The return of OSCAR-11

Very many thanks for all the recent reports of OSCAR-11, on AMSAT-BB and by direct e-mails.

I received the good news, on Saturday morning, while at the AMSAT-UK Colloquium. This was entirely unexpected!

When I returned home on Sunday, I heard the passes at 17:21 & 19:02 UTC, and have heard many others since.

Signals seem to be weaker than usual. However,since I last heard the satellite on 30 April, I've reinstalled my antennas , which makes comparisons difficult.

All the analogue telemetry channels, 0 to 59 are zero, ie: they have failed. The status channels 60 to 67 are still working. One bit in channel 62, DSR mode, has changed from WRITE to READ. DSR is the Digital Store & Readout experiment. This could be significant if the experiment is still drawing current, but the other status bit indicates that it is switched OFF.

The on-board clock is now showing a very large error. It has lost approximately 15 days since 30 April. I'll be monitoring the clock closely to see whether it changes at a constant rate, in future passes.

Eclipses should end around mid August. That should help the satellite to continue transmitting.

If the watchdog timer is still working, the satellite should switch OFF in the next 10 to 20 days. I would appreciate if listeners could just make a note of the DATE & UTC time when they hear the satellite, so that when it switches OFF we can determine when it was last heard.

Please post your reports to AMSAT-BB or e-mail me direct g3cwv@amsat.org, but NOT until it switches OFF!

73 Clive Wallis G3CWV
Hitchin, North Hertfordshire, UK.
Email: g3cwv at amsat.org

Other recent stories..

Other News Stories

• Get our news headlines for your website - click here
• Submit your news story - click here