I should explain my setup here;

FT8800 dual band FM rig for recieve 8 element yagi with mast mounted 18 db hamtronics preamp 25 feet of 9913 coax

I use narrow fm mode for maximum sensitivity. Whoever claims that leaves on trees attenuates UHF is correct but taking this into account I base my observations on clear path passes.

I liked bruningas idea of reduced duty cycle or on time of the downlink. My experience with so-50 is that people would adapt to it quickly. A good way to save energy.

One shouldnt correllate transmitter current draw with solar panel output current as the transmitters are not on for the entire orbit. This brings me back to the battery issue:

How many cycles are the batteries expected to deliver versus depth of discharge? Is this information available on the web?

Thanks, pat