This evening I shut the 435.150 transmitter off and raised 435.300 to near 2 watts output. Tomorrow morning I plan to turn on the new PL routine. This improved routine will turn the downlink on with an unsquelched uplink when it hears a 67 hz tone. I plan on leaving a tail of several minutes, so the transmitter will stay on without hearing a tone for an interval of several minutes.
What does this mean for the user? It would be helpful to program in a 67 hz PL tone again, but not absolutely required as long as someone else in the footprint does. It also means if you are the first person in the footprint (not very likely in North America, Europe, or Japan) you might not hear the satellite until after it hears 67hz for a few seconds.
If all goes well, we'll continue this mode through the mode change Sunday night. Reports from when the downlink turns on or off would be appreciated.
73, Drew KO4MA AMSAT-NA VP Operations