No evidence of any distortion in the transponder on the 02:51 UTC pass over North America. The satellite sounded just as strong as normal. The beacon was strong and clear, though the pilot tone was FMing with the traffic on the transponder. This is normal too.
73,
Paul, N8HM
On Thu, Apr 16, 2015 at 10:21 PM, [email protected] wrote:
Solid telemetry over ZL on the 2112 UT and 2249 UT passes. (Not in eclipse) There was some minor scintillation late in the pass but that is not particularly unusual as it gets well to the South. The latest Solar Alert email I received indicated that "charging of satellites systems" was to be expected so indeed this may have affected AO-73.
73 Alan ZL2BX
-----Original Message----- From: Paul Stoetzer Sent: Friday, April 17, 2015 1:48 AM To: David Cc: [email protected] Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Reception report of AO-73
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 [email protected] 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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Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via [email protected]. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb