*Summary of AO-85 testing:*
*Please do not try to uplink to AO-85 during the following times (all of* *which occur while AO-85 is over North America) even though the* *transponder will be active and you may hear activity.*
*Sunday November 8, 15:35 through 15:55 UTC* *Sunday November 8, 17:15 through 17:35 UTC* *Monday November 9, 00:05 through 00:25 UTC* *Monday November 9, 01:45 through 02:10 UTC*
All dates and times are UTC, all passes are Sunday local time in North America. Stations in North, Central, and northern South America are asked to comply. You are encouraged to copy telemetry with FoxTelem during these times to forward to the server to help us analyze the test results.
*Details of this AO-85 testing:*
Sunday, November 8 and into early Monday, November 9 (UTC) the Fox-1 Engineering Team will be testing the COR (carrier operated relay) mode of AO-85. COR is the backup to the IHU failing, if IHU fails AO-85 should continue operating as a simple COR repeater with no CTCSS necessary as long as there is power. In COR mode no telemetry or voice ID is present because those are generated by the IHU.
Orbit 443 ascending, at approximately 15:35 UTC over North America we will test a telemetry high/low reset command. Following the command look for Ground Resets = 2 in the Computer window of FoxTelem. Once that is confirmed, we will command the IHU OFF on the same pass. Please keep the uplink clear in order to help us test and monitor the telemetry.
Orbit 444 ascending, at approximately 17:15 UTC over North America AMSAT command and engineering stations will test the COR mode on the air to observe performance. Please keep the uplink clear so that we may test without interference, to expedite the testing and allow for good measurements. We may command IHU ON during the pass in order to observe battery voltage in the telemetry. Please have FoxTelem running even if there is no telemetry seen, it may turn on at any time during this pass.
Orbit 448 descending, at approximately 00:05 UTC Monday over North America we will command AO-85 IHU ON. Please keep the uplink clear in order to help us test and monitor the telemetry after the IHU is turned on.
Orbit 449 descending, at approximately 01:45 UTC Monday over North America if we were unable to command IHU ON on orbit 448, we will attempt to command again. Please keep the uplink clear in order to help us test and monitor the telemetry after the IHU is turned on.
During the testing stations outside North, Central and northern South America are invited to use the COR repeater mode and share your assessment of AO-85 receive sensitivity and audio on amsat-bb. Stations in North, Central, and northern South America may use the COR repeater on orbits 445 through 447 and are also invited to share your assessment of AO-85 receive sensitivity and audio on amsat-bb.
Please share this widely to help reach everyone who may be operating AO-85.
Thank you for your support.