Hello John,
Thanks for your query about LO-19.
Thanks to the good efferts of our AMSAT Operations VP, Drew KO4MA and his establishment of
the right contacts, a few weeks ago I spent some time corresponding with the LUSAT/LO-19
team. They are a great bunch of hams, and they are (rightfully so) very proud of their
"old" bird.
We came to the conclusion that the failure mode of LO-19 is quite different from that of
AO-16, and that any change from its current state of CW telemetry would either be
impossible, or sufficiently risky that it was best to "leave well enough
alone." So, I think we can expect that LO-19 will continue to report CW telemetry
for a long time. It's a great bird and its 18 years of continous operations is an
amazing feat.
Drew KO4MA has been attempting contact with the WO-18 folks. DO-17 isn't such a
likely candidate for doing much of anything...
Other thoughts...you can include IO-26 as being "nearly the same" as the
original microsats, Oscars 16/17/18/19. In fact, I have started some preliminary testing
of IO-26. The testing is especially slow, and it will take some time to sort out its
current state (what works and what doesn't). Once we know that, we can begin to
consider what function(s) IO-26 might serve. While we have no idea at the moment if
it's feasible, in theory its hardware could permit being reconfigured like AO-16. We
just don't know what our options are for now.
Rest assured, we're working on it :)
73,
Mark Hammond N8MH
_______
Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:20:07 -0500
From: "John Marranca, Jr" < KB2HSH(a)amsat.org >
Subject: [amsat-bb] Configuring LUSAT-19 like AO-16???
To: amsat-bb(a)amsat.org
Message-ID:
< 8edcdb130802281420y10ef567djdb8f9f9fb7a8a466(a)mail.gmail.com >
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Good Afternoon, Everyone.
Last month, a question was posed about the possibility of reconfiguring
LUSAT/Oscar 19 in the "bent pipe" style that AO-16 is currently in. As I am
writing this, both AO-16 and LU-19 are overhead...and both have stellar
signals.
Is there any news/update as to whether or not this can be accomplished??
Upon reading the Satellite Handbook, it appears as though 16, 17, 18, and 19
were pretty much similar. If I am wrong, then I will stand as corrected,
but if 16 could be converted in such a fashion, what prevents 19?
Wishing for Spring!
John KB2HSH
--
Mark L. Hammond [N8MH]
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