[amsat-bb] Re: DO-64 observation over ZL

[Alan Cresswell]

A few observations from down under.
So far I have had 12 contacts through DO-64, mostly with VK. (With nothing
to work out to the East or North there is no activity on the majority of
passes.)  The beacon is consistently strong on all passes and on a few
passes has shown some distortion for about a minute as Delfi approaches 60
deg South. This was also the case in science mode.  The transponder signal
is somewhat variable.  Some passes have very good downlink signals and some
are apparently weaker.  (S.C. orientation presumably.)  I have not noticed
much variability throughout a pass - strong downlink passes stay strong and
weaker passes stay weak. In general the beacon is stronger than the
transponder downlink.  With no other stations on DO-64, increasing uplink
power from 5 to 10 watts results in an increase in downlink signal. (All
observations using 19 elements on 70cm and 10 elements on 2m with switchable
polarization and Az/El tracking.) All in all an interesting and useful
addition to the satellite options in this part of the world.

Alan
ZL2BX