The tnc has died after 17 years
> On 1 Aug 2017, at 10:15 am, Terry, VK5ATN <vk5atn at internode.on.net> wrote:
> It appears that the ISS packet station has failed.  The ARISS page shows no new packets digipeated for over 8 days.
> This is confirmed by the following observation from the ISS Fan Club
>> ARISS has received several reports stating that the packet system on ISS is down. Here is what we know and our current forward plan.
>> The packet system in the Columbus module started to act up late last week, sending only a beacon. The ARISS team requested a power recycle by the crew, and with that power recycle, the packet system appears to have stop functioning completely. Note that this unit has been on-orbit for 17 years. It was launched on the STS-106 Space Shuttle Atlantis mission in September 2000 and was built, tested and certified for flight about 20 years ago.
>> N5VHO – Wed, 2017 – 07 – 26 07:26
> After an earlier failure of the 2 metre transceiver, ISS operated on 70cm  until a replacement transceiver could be sourced, tested, delivered, and finally commissioned on the ISS.   It would appear that now some other point (TNC perhaps?) has fallen over.
> PCSAT reportedly operates in a digipeater mode.  Most users may need to change their path settings.  I've never seriously tried to focus on this one but I'll do some exploring.
> For me the challenge of working the ISS is in utilizing an orbital pass which offers the highest likelihood of hearing my signal and the digipeated signal (if it exists) being captured by the available Igates.  As far as I am aware, there are none operating in SA.  Igates are available on the west cost of the continent, and in the east from VK3KAW - there may be others.   Playing around with Igate locations in Orbitron reveals that ideal passes for my SA station are much more limited than might be first thought, confirmed by quite a few years of casual, and at times intense experimenting.    I have speculated about setting up my own Igate, but lack of accurate and specific information, along with my only having Windose XP computer(s) free for the exercise has meant that it hasn't progressed beyond an initial more or less successful experiment some months back.
> I cannot conclude this without thanking any Igate operators most sincerely for making the facility available.  Without their generosity, the exercise would be futile.
> All this of course subject to peer review,  I'm just an experimenter ....
> 73 Terry
> VK5ATN
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