Furthermore, from what I understand, international agreements (or at least implicit agreements) now require the operators to vent any remaining fuel. This is to prevent the satellite from exploding at some point in the future due to either the (rather caustic) fuel corroding through the fuel tank, or a debris/micrometeorite hit.
Once this is complete, the operators will then permanently shut down the satellite so that there is no chance of it interfering with the operational fleet. The last thing they want is a semi-active satellite drifting past an operational satellite (at least from the POV of the earth station) and potentially confusing tracking antennas, or otherwise interfering with revenue traffic.
As far as shifting them to amateur frequencies, I doubt it's physically possible. In order to get the Tx/Rx isolation they need, the satellites will be using cavity filters, so unless you're very close to their passband, there's no hope. Heck, in my day job, we have to use different filters if we want to operate in extended ku-band filters.
Regards,
Hans Johnson VA7HAS
On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 3:52 PM, Wayne Estes w9ae@charter.net wrote:
There is no reason to stabilize a satellite after it is boosted to the graveyard orbit. The satellite might have power and be easy to track, but the antennas won't point towards earth very often.
Wayne Estes W9AE Oakland, Oregon, USA, CN83ik
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