A few observations from down under. So far I have had 12 contacts through DO-64, mostly with VK. (With nothing to work out to the East or North there is no activity on the majority of passes.) The beacon is consistently strong on all passes and on a few passes has shown some distortion for about a minute as Delfi approaches 60 deg South. This was also the case in science mode. The transponder signal is somewhat variable. Some passes have very good downlink signals and some are apparently weaker. (S.C. orientation presumably.) I have not noticed much variability throughout a pass - strong downlink passes stay strong and weaker passes stay weak. In general the beacon is stronger than the transponder downlink. With no other stations on DO-64, increasing uplink power from 5 to 10 watts results in an increase in downlink signal. (All observations using 19 elements on 70cm and 10 elements on 2m with switchable polarization and Az/El tracking.) All in all an interesting and useful addition to the satellite options in this part of the world.
Alan ZL2BX