John,
I just worked an AO-85 pass about an hour ago. Had to wait until about 1/3 of the way to get through, then it worked OK. I heard AA5PK and WD9GET in Texas, along with AC9E in New Mexico. About 33 degrees max elevation here. Nice to still have AO-85 around...
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/ Twitter: @WD9EWK or http://twitter.com/WD9EWK
On Saturday, July 6, 2019, John Brier via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:
It just worked/sounded as good as ever on the 1602 UTC pass (2019-07-06).
I was able to get in easily with 5 watts through most of the last half of the pass. It was not fading in RX or TX capability at all like it was the previous few times I worked it. This was a 72 degree pass for me.
Perhaps its solar panels were lit perfectly and maybe its RX antenna was lined up perfectly for me... either way, I am impressed. I'll upload my recording later but just wanted to put this out there as there were a ton of WMPLOTA stations on AO-91 earlier... maybe spread the traffic out on AO-85 some. At least when it is not in eclipse.
73, John Brier KG4AKV _