Rain

It’s been the coldest August in 25 years in Germany. Plenty of dreary grey clouds, intermittent showers, and dampness. Which, of course, makes it pretty difficult to get satellite signals, what with all that cloud and rain in the way.

It was exactly because of this that our next proposed LES-1 monitoring expedition, beginning at 6.16am on August 20th, was abandoned — it was pouring rain.

The next subsequent pass of the satellite, after that, was the following morning, beginning at 6.35am on August 21st. So, Tom went up on his own, and did a recording of the I/Q data of the entire satellite pass. Then he did the same again the morning after that, at 6.55am on August 22nd.

However, both days were cloudy and overcast, so the data is unlikely to have much in it that’s useful. Nonetheless, it was worthwhile just figuring out the practical steps involved in the whole process of tracking and recording data. The next pass that could be audible will be on the 27th of August, at 5:46am (another early morning). With any luck, we’ll have some better weather, and that’ll be our next listening test. Step by step…