RE: [amsat-bb] Re: Ao40...copied ?CAN`T BELIEVE THAT....

[Tony Langdon <tlangdon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Here is what we DO know:
> 
> 1.) Telemetry HAS been copied AFTER the burn and AFTER the 
> engines valves
> closed.  So the spacecraft did NOT blow up from the burn or 
> the likelyhood
> of such is tiny.

I copied telemetry more than 24 hours after the burn, so it did survive the
burn itself.

> 2.) People DID copy a weak, unmodulated carrier today on the 
> AO-40 2m beacon
> frequency or thereabout.

Unable to confirm this, haven't been near a rig when the bird was over
today.

> 3.) The spacecraft is now at a perigee of about 60,000 KM.  
> Signals will be
> VERY, VERY weak, particularly with the omni antennas activated.

Apogee, I think you mean apogee. :)

> 4.) The orientation of the spacecraft is likely such that the 
> omni antennas
> are pointing AWAY from earth at apogee.  This can be drawn as 
> a conclusion
> from the fact that the control team wants to study and test 
> the high gain
> antenna particularly, the 70 cm high gain TX system.  This 
> would mean that
> the omnis are pointed AWAY from the earth.

Yes, this is likely.

> Couple #'s 3 and 4 and you can see why most people likely 
> don't hear any
> telemetry from the bird.  Some people ARE hearing a weak 
> carrier with good
> AO-10 class stations.

Perigee is still 560 km, so should be able to hear something on the way
down/up.

> 
> What likely happened is IHU-2 crashed again and the control 
> crew has either
> not reset it yet or has been busy doing other things with the 
> spacecraft
> before resetting it.  Additionally, the attitude of the 
> spacecraft may be
> that it needs to go a couple of orbits before it will be in a position
> whereby they can reasonably command it given the likely 
> orientation of its
> antennas.

An IHU-2 crash is on the cards, and if they're looking at the 70cm Tx or
something else, resetting IHU-2 may be a low priority.

I'll assume they're busy doing some testing, until I hear something to the
contrary from one of the command stations or AMSAT.
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