Hi Dave,

No I cannot confirm that. While I can set the mode the AO-51 Modes team determines the mode.

We are just getting into a no eclipse period, and just had a software crash (unrelated as far as I can determine).

We are still getting a feel for how the satellite responds to this no eclipse period and how best to manage the satellite.

The Operations team and command station certainly realize that V/U is a popular mode and we will endeavor to support this mode when possible. Managing the satellite through this new period is of prime importance. We will keep your request and the others we have received in mind. Once we get a good handle on the best way to manage AO-51 we will return to scheduled operation.

73, Gould, WA4SXM AO-51 Command Station and Operations Team member

----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave Aitch" dave@g1ocn.com To: "Gould Smith" gouldsmi@bellsouth.net Cc: amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org Sent: Tuesday, January 15, 2008 3:27 PM Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] AO-51 back on the air!

Hi Gould.

Can you confirm that AO-51 will be in V/U till the end of January please ?

I ask only because I will be in deepest darkest VP8 land from 19th Jan till the end of the month working with an Arrow and a THD7G, plus some H.F. ops, penguins permitting.

As far as I know, at the various Islands I will be travelling, there is no public internet access.

73, Dave.

Folks

I've had quite a substantial increase in enquiries regarding the LVB Tracker over the past few months, and a significant number of those have been regarding the LVB Tracker 2.

In case you are unaware, the LVB Tracker 2 is an updated version of the original tracker, its fundamental difference being that it performs real time prediction and tracking by itself without the need to be hooked up to a computer.

All that is needed to upgrade an LVB Tracker 1 is a replacement $10 PIC (18F2620) that is pin-compatible with the original PIC. Other than programming the new PIC, no other changes are needed: you don't even need to switch on your soldering iron!

The part number is available form a number of sources, for example:

Mouser 579-PIC18F2620-I/SP Digikey PIC18F2620-I/SP-ND RS (UK) 623-0768 Farnell (UK) 1212698

Until a couple of weeks ago I had not touched the code for well over two years, but with the new interest I have spent a bit of time fixing a couple of known bugs (see below).

Please be aware that as this is a work in progress, I am sure there are a number of things that aren't quite right yet, so I welcome your feedback.

Bug fixes 2.0c:

o Second attempt to fix the hanging during AOS/LOS calculation

o Additional menu option to delete all satellites

o Fixed a Kep Load bug that occasionally incorrectly indicated a bad checksum

18F2620 programming software: http://www.g6lvb.com/Articles/LVBTracker2/PicProg2.exe Hex file: http://www.g6lvb.com/Articles/LVBTracker2/2620test20c.hex Sources: http://www.g6lvb.com/Articles/LVBTracker2/2620test_2_0c_001.zip

73, Howard G6LVB