This is probably the most important email about FO-29. I've high lighted and underlined the most important parts of the message. I looks like FO-29 will not be in full operation until the first part of 2010. At this moment it is only commanded on over Japan as noted in the schedule. With the issue of the batteries, it seems JAMSAT would consider similiar operations as it is now doing when FO-29 enters long periods of darkness in the future. This would possibly allow a longer life for this great bird. Thanks to JE9PEL for this important infornation. Mike (K9QHO) AMSAT 33589 --- On Wed, 9/9/09, WILLIAMS MICHAEL <k9qho6...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
From: WILLIAMS MICHAEL <k9qho6...@sbcglobal.net> Subject: FO-29 Date: Wednesday, September 9, 2009, 11:06 PM Start of FO-29 article:----------------------------------------------------- FO-29 status in 2009 FO-29 launched in August 1996 and has been working 14 years. FO-29 is planning to operate the consecutive use with the analog transponder until the end of August 2009, but it was confirmed that a transponder stopped on August 25. In the later pass, the transponder operation is confirmed when we sent a command of transponder ON from the control station, but we stopped transponder temporarily now. We had the a similar symptom of stopping the transponder in the spring of 2007 . FO-29 is in the "high shade rate period" now. Both of the transponder stop in the spring of 2007 and this time are thought that by this "high shade rate" and by the rise of the internal resistance of the deterioration of the battery and by the influence of the temperature of the battery. The power control system FO-29 (PCU) watches a terminal voltage of the battery and turns off the power supply of the transmitter automatically if it becomes less than the setting voltage. In addition, When FO-29 enters the sunshine area and it recovers to the setting voltage by sun battery power, it is designed to turn on a transmitter automatically. However malfunction occurred for this function in 2007. Because of transmitter was not turned on automatically, We made an operation schedule plan from the summer of 2007 and managed 1-2 times on in a day. This management operation worked well. The electricity income and expenditure restored or it was cured spontaneously.The transponder has been worked without control command from control station from summer of 2008. The power supply circumstances of current FO-29 is almost same situation as stop period spring of 2007, scheduled operation period, the consecutively operative period from the summer of 2008 and it is in a "high shade rate". This transponder off is supposed to be a similar situation as when transponder stopped in the spring of 2007. ***From this , We decided that we make the operation schedule plan, and manage the limit of the operative number of times in one day like last time to keep the electricity income and expenditure untill improve the "shade rate" which is in January, 2010. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks control team JA1COU Yutaka Murata Message: 7 Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:25:03 +0900 From: Mineo Wakita <ei7m-...@asahi-net.or.jp> Subject: [amsat-bb] FO-29 schedule Sep. and Oct. To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Message-ID: <10ca3077029eecei7m-...@asahi-net.or.jp> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii FO-29 still has some trouble. Therefore it is examination use for a while only over Japan. We do not yet understand when it recover. There are the reception report from South America and Europe. You may listen to CW with luck over your area. Control station says that you may be listen in Australia, South America, North America, and Europe in particular. Control station says more as follows. The transmitter becomes OFF by UVC automatically in the eclipse. The station confirmed the moment when the transmitter became OFF please inform it of the date and time at the following address. lab (at) jarl.or.jp The below * is a predicted pass that command work take time. And please consent to be a possibility that we cannot turn ON the transponder by the state of the line. ----------------- September, UTC 11 21:37 12 12:21*, 22:26 13 11:30 14 22:23 15 None 16 12:15*, 22:20 17 None 18 12:03*, 22:15 19 11:15, 21:20 20 12:05* 21 12:55*, 22:58 22 10:10, 22:10 23 12:50 24 None 25 10:58, 22:50 26 11:50*, 21:55 27 12:36* 28 21:50 29 12:35*, 22:45 30 11:40*, 21:45 October, UTC 1 12:30*, 22:35 2 11:35, 21:45 3 12:25, 22:28 4 11:28 5 22:25 6 13:08, 21:33 7 12:10, 22:23 8 13:05, 21:35 9 None 10 11:12, 23:08 11 12:05*, 22:12 12 11:08 13 None ----------------- JE9PEL, Mineo Wakita ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Sent via amsat...@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
