[AReU] Fw: [amsat-bb] 2003-12-31 AO-40 Update

[Tony Stone]

Looks like the satellite will be back on the air in a couple of weeks, maybe
sooner.


From: "Stacey E. Mills" <w4sm@keplerian.com>
To: "Amsat Bulletin Board" <amsat-bb@AMSAT.Org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 31, 2003 5:47 PM
Subject: [amsat-bb] 2003-12-31 AO-40 Update

The lowering of ALAT is progressing well.  We are currently holding ALON at
 335-340 and lowering ALAT the last 10 degs toward 0.
We will allow a few more (2-3) orbits for this to occur, to verify our
position, and for the solar angle to decrease to below 40 degs. for extra
 power.  After that we will activate the passbands from MA 20 to 140.  As we
 chase the sun back to 0/0 at about 1 deg/day, the passbands will be
 lengthened and moved more into the second half of the orbit.

 All the best for 2004 from the AO-40 Command Team.

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ATTENTION BRANDON SATELLITE OPERATORS AND POSSIBLY
FUTURE BRANDON SATELLITE OPERATORS!!!!!!

It may be a good time to start checking out your equipment and see if it
still works.
I will be doing just that shortly.

If you are interested in getting on the "bird", let me know. I know of
several places
to obtain equipment at low cost and will help anyone who would like to get
started.

I have a few parts and pieces that I would be willing to loan someone that
wants to
"get their feet wet".

If you are just interested in receiving signals, I can get you going if you
have a 2 meter
all mode receiver. I have a converter, Primestar dish and a PVC support that
needs
some trimming to get it closer to the ground. Mike (KB4JHU) built this
support and
was using a long UHF crossed Yagi so the support needed to be relatively
large. Mike
donated the PVC support to me when he moved and I can see no better use for
it
than to help someone get started in satellite work. I can also supply
pointing
information via E-Mail if you do not have the tracking program. Just request
the times
and I will supply the required information. All you need is a compass and
some means
of determining elevation of the receiving antenna. This is not an intuitive
task as the
dish is "offset fed" and does not look as if it is pointing in the right
direction when, in
fact, it is.

To transmit to the satellite requires an all mode 70 cm transmitter of at
least 25
watts and a Yagi of at least 11 elements to "make the grade".

The folks at AREU can and will help also. There are a couple of us that have
working
AO40 stations. If you wish, come to the meetings every 1 st Tuesday at the
Bell Shoals
Baptist Church at 7:00 PM. Our meeting room is on the North side of the
church on
Overhill Street. The Brandon repeater can be used for talk in if necessary.
We'll be glad
to see you.

73

Tony