[amsat-bb] Re: AO-07 orbit 50159

[John Hackett]

Allen,
        A pleasure to 'meet' you and have the opportunity to thank you for confirming mode-B for AO-7's orbit 50159. 

Very much appreciated Allen.

I'm currently discussing the relays used 31 years ago, with the chief design engineer, J King ... (which are 'latching' and which are not) ... since, as I'm sure you're aware, this, together with the illumination could also play a part in the mode on/off/on/off sequence.

Last year, when I first 'tagged' the 24 hour timer the satellite was in constant illumination ... this time, it's a little more 'debatable' ... (different software packages) ... hence this year's musings re: the mode and when it changes.

Last year I established it to be it on or around 08:30 drifting to 09:00. At present, it appears to be 01:45 to 02:00 ... which in itself is rather interesting.

I hope you don't mind me CC'ing this mail to Joe K3SZH, Mak SV1BSX  and a few other interested parties.

I'll do my best to keep the log up to date Allen.

Thank you again for your response.

73 John.   <la2qaa at amsat6.org>
....................................................................................

> Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2007 09:51:23 -0500
> To: la2qaa at amsat.org
> From: afmattis at hal-pc.org
> Subject: AO-07 orbit 50159
> 
> <  It would be interesting if you could confirm which mode AO-7 was in at 
> 01:28 on orbit 51059 Allen.
> 
> John:
> 
> AO-07 was in Mode B.  My uplink was 70cm and downlink was 2m.  I heard 
> myself loud and clear on 145.942 for about 7 minutes.  I also heard a 
> little SSB up near 145.953 but didn't listen long enough to get the call 
> sign.  I had the usual fade out when the bird moved north of me  at 
> mid-pass.  Many of us in the US with omni-directional antennas can only get 
> in when the bird is south of us.
> 
> Thank you for the work you are doing to gather data to try to figure out 
> the mode change pattern.   Also thank you for correcting my entries - I 
> usually check my entries and make a correction if needed but we had house 
> guests yesterday and I did not have time.
> 
> Allen
> 
> 
> At 01:33 PM 9/8/2007 +0200, you wrote:
> >Allen,
> >          I have taken the liberty of correcting your AO-7 log entry on 
> > orbit 50159.
> >
> >You entered the mode as 'OFF' but at the same time commented your heard 
> >your own downlink ... therefore the mode must have been 'ON' in either A,B 
> >or C ... and since the other stations logged in mode-B before and after 
> >you heard your downlink I presume the satellite was in mode- B at the time 
> >... unless anything untoward was happening.
> >
> >You mentioned ... "called CQ CW 145.942 ... which in fact suggests mode-A 
> >between two periods of mode-B on the same orbit. It appears this also 
> >happened two days ago, it is quite unusual for AO-7 to switch twice on the 
> >same orbit.
> >
> >It would be interesting if you could confirm which mode AO-7 was in at 
> >01:28 on orbit 51059 Allen.
> >
> >Thank you.
> >
> >73 John.   <la2qaa at amsat.org>   AO-7 Resource Page Admin:
> 
>