Hi Curt,
I've been trying, unsucessfully, to get an APRS report thru NO-44. I can hear it faintly ...
It appears as if NO-44 was still trying to wake up on its first pass over USA on Saturday morning. I would see occasional partial bursts, but not entire packets from the satellite.
How long does NO-44 need to be in sun before it begins to operate normally?
This seems to vary. You can get a feel for successful activity through NO-44 from the http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/pcsat.cgi web page. It appears that the last successful digipeat was around 22 hours ago.
Its probably my weak antenna set-up but its too cold out to play with that end yet!
For ARISS and PCSAT 145.825 MHz packet I'm using a 3-element 2 meter beam, about 30 fixed elevation with azimuth provided by a $30 TV antenna rotor. A small beam or vertical are just about all you need for ARISS, but PCSAT may be pretty low in signal strength when it emerges from eclipse.
-- 73 de JoAnne K9JKM k9jkm@amsat.org