Of the FM satellites, AO-91 and AO-92 are the easiest to work, due to their strong downlinks. AO-92 is usually switched to L/v mode starting on Saturday evening for 24 hours; when in this mode, the uplink is in L-band. AO-85 is currently offline. SO-50 is a little more challenging to work, as it has a weaker downlink. PO-101 is not continuously activated for amateur use; you can find the weekly PO-101 activation schedules on Diwata2PH (@Diwata2PH) | Twitter. The AMSAT OSCAR Status page (AMSAT OSCAR Satellite Status) is a great crowdsourced resource to see the status of the active satellites.
When you're ready to get into the linear transponder satellites, the CAS-4 and XW-2 birds are the easiest to work, again due to their strong downlinks.
GL and 73, Ryan AI6DO
On Tuesday, July 16, 2019, 3:33:55 PM PDT, Bob Hammond via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
I will be in DN46 from July 21-14 and will attempt contacts.
I am restarting in ham satellites (last contact was in 2003 or so from BP64) with the same Arrow antenna and Icom Z1A.
Bear with me as I fiddle and fumble.
What do you all suggest as the best sats to operate?
Bob W7OTJ (was WL7CQX)