AO-51 power management software enabled

AMSAT-NA VP Operations Drew KO4MA has enabled the Power Management software on the Amateur Radio satellite AO-51.

On the AMSAT bulletin board he writes:

This evening I enabled the power management software on AO-51. If everything works right, the repeater should run at 1.01 watt while in sun, and 290 milliwatt while in eclipse and after exiting eclipse until the batteries recover to ~7.9 volts. Observations from the southern hemisphere while entering and leaving eclipse would be very helpful...we know it is getting used from the WOD files.

A map showing where the satellite is being used is at:
http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q305/glasbrenner/
?action=view&current=AO51usermap.jpg

Quick and dirty, but it gets the point across I hope. The red roughly represents the areas where the AO-51 V/U repeater was being used. Over 24 hours the on time is averaging ~45%.

AO-51 page with real time tracking
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/echo/

Satellite Pass Predictions
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/tools/predict/

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

Getting started on Amateur Radio Satellites PDF
http://www.uk.amsat.org/content/view/408/168/

AMSAT-UK publish a colour A4 newsletter, OSCAR News, that is full of Amateur Satellite information.
Join online at https://secure.amsat.org.uk/subs_form/