJ9K and K3SZH that 

their log entries *ARE* correct.



As you Gentlemen on that side of the pond are wont to say ... 

"go figure!".



Incidentally, the mode changes spell "baa ba" ... it couldn't be that
AO-t thinks we're a veritable bunch (flock) of sheep?.



Just a thought.  



73 John.   <la2qaa at amsat.org>