It's a very old "bucket of bolts", therefore reserves the right to be be a bit tempermental, for whatever reason.

73 Bob W7LRD

----- Original Message ----- From: "John Papay" john@papays.com To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thursday, June 10, 2010 4:50:54 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: [amsat-bb]  AO-7 Mode Switch

AO-7 has normally switched modes every other day except during periods of eclipse when it stays in Mode B.  On June 8th, it was in Mode A as predicted, however, when it was supposed to switch to Mode B between 0200 and 0500 on June 9th, the AO-7 log reported that it was heard in Mode B at 0407z by SP9TTX and then was reported off on the next pass at 0600z.  When it came back on at 0800z, it was in Mode A rather than Mode B. Then it switched back to Mode B on the 10th at the normal time.  In other words, it has skipped a day in the switching schedule.

I didn't see any eclipse event and even if there was, the satellite would normally come back in Mode B rather than Mode A.  Is there an explanation?

73, John K8YSE

John Papay john@papays.com

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