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Avionics Team Meeting August 18th, 2005

Tim, Glenn and I met after the general meeting to prep the avionics system for flight.

SWR Tests

Because the ATV system was being flaky, we used Glenn's Bird meter to measure the forward/reflected power from the ATV system. It was inf:1, meaning that the antenna was reflecting all of the power. Huh? we thought. We tried transmitting into a dummy load, which gave us our expected 3.8W out, 0.4W in. But as we were reconfiguring the test to try and track down the problem, the center pin of the ATV's SMA connector just pulled right out. Whoops. We fixed the SMA, and all of a sudden we were getting the expected power ratios. Hooray.

Payload Module Packup

We packed up the recovery node, currently in the payload module. We locktigted everything, zip tied down cables and wires, etc.

Avionics Module Packup

We spent about 3 hours carefully getting the avionics system ready for flight. Lots nad lots of zip ties, Kapton tape all over the place, and lots of tightening of screws and euroterminals. We finally put the system in the module and tighted down the four screws... and we were done!

As someone aptly said: "Now we get to find out what the universe thinks of our system". ;)