[amsat-bb] Plea to EU PCSat Users

["Howard Long" <howard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

European PCSat users -

Please refrain from ANY transmitting to PCSat whilst we recover the
satellite.

This includes digipeating any messages at all including messages via
satgates.

Today I have been unsuccessful on the last two passes in switching the
satellite to low power and switching off the digipeater. Listening to the
downlink on the second attempt it appears that one of the reasons I'm
failing is the volume of digipeating still going on which is interfering
with my uplink.

To reiterate Bob's comments: when in eclipse, the batteries are not charging
and they reduce to such a low voltage that the spacecraft switches off. When
back in the sun, the voltage comes back up and the spacecraft resets. The
default state after reset is that all receivers are on, and digipeating is
on. All these systems take up a lot of the power budget.

So we switch the spacecraft to a low power mode to (a) recharge the
batteries quicker and (b) reduce the power so that when in eclipse it might
just make it around an entire orbit without resetting. Currently each orbit
the NiCad's are going through a charge-discharge cycle - that's about a
dozen times a day. The average life of a NiCad is normally quoted at about
200 to 500 cycles. So it's only a matter of time unless we can make it
through an entire orbit.

Thanks & 73 Howard G6LVB


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