Today, we gather to mourn the loss of yet another milestone in my amateur radio adventures.
On June 6, 2025 (two weeks ago), NOAA initiated the decommissioning of the APT POES satellite NOAA 18.
NOAA 18 started life as any average POES satellite. Launched from Vandenberg AFB on May 20, 2005 aboard a Delta II rocket, NOAA 18 spent 20 years orbiting the earth, collecting images and weather data and beaming it all back to earth, to everyone of all walks of life - meteorologists, amateur radio operators, and even the general public when they received their local forecasts.
Several amateurs were there to capture NOAA 18's final moments orbiting, in which many received images showing the quiet shutdown of her systems, first with the shutoff of Channel B APT, then Channel A APT, and then leaving users with sync markers. Finally, around 2:31pm local, NOAA 18 breathed her last, and vanished from 137.9125MHz quietly.
NOAA 18 is survived by her sister satellites, NOAA 15 and NOAA 19. We'll all miss you NOAA 18. You were a good satellite, if not one of the best. Fly high, you're forever in the hearts of us space people.
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