It appears XW-2C is experiencing "issues." The CW beacon, the transponder and the telemetry are very erratic. The transponder is on very briefly during breaks in the telemetry transmissions. The CW beacon hardly gets a single dit out. May have battery problems.
Glenn / AA5PK
The XW-2 satellites are currently experiencing what I believe are their longest period of eclipses since, eclipsing in the southern hemisphere on each orbit. With LTDNs (local time of the descending node) of 06:00-06:02, the satellites are in sunlight most of the time, except in each hemisphere's winter. Note that XW-2A is no longer in a nominally sun-synchronous orbit due to it's orbital maneuvers.
DK3WN's Illum program shows that XW-2C will be experience periods of eclipse until August 12th. Eclipse durations are 21-22 minutes per orbit at this time and will start to decrease slowly next week (as seen here https://twitter.com/PRStoetzer/status/751208970979803137 )
Hopefully the issues are temporary. Perhaps a command station can put it into a safe mode to ensure that it's batteries do not get too depleted while experiencing long eclipses.
73,
Paul, N8HM
On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 8:04 PM, Glenn Miller - AA5PK aa5pk@suddenlink.net wrote:
It appears XW-2C is experiencing "issues." The CW beacon, the transponder and the telemetry are very erratic. The transponder is on very briefly during breaks in the telemetry transmissions. The CW beacon hardly gets a single dit out. May have battery problems.
Glenn / AA5PK _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. 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://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
Also, I would recommend not attempting to uplink to the satellite until the telemetry beacons return to normal (in the absence of any formal word from CAMSAT). If it is a battery charge issue, it would be a good idea to not stress them further by putting a signal through the satellite.
73,
Paul, N8HM
On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 8:23 PM, Paul Stoetzer n8hm@arrl.net wrote:
The XW-2 satellites are currently experiencing what I believe are their longest period of eclipses since, eclipsing in the southern hemisphere on each orbit. With LTDNs (local time of the descending node) of 06:00-06:02, the satellites are in sunlight most of the time, except in each hemisphere's winter. Note that XW-2A is no longer in a nominally sun-synchronous orbit due to it's orbital maneuvers.
DK3WN's Illum program shows that XW-2C will be experience periods of eclipse until August 12th. Eclipse durations are 21-22 minutes per orbit at this time and will start to decrease slowly next week (as seen here https://twitter.com/PRStoetzer/status/751208970979803137 )
Hopefully the issues are temporary. Perhaps a command station can put it into a safe mode to ensure that it's batteries do not get too depleted while experiencing long eclipses.
73,
Paul, N8HM
On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 8:04 PM, Glenn Miller - AA5PK aa5pk@suddenlink.net wrote:
It appears XW-2C is experiencing "issues." The CW beacon, the transponder and the telemetry are very erratic. The transponder is on very briefly during breaks in the telemetry transmissions. The CW beacon hardly gets a single dit out. May have battery problems.
Glenn / AA5PK _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. 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://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
participants (2)
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Glenn Miller - AA5PK -
Paul Stoetzer