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@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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