FO-29 status update

The JARL FO-29 command team reported on the status of FO-29 this week.

After long eclipse periods caused a negative power budget on FO-29 in early November, 2009 which took it off the air temporarily the command team switched the satellite from continuous operation to scheduled operations.

This allows the command team to monitor the state of the battery charge aboard the spacecraft and adjust operations as required.

Since the last commanded power up of the analog transponder on January 27, 2010 the command team has received reports worldwide which indicate that FO-29 has been able maintain continuos operation. The power budget aboard the spacecraft is improving as the eclipse periods decrease.If the power budget decreases too much the satellite will automatically power down.

The JARL command team requests telemetry reports (either direct or posted via the amsat-bb) from stations that may have data from January 27 to January 28. Additionally, if you find the transponder is off during a scheduled ON period please report this to the command team as well.

JARL places no restrictions on the use of FO-29 during scheduled operation periods except to remind satellite ground stations to transmit with as low an uplink transmitter power as possible.

Thanks to Yutaka Murata, JA1COU, the JARL command team and Amsat for the above information