Re: [amsat-bb] sstv on mir

["Bill Jones" <wejones@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> <<  SSTV on over aurora Colorado 20:30 utc 
pass of Mir.
>  Signal strength S1  normal here s9
>  Picture out of focus.
>   picture frame about 2/3 the normal size.
>   >>
> 
> I noted the out of focus (just colors and lines 
is all I got) and smaller
> frame size on the pass early this morning, 
but didn't detect any less than
> normal signal strength.
> 
 
This is just my theory, but I've come to the 
conclusion that signal strength with the MIR 
has allways seemed to be very variable 
depending on the orientation of the MIR with 
respect to the earth.  I have allways assumed 
that this meant that the antenna is being 
blocked by the spacecraft.  This can result in 
the signal strength being strong during part of 
the pass and weak for other parts of the pass or 
for people located in one direction on the 
ground getting greatly different signal strengths 
than people in other locations.  This symptom 
is often worse at times when they are docking 
with other spacecraft since they may change 
their orientation or the other spacecraft might 
block the signal, etc.   Anyway, just an un-
educated opinion.

BTW (another guess), it also seems that the 
out of focus condition seems to be at times 
when the lighting conditions causes the camera 
to focus on the window or on some reflection 
rather than what is outside.  I have downloaded 
a couple images where you could actually see 
bubbles in the glass, but everything else was 
out of focus.

+----------------------------------+
| Bill Jones, N3JLQ,Sweden, Maine  |
| wejones@megalink.net             |
| http://www.megalink.net/~wejones |
+----------------------------------+
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