Re: [amsat-bb] FO20 R.I.P.????

[Jim.Walls@xxxxxxx]

Robert - G8ATE said:
> I checked 4 fully illuminated orbits of FO20 today(last one @16-43utc)
> I could not hear the beacon and the transponder was dead,my 70cm D/L
> checked out OK with QSO's on UO14,FO29 and SO50,is this the end of
> FO20 I wonder?

I talked through it a couple days ago on a mid-day US pass.  The
transponder was lasting about a minute and then going away for about 2
minutes.  As far as I could tell, there was one SSB conversation (W0SAT and
I) at a reasonable signal strength, and one CW conversation at about 15 -
20 dB above the beacon on the pass.  The CW was too fast for me to copy so
I don't know who it was, but both stations in the conversation were so
strong that it was painful to sweep across them in passband with headphones
on.  I have not heard it on a nighttime pass in quite a while - on the
other hand those are middle of the night and I'm not normally awake.
I would hate to pronounce FO-20 dead, but it does seem to be rapidly
getting there :(

73
-----------------------
Jim Walls - K6CCC
k6ccc@amsat.org
Mobile Radio Operations
Southern California Edison Co.
Ofc:   626-302-8515   -   PAX   28-515
FAX:   626-302-7501   -   PAX   27-501



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