AMSAT has announced that it will be conducting some tests on the new Fox-1A (AO-85) satellite while it is over North America during orbits 444, 448, and 449, and is requesting that users not uplink to the satellite during these periods:

• Sunday, November 8, 1715 through 1735 UTC
• Monday, November 9, 0005 through 0025 UTC
• Monday, November 9, 0145 through 0210 UTC

“Stations in North, Central, and northern South America are asked to comply,” AMSAT said in announcing the test periods. “You are encouraged to copy telemetry with FoxTelem during these times to forward to the server to help us analyze the test results.”

On November 8 and 9, the Fox-1 Engineering Team will be testing the carrier-operated relay (COR) mode of AO-85. COR is the backup to the internal housekeeping unit (IHU). If the IHU fails AO-85 should continue operating as a simple COR repeater with no CTCSS necessary as long as there is power. In COR mode no telemetry or voice ID is present, because those are generated by the IHU.

“Please keep the uplink clear in order to help us test and monitor the telemetry,” AMSAT has requested.

During the testing stations outside of North, Central and northern South America are invited to use the COR repeater mode and share their assessments of AO-85 receive sensitivity and audio via AMSAT-BB. Stations in North, Central, and northern South America may use the COR repeater on orbits 445 through 447 and are also invited to share their assessments of AO-85 receive sensitivity and audio via AMSAT-BB.  — Thanks to AMSAT News Service via Jerry Buxton, N0JY