You want fun?
Doesn't take much to work AO-7 in mode B. Like Kevin, I've taken my radios all over to work this satellite - and the others...
During the ARRL Centennial Convention held in downtown Hartford in 2014, I had a couple of demonstrations using AO-7 outside the convention center. First one was on 17 July, at the end of a day-long seminar on amateur satellites...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5TjXbuLv5sThat video combined the downlink audio, as I didn't have a proper video made of that demonstration. Two days later, another demonstration on AO-7. This one was captured in a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHd91H_t88oI have worked AO-7 from locations across the continental USA, and from 3 foreign countries. I don't have any videos of working AO-7 from Canada, but here's one from 2010 when I operated near a baseball stadium in the Mexican border city of Mexicali (across the border from Calexico and El Centro CA - east of San Diego and Tijuana):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNUy-c1ptdgThis was back when foreign hams could get permits to operate in Mexico. Unfortunately, those permits aren't being issued to foreigners anymore, plus it isn't as safe to be wandering around Mexico with radio gear now as it might have been 10 or so years ago.
In 2011, I took a trip to Melbourne and Sydney in Australia. Most of my operating down there was on SO-50, but I was able to get on AO-7 from a Melbourne suburb and work stations near Sydney and Brisbane. Video is a combination of pictures and the downlink audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WM6rXgFiJJYAlthough I still take two FT-817s when I go out with my satellite gear, I have been using an Icom IC-R30 receiver for the downlink lately. The IC-R30 does well with satellite downlinks, and will record to a microSD card I have installed. I also use the all-mode receiver in Kenwood's TH-D74 on occasion. And I have used SDR receivers, connected to a laptop or small Windows tablet. Lots of options for the downlink receiver, but I almost always go with an FT-817 for the uplink.
73!