Hi All,
To day December 15 signals from the satellite XW-1 CW beacon during Rev 9 changing into Rev 10 over Europe were very strong and clear with only a beacon power of 65 mW into a satellite TX antenna RHCP with gain of 3.0 dBic
The satellite from AOS at 20:12 UTC and LOS at 20:34 UTC was into the eclipse (ECL) all the time.
My receiving condition was a 12 dBic RHCP 10 turns Helix antenna with a low noise preamplifier antenna mounted NF=0.45 dB and Gain G = 20 dB
I was using a 434-436 / 28-30 MHz downconverter in the shack connected to a HF Drake receiver R4-C tuned to the 10 meters IF interposing in between a 20 dB attenuator with 1 dB steps
The XW-1 beacon was very constant in signal strenght fading very slowly changing between 20 dB to 15 dB over the noise floor in about 30 seconds as measured with the 1 dB step attenuator connected into the 28-30 MHz IF of my receiving system.
The same was experienced during the following Rev 10 changing into Rev 11 over Europe with AOS at 22:06 UTC and LOS at 22:18 UTC with the satellite in Eclipse (ECL) all the time.
During the above orbit the Elevation from my QTH in JN70ES was only 8 degrees maximum over the free horizon with no obstructions in direction of the see.
The following keplerian elements as given by Nigel G8IFF for object A are extremely correct because I losted the signal over the free horizon just at elevation of - 0.2 degrees as computed by InstantTrack
XW-1 1 36121U 09072A 09349.53641119 -.00000045 00000-0 00000+0 0 31 2 36121 100.5050 046.6267 0007989 035.4736 324.6735 13.16391085 50
That's all for now
I hope that very soon the linear transponder will be open for general use and stay in SSB/CW as long as possible for the benefit of many users at the same time.
73" de
i8CVS Domenico