The thing I've been wondering (and this is in no way accusatory, just a question out of curiosity) is why we didn't build the IHU's with NVRAM and a circuit to cut the batteries completely out of the loop. Since the cell failure seems inevitable, it would only make sense to design the satellites in a way that they can work without the batteries when the batteries do fail.
In my humble opinion, I think DO-64 was genius. It happened to fail for another reason, but it was an interesting concept. Their telemetry program was pretty neat too. On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 3:10 PM, i8cvs <domenico.i8...@tin.it> wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "zach hillerson" <qstick...@yahoo.com> > To: <amsat-bb@amsat.org> > Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 4:48 PM > Subject: [amsat-bb] satellite durability fm vs. linears > > Serious question regarding satellite durability. It seems with HO68, SO67, > and now AO51, the FM satellites are quickly going away. It also seems that > the older linear counterparts such as AO7, VO52 and FO29 all seem to > continue working properly. > > Zach > N4ERZ > > Hi Zach, N4EZR > > You are right,the FM satellites are going away but the older linears > continue to work very well and particularly VO52 but there are no > many users on VO52 at most three or four stations when the bird > is over North of Europe and nobody when the bird is over North > Africa. > > Yesterday on the ascending orbit Nr 35527 I was in contact with > IW6OVD chatting in SSB for 12 minutes only with him the full > orbit like on the telephone. > > IW6OVD posted a mp3 file of the above QSO at the following > address: > > http://hamradio.selfip.com/iw6ovd/VO-52.mp3 > > If you haven't worked either of these three historic satellites,AO7 > VO52 (and FO29 when is active) do it NOW! > > 73" de > > i8CVS Domenico > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! > Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb > -- Andrew Koenig _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb