AO-16 Status Report March 2008

An update has been issued on the Amateur Radio satellite AO-16 that was recently converted to a unique “FM up DSB down” mode of operation.

On the AMSAT Bulletin Board Mark L. Hammond N8MH writes:

Below is the current operational configuration for AO-16: (Available from: http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/satellites/satInfo.php?
satID=11&retURL=/satellites/status.php)

Mode FM Voice Repeater (Downlink is double sideband.): Operational

Uplink: 145.9200 MHz FM
Downlink 437.0260 MHz DSB (LSB and USB)

The plan is to continue this mode of voice operations "until further notice. "

AO-16 has been in full sunlight (no eclipse periods at all) for several months.  That is about to change later this month!  Short eclipse periods will begin at the end of March and will increase steadily until early July--at which point the eclipse periods will increase to about 26 minutes each orbit.  We'll have to watch this old bird and its batteries as the eclipse periods increase.

It is possible that the long eclipse periods may necessitate the reduction of the 70 cm transmitter output; this is a manual process for AO-16, since the spacecraft isn't running any housekeeping software to do it "automagically."  
AO-16 is pretty loud at its current power setting, so some reduction should have little if any user impact.  Observations and user reports will be especially helpful during April/May/June/July this year.
In order to collect telemetry, we'll need to change the satellite into its digital mode from time to time.  But this doesn't take long and therefore shouldn't interfere much with its operations as a voice satellite.

The S-band beacon is not operational at this time. The exact status of the S-band transmitter remains unknown; however, its last known status might be described as "suspect" or "semi-operational" at best...(as I recall - and this might not be accurate - there are issues with the power budget, no way to adjust the power output of the S-band transmitter, and so on.)  Given the age of the satellite (over 18 years!), my opinion is that this falls into the "maybe we should leave well enough alone for now" category.

On behalf of the AO-16 Command Team,

Mark L. Hammond N8MH

AMSAT Bulletin Board AMSAT-BB
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/maillist/
maillist.php

Online Satellite Pass Predictions (Select AO-16)
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/