Hi all,

This evening we had the same problem with HO-68. When at low elevation and when the footprint was over Assia Minor and East Europe, entry to the repeater was easy and I managed to make some contacts with UR4LRH, SQ9MES and SP7TEC. When the footprint covered part of Italy I made a last contact with IW6OVD and from then, when many other stations from Western Europe where trying to use the bird, only fragmets of calling CQs were heard during the whole pass. Dan ON5UE thinks that the problem is due to the use of packet and voice mode at the same time, since many are trying to work the sat in packet and the input ismost of the time muted. Anyway, I think that the receiver cant demodulate any of so many signals competing for demodulation. When the sat is over South-East Europe with limited activity QSOs are easy and with strong signals. Over West Europe with so many stations competing for entry, the receiver is muted.

Merry Chrismas to all

73 de Evan SV1EEK