[amsat-bb] Re: FO 29 help

[Gordon JC Pearce]

On Sat, 2011-04-23 at 13:37 -0700, Kevin Deane wrote:

> I may be wrong in my opinion, but I dont see why we cant use FM other
> than to keep usage down? I hope everyone dosent freak out, as this
> seems to be "Taboo"

It would be technically okay if the linear sats were still healthy with
nice new batteries and shiny clean solar panels.  They're not, though,
and the continuous FM carrier could well pull the power bus down beyond
the point where the satellite becomes uncontrollable.

They're all a bit fragile now; even AO-51 is getting a bit reluctant now
that it's passing into long periods of eclipse.  For us Earth-dwellers
it's cheap and easy to replace batteries every two years, but for those
little satellites it's much harder.  You'd have to catch them, for a
start...

Gordon MM0YEQ