[amsat-bb] Re: SDX works

[Phil Karn]

On 8/3/11 9:28 PM, Andrew Glasbrenner wrote:
> I was able to hear myself with as little as 1 watt on the 0425Z pass. 
> Antennas are a M2 CP42 on RHCP up, and a 10 element horizontal yagi 
> down. Sounded VERY good, and cycled on and off with the telemetry. I 
> also managed to grab 2 frames of tlm right after AOS. I have a wav file 
> of the transponder test.

Now *THIS* is the best news I've heard all day since the deployment and
initial reception reports!!

Perhaps the transponder is disabled in low-power mode during night passes?

Remember this spacecraft is carrying a silver-zinc battery. While
nominally rechargeable, this type of battery has a very short cycle life
usually specified in the single digits. This is the reason for the
conservatism in eclipse operation. Without that battery, the computer
will regularly reset in eclipse and the spacecraft won't behave nearly
as well as we'd like.