Sorry Keith, but I must add a bit more gasoline to the fire. Count me absolutely as one of the "operators". My experiences on AO-40 were the most gratifying as a true blue DXer like nothing I've ever encountered on HF. (My alltime HF DXCC total is 364 worked/confirmed.) I worked 93 entities and nearly a 1000 unique callsigns via this bird. My first real time using an HEO. I'd been on AO-10 (Mode B) but it was, toward the end of its life, a hit and miss situation. My favorite DX QSO via AO-40 was with VK9CD. We both had no more than three degrees of elevation and I had to find a "hole" in my neighbor's trees accross the street to do it. The point is I have a QSL card to prove it. I live in a "rural" area, I suppose. Our town is small (1700 pop.) but crap and corruption on the downlink was NEVER a concern for me. Speaking from a purely operators point of view put Mode S back into the game plan. I hope and pray that P3E will soon be up so that this old DXer doesn't go completely stir crazy.

73 to all. Frank, K0BLT