If only LAPAN A-2 was activated a bit earlier!

Today morning I tried to work the 9.20 am IST (0350z) pass of LAPAN A-2 (IO-86). It was a nice pass with over 40 degrees maximum elevation in my region. Though the pass started at 9.10 am IST, the voice repeater was activated only at 9.20 am, during the down phase of the satellite pass. I had turned my repaired Moxon Yagi towards the end of the pass before hand. Just before 9.20 am I started hearing signals from LAPAN A-2. I mentioned my callsign a couple of times and could hear it partly on the downlink. But as the satellite pass was busy with DX conversations, probably no one would have noticed my rather weak signal with a fixed elevation-azimuth Moxon Yagi with just a Moxon rectangle for the VHF uplink.

Still I was happy when my friend VU3CDK from Mumbai messaged me saying that he could hear me twice 5,9 during the pass. But I could not hear his reply, may be because the satellite would have been far away for my limited setup to copy. My friend VU2DGR had mentioned that sometime back, LAPAN A-2 used to be actived a little bit earlier, and he could work DX stations on expeditions to 8Q7 land. Today even though it was a perfectly workable pass for my limited setup, as the activation came late during the pass, I could not complete my contact.

Part of the audio recording from the LAPAN A-2 is being replayed here.