[amsat-bb] AO-40 E block question

[Jim Walls <k6ccc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,
    I was watching the AO-40 telemetry for a while this morning, and
noticed something that made me ask why?  I know that E blocks are events
that have happened at some point in the past. What I was noticing was
that the same block was being sent over and over and over.  Looking at
the raw data (quick look) and the decoded E block telemetry it looked
like exactly the same block was being transmitted as many as 5 times in
a row (with no othere blocks being sent), and it was data that was over
a year old.
    First of all, I have to wonder why the same block was being
transmitted over and over, and secondly why are we having the satellite
transmit E blocks from over a year ago?  I have to think that the
command team has been able to get a clean decode of these blocks and
does not need to spend beacon time transmitting this ancient history
again and again.  Since the beacon has a rather fixed (and low speed)
capability, I would think it does not make sense to keep transmitting E
blocks that have been successfully decoded here on earth and archived.
Or is there no way to flush old events from the satellite's memory so it
stops sending them?
Here are a couple of the E blocks that I decoded this morning...


+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+  E V E N T    S T A T U S  +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
E  HI, THIS IS AMSAT OSCAR-40       2001-05-13  04:12:10  #015D

EVENT #0008


AMSAT Day = 8533    Orbit# = 245    MA = 149
Current AMSAT Day = 8986
--------------------  R E C E I V E R S -------------------------
21MHz: OFF       24MHz: OFF       V: Off          U: On HiGain
L1:  HiGain      L2: ON           S1: OFF
S2: OFF          C: OFF           Leila: #D9D9
------------------  T R A N S M I T E R S -----------------------
U: Off       V: Off       S1: OFF       S2: ON
X: Off       K: Off
----------------------  A G C / A L C --------------------------
V-Rx: -12.77dB       U-Rx: 11.97dB      L1-Rx: 0.74 dB
L2-Rx: -0.28dB       S1-Rx: -62.14dB    S2/C-Rx: -253.70dB
HF-Rx: 008      V-Tx: 175     U-Tx: 008     S2-Tx: 077
----------------------  B E A C O N S ---------------------------
GB: ON       GB FSK: OFF      DPSK: ON       EB: OFF
GB PSK Source: EB Source
-----------------------  S A F E T Y ---------------------------
Magnet System: Off       Emerg. Flags:#08
Soft Errors:3            Solar Array Plug: Armed
------------------  E X P E R I M E N T S -----------------------


+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+  E V E N T    S T A T U S  +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
E  HI, THIS IS AMSAT OSCAR-40       2001-09-15  17:51:08  #02FD

EVENT #000C


AMSAT Day = 8658    Orbit# = 403    MA = 237
Current AMSAT Day = 8986
--------------------  R E C E I V E R S -------------------------
21MHz: OFF       24MHz: OFF       V: Off          U: On HiGain
L1:  HiGain      L2: ON           S1: OFF
S2: OFF          C: OFF           Leila: #D8D9
------------------  T R A N S M I T E R S -----------------------
U: Off       V:  HiGain   S1: OFF       S2: OFF
X: Off       K: Off
----------------------  A G C / A L C --------------------------
V-Rx: -12.77dB       U-Rx: -1.28dB      L1-Rx: 0.74 dB
L2-Rx: -0.28dB       S1-Rx: -62.14dB    S2/C-Rx: -253.70dB
HF-Rx: 008      V-Tx: 048     U-Tx: 008     S2-Tx: 077
----------------------  B E A C O N S ---------------------------
GB: ON       GB FSK: OFF      DPSK: ON       EB: OFF
GB PSK Source: EB Source
-----------------------  S A F E T Y ---------------------------
Magnet System: On        Emerg. Flags:#00
Soft Errors:4            Solar Array Plug: Armed
------------------  E X P E R I M E N T S -----------------------
Rudak: ON          GPS: ON         RFexp: OFF      Camera A: OFF


73
-----------------------
Jim Walls - K6CCC
k6ccc@amsat.org
http://home.earthlink.net/~k6ccc/
626-302-8515    FAX  626-302-7501
AMSAT member 32537 / WSWSS member 395


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