I was curious about the status of EO-79 as the transponder has not been reported on in quite some time. AI6GS checked a pass this afternoon and heard nothing but the beacon.

As the transponder's operation causes the satellite to be power negative, the satellite is currently configured to charge for 27 minutes after coming out of eclipse and then the transponder is on for 25 minutes. When this schedule was put in place last year, this favored mid-latitudes, but due to orbital precession and the changing seasons, this is now seems to favor lower latitudes.

If anyone wants to check out the transponder today (21-Oct), I have calculated the following on times (by utilizing eclipse predictions in DK3WN's Illum).

0117 - 0132 0253 - 0318 0430 - 0455 0607 - 0632 0744 - 0809 0919 - 0944 1057 - 1122 1234 - 1259 1411 - 1436 1548 - 1613 1725 - 1750 1901 - 1926 1938 - 2003 2215 - 2240 2352 - 0017

73,

Paul, N8HM