Don't imply DX wasn't worked on Mode S, even at large squints. I worked India from Florida myself at 3 degrees of elevation on U/S SSB on AO-40, as well as Guam the other direction at over 30 degrees of squint also on SSB. I did this all on a 36" dish, short M2 UHF beam, and a standard az-el rotor on a roof tripod. Others did the same or similar, often with the entire station in a suitcase.
Your previous comment on rad testing was also a bit oversimplified I think. Is not the processor of the SDX an integral part of the transponder, unlike say the transponder on AO-10? You know, the one that worked for years after the IHU was a crispy critter?
It seems that I remember the last time the discussion of a analog non-SDR transponder as a backup came up, none other than the president of AMSAT himself interjected to say there _would_ be a non-SDR backup. Has this changed?
73, Drew KO4MA
Noticed this was posted recently too, good reading. Thank you to the Eagle Team for quickly posting it.
http://www.amsat.org/amsat-new/eagle/EaglePedia/index.php/12_Sep_2006_Minute... You're right. P3E and Eagle will operate similarly to AO-10 and AO-13 on> mode B and P3E is similar to AO-13 on mode S. I don't remember making a> single S-band contact outside the U.S. on AO-13. The advantage of mode Bis> that it works with large off-pointing angles and that is what is required> for DX. I was able to work India (Bangalore) using AO-10 on mode B andthat> was almost on the opposite side of the earth from LA.>> 73,>> John> KD6OZH