Since AO-7B came out of the eclipsed orbits, it has been performing poorly. I can usually do very well on the low elevation passes towards Europe, but now I may only be able to hear my own cw signal with no other signals heard.
Today on the 2116utc pass I worked PV8DX on CW but as the bird moved north, it became apparent that the satellite was starved for power. If I used more than 5 watts on CW, the returning signal was only a key click. Five watts produced a tone but there was fm'ing. Voice signals were weak and distorted. Again I found that using more than 5 watts on ssb would yield garbled audio. The satellite cannot support much activity in this condition.
Let's hope this is only temporary and that the satellite will return to the level of performance we had before the eclipse periods. In the meantime, FO-29 is still producing 1300km orbits between Europe and North America in our early afternoon. These high elevation orbits won't last forever so take advantage of them now.
73, John K8YSE