AO-40: Keps & Post-launch info 7.Jan.01

Taken from http://www.uk.amsat.org/phase3d.htm:




Post-launch info 0015 utc 07 January
some more good news... the command team can now confirm that the VHF and UHF receivers are OK and they
seem to work nominally on the HiGain antennas. So far, no results with the Omni antennas.





Since they knew that the HiGain antennas are working, the V-TX was switched On on HiGain antenna for 1 MA count between 17:31 and 17:35 utc saturday in the perigee pass over Australia by VK5AGR. The temperature of the transmitter rose from 16.6 to ~28ºC, but Graham could not detect any AO-40 telemetry signal on 2m.



Unfortunately, the telemetry he was receiving on S-band at the time of this test was not error free and therefore some good telemetry might be missing. Thanks to the command team and in particular Graham for getting up at 0300 local time to do this.
They'll be trying again.



The magnetorquing system has also been initiated, so there should be additional FM wobbling when they are are in action.



Depending on the outcome of this test we can devise a new schedule that best exploits our currently known communications
capability. Keep your fingers crossed.



Amsat-bb is going potty talking about fuel leaks (DB2OS did mention this weeks ago); personally I think speculation is counter-productive but that doesn't stop people from doing it.



Finally Paul Willmott, VP9MU, has made another plea for anyone who has captured telemetry from AO-40 using P3T or compatible software (and hasn't sent in a copy to the AMSAT archive yet), then please could they .zip it and send to ao40-archive@amsat.org



We really appreciate all contributions for ANY orbit since launch. Your contributions are merged with those of other stations to build a more complete record. Updated merged files are placed daily on the AMSAT ftp site for all to download and view with P3T Replay. You may be the only station to capture particular telemetry frames, so please send in everything you capture. Every block really counts, particularly now during the recovery phase. The command stations use the archive on a regular basis, so by capturing and contributing telemetry you are directly assisting in the recovery effort! Many thanks!

<pre>Latest Keplers:

AO-40 / OSCAR 40
1 26609U 00072B 00358.71368715 -.00000218 00000-0 00000-0 0 179
2 26609 6.1593 236.5032 8131813 196.8718 93.7933 1.26873926 676

Satellite: AO-40 / OSCAR 40
Catalog number: 26609
Epoch time: 358.71368715
Element set: 17
Inclination: 6.1593 deg
RA of node: 236.5032 deg
Eccentricity: 0.8131813
Arg of perigee: 196.8718 deg
Mean anomaly: 93.7933 deg
Mean motion: 1.26873926 rev/day
Decay rate: -2.18E-06 rev/day^2
Epoch rev: 67
Checksum: 396

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