Good evening,

Just a reminder that we are starting to lose transponder time here in the Northern Hemisphere on evening passes when the satellite is in it's normal auto eclipse mode. For example, during the second pass over Washington, DC this evening, I have AOS at 02:17 UTC and LOS at 02:30 UTC. However, the satellite will enter sunlight at 02:28:40 UTC, one minute and 20 seconds before LOS and the transponder will shut off.

As we move towards the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, transponder time will continue to decrease on the evening passes. At my latitude, by May 15th, for example, the satellite will be in eclipse during evening passes for only 4-5 minutes. On June 21st, the summer solstice, I show about 3 minutes of transponder time on evening passes before the satellite enters sunlight.

Keep this in mind if you suddenly hear the transponder shut off during a weekday evening pass. Tune down to the beacon frequency, and you'll find it's suddenly 10 dB louder.

73,

Paul Stoetzer, N8HM