It is always exciting to make a contact through AO-7, a satellite that was launched in 1974. It died due to battery failure about five years later (batteries shorted), exceeding its design goals. Amazingly, 21 years after its launch, in 2002, it came back to life, when the battery pack went open circuit, allowing the solar panels to power the satellite when not eclipsed. It is still working from time to time in 2019.
It does have a tendency to hop between Mode A (2 meter uplink and 10 meter downlink), or Mode B (70 cm uplink and 2 meter downlink), and if someone runs too much power on their uplink it will cause it to shift mode as the internal power rail dies.
Thank you to John, AB5SS, for being there this afternoon on CW. Nice to see the old lady still working.
