[amsat-bb] Re: RS-15 beacon signal

[Armando Mercado]

Hello,

I have been listening to RS-15 beacon for several years
and it is still a mystery to me.

I have heard it turn on in less than 60 seconds of entering
sunlight.  It will also remain silent while in continuous 
sunlight for weeks.

My feeling is RS-15 is in a slow tumble with only some of
its solar panels working.  If it is in the right alignment with
the sun, it will come on.  I have noticed that the "beeps"
seem to get longer the longer it stays on.  Several years ago
the "beep" seemed to be as long as the CW telemetry
frame it used to transmit. 

73, Armando, N8IGJ
   
===============

Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:15:03 +0100
From: "Mike Rupprecht" <mail at mike-rupprecht.de>
Subject: [amsat-bb]  RS-15 beacon signal
To: "'amsat bb bb'" <amsat-bb at amsat.org>
Message-ID: <002501cac86a$09bd2600$1d377200$@de>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

All,

this morning I made some very interesting measurements of the beacon signal
from RS-15. 

Does anyone know the relationship between the length of the carrier and
(presumably) the temperature? 

The length varies between 1.5 seconds and sometimes over 20 seconds. 

You can see some interesting graphs here: http://www.dk3wn.info/p/?p=13008

 

Thanks and 73,

Mike

DK3WN