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FO-29 Analog Transponder Observations

Från ANS kommer följande info:

Domenico, I8CVS, provided the following observation of FO-29’s analog
transponder:

Following suggestions of my friend Mak, SV1BSX,  I tried FO-29 the night of 27 July during the South bound orbit 58978. AOS for me in JN70ES was at 00:06 UTC and FO-29 was in sun light.

I was alone into the passband and my return signal was very strong above my noise floor with appoximately only 10 watt on a 13 dBi crossed yagi RHCP / LHCP (about 200 watt EIRP)

The SSB return was very clean and without FMing with the usual need to switch RHCP to LHCP time to time to get the best signal strength

At 00:15 UTC  FO-29 started to experience the eclipse as per InstanTrack but no sign of reduction of my return signal or FMing was noted.

  From  00:15 to 00:21 until my LOS the satellite was over Africa and well in full eclipse for about 6 minutes but my own return signal was still clear ad strong without any sign of FMing. It seems that the battery is working and as far I know the satellite performance seems to be nominal.

The CW beacon was ON all the time.

The transponder is very sensitive so please refrain from using high power because 200 watt EIRP is more than enough.

I thank very much Mak, SV1BSX, for sending to me the results of his experience the previous day which confirm the results that I got. Both confirm that FO-29 seems to be alive and well.

We don’t know what JARL did to resurrect this beautiful satellite but while she will last we have another real CW and SSB satellite to work.

Congratulations to JARL

[ANS thanks Domenico, I8CVS, for the above information]

 

By SM0TGU

Webmaster and member of the AMSAT-SM steering group.

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