Hi All,
This is a quick note to let you know that eclipses are back for AO-51, and the length is increasing every day. Eclipses are now ;asting about 1-2 mins per pass, and it goes up pretty fast, gaining a minute every day or two. They will become rather long in the coming weeks/months (as long as 20 mins or more as I recall). Interested people should download and run DK3WN's Illum program to see what lies ahead for AO-51.
We are still running power management; that means the transmitters will be OFF during eclipses (and probably right before, and soon after). The 435.300 transmitter is currently around 420 mW. The balancing (juggling??) act between sunlight, transmitter power, spacecraft temperature, and aging batteries continues...
73 on behalf of the command team,