I got unexpectedly good results on both FUNCube-1 and UKube-1 this morning here in JA during three separate passes between 0000 and 0400 UTC, that I suspect was helped out by tropospheric ducting.
My QTH (PM85jl) is on the side of a mountain overlooking a valley, so there is no direction I can look where I can see the horizon other than a small sliver to the SSW. The mountain to the north wipes out the sky up to 40° elevation, and the hills east and west cover up to at least 20°. Despite this, I received 10 packets from AO-73 with my Diamond D-150 discone at 10m height, despite the bird being only being 11° maximum el, and a fantastic 70 packets during its next higher pass, where I heard the beacon loud and clear almost immediately after AOS, despite it being far down behind the mountain.
I later got 26 packets from UKube-1 as it passed far to the west, with the last one having been received *after* LOS, something that had not happened to me before. With all of the terrestrial obstructions between me and the bird at that moment, I can only think that tropo had given it a boost.
At 739th place in the rankings and rising fast, watch out world...