SB SPACE @ ARL $ARLS007
ARLS007 AO-27 FM repeater off the air

ZCZC AS07  
QST de W1AW  
Space Bulletin 007  ARLS007
From ARRL Headquarters  
Newington, CT  August 24, 2000
To all radio amateurs

SB SPACE ARL ARLS007
ARLS007 AO-27 FM repeater off the air

Amateurs are being asked to say off the AO-27 satellite uplink as
ground controllers try to restart the satellite following a July 31
software crash. The request from ground controller Michael Wyrick,
N4USI, comes as ground controllers are attempting to reload the
satellite's software.

''The analog repeater is turned off, so you will not be heard, and
you will interfere with the software upload process,'' Wyrick said in
asking for the cooperation of the amateur community. He says ground
controllers are working as fast as they can to get AO-27 back in
operation.

AO-27 contains an FM voice repeater that uplinks on 2 meters and
downlinks on 70 cm. A project of AMRAD, it was launched in September
1993.

The satellite's CPU rebooted again after controllers tried to run
uploaded high-level code. Ground controllers still are at a loss to
explain the second reboot, but Wyrick says they are looking into
several leads.

Wyrick says the AO-27 exciter on 435.797 is turned on full-time and
operates at low power during uploads.

Wyrick also requested that hams not flood controllers with e-mail
asking when AO-27 is going to be back on-line.
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/EX