[amsat-bb] Reception report of AO-73

[Paul Stoetzer]

David,

There is a major geomagnetic storm ongoing at the moment (K index = 6)
which could account for some of the signal distortion through the
atmosphere. This solar storm started yesterday and it wouldn't
surprise me if it was responsible for AO-73 shutting down and needing
to be reset.

The next pass here is at 02:51 UTC. I will be listening.

73,

Paul, N8HM

On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 7:05 PM, David <at746david at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi from David EA4SG.
>
> I send this short AO-73 SWL report hoping it could be useful to the
> AO-73 Command Team.
>
> In the lasts two orbits (#7434 and #7435) over my QTH located in
> Colmenar Viejo (Madrid) locator IN80CP, the bird reached AOS with the
> transponder ON as expected, downlink signal was slightly weaker than
> usual, modulation was quite distorted (similar to the one we get from
> AO-7) and transponder switched off exactly at the expected "ilumination
> time" (20:31UTC  and 22:08UTC).
>
> I was also listening to the telemetry and it was affected by the above
> mentioned distorsion too. I didnt try, but I am sure that this
> distortion will make telemetry harder to be decoded.
>
> Best 73s de David EA4SG
>
>
>
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