Hi Mike,

Indeed, over the last several days you are likely to have found AO-16 silent. There appears to be something in the spacecraft shutting down the transmitter after a short, random period of time. Current speculation on the problem includes a temperature issue that has reared its ugly head now that the eclipse periods are increasing and the spacecraft internal temperatures are decreasing. It may be a hardware timer. It does not appear to be a battery issue.

At this point, the best we can do is to manually turn the satellite ON and then configure it for voice operations. This is a manual process and command stations are limited to the East coast of the US. As our busy schedules permit, we'll try to turn it ON; for now, it's the best we can do. Only time will tell if the current situation will stay the same, improve, or get worse.

73,

Mark Hammond, N8MH AO-16 Command Station

Can anyone tell me the status of AO-16? I recall a message here that it was having problems, but no updates or new lately that I can find. I heard nothing on the passes I've tried over the last few days.

Mike WB1AAT

Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]