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{
    "url": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/email/VKXONZ62DCL2EXKPJNZU22BKTBXOSCEW/?format=api",
    "mailinglist": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/?format=api",
    "message_id": "CAN6TEUcF8JE1N2tRPZ_ASp9OEX=JpOwLENRu74i-5kyZELFHbw@mail.gmail.com",
    "message_id_hash": "VKXONZ62DCL2EXKPJNZU22BKTBXOSCEW",
    "thread": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/list/[email protected]/thread/VKXONZ62DCL2EXKPJNZU22BKTBXOSCEW/?format=api",
    "sender": {
        "address": "amsat-bb (a) wd9ewk.net",
        "mailman_id": "21664df01bef4757931b7cdb42a9e768",
        "emails": "https://mailman.amsat.org/hyperkitty/api/sender/21664df01bef4757931b7cdb42a9e768/emails/?format=api"
    },
    "sender_name": "Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)",
    "subject": "[amsat-bb] AO-85 and Wouxun KG-UV8D, full-duplex - report (long)",
    "date": "2015-11-29T06:24:29Z",
    "parent": null,
    "children": [],
    "votes": {
        "likes": 0,
        "dislikes": 0,
        "status": "neutral"
    },
    "content": "Hi!\n\nAfter testing a few different HTs over the past week using some common\nsettings, I went back to an HT I tried the first weekend we had AO-85 in\norbit and gave it a try with those settings. The Wouxun KG-UV8D, which had\nbeen on the market since early 2014, was a radio that I thought showed some\npromise for full-duplex operation with U/V FM satellites. I tried it with\nthe Fox-1A engineering model at the 2014 ARRL Centennial Convention and\n2014 AMSAT Symposium. With some adjustments in how I used the HT, trying to\nsimulate working a satellite in orbit, I was convinced last year that this\nradio would be an option for full-duplex operations with the Fox-1 series\nof U/V FM satellites. I held onto the KG-UV8D to try it with a U/V FM\nsatellite, whichever one was launched and operational first.\n\nSimple question - can the KG-UV8D work AO-85 full-duplex? This was already\nanswered last month, but I'll answer it again here in a word...\n\nYes.\n\nThis radio is slightly larger than the KG-UV9D I previously wrote about, a\nfatter HT when held. It has a menu system like most of the Chinese-made\nHTs, including the KG-UV9D which has replaced the KG-UV8D on the market.\nThere are differences in the menus between the KG-UV8D and KG-UV9D, but I\nwas able to use the same key settings in each VFO of the KG-UV8D:\n\nUplink VFO:\n\nSTEP (01): 2.5\nSQL (02): 9\nWN (08): WIDE\nT-CTC (16): 67.0\n\nDownlink VFO:\n\nSTEP (01): 2.5\nSQL (02): 0\nWN (08): NARROW\n\nIt doesn't matter how each VFO is used. I prefer the upper VFO for the\nuplink frequency, but that is not mandatory. I plugged an audio splitter\ninto the speaker jack, feeding audio to my Sony audio recorder and an\nearpiece. Using an earpiece or some sort of earphones is recommended when\nusing a radio for full-duplex operation, to prevent receive audio from\nfeeding back into your microphone. With HTs like the KG-UV8D using receive\nfiltering that is sharper than what is typical in the Icom/Kenwood/Yaesu\nHTs, I find that using the smaller tuning steps and making adjustments on\nboth uplink and downlink frequencies is recommended.\n\nI worked an AO-85 pass Saturday (28 November) afternoon at 2252-2306 UTC,\na 67-degree pass to my west. During that 14-minute pass, half of it (just\nover 7 minutes) saw the satellite at or over 20 degrees elevation, which\nI found last month as my \"magic number\" when trying to work AO-85 with\nless transmit power - like we have with HTs. What was interesting about\nthis pass is that I could quickly change the downlink signal from good\ncopy to poor with a slight twist of my antenna. When I first tried\ntransmitting to AO-85, and if I wasn't lined up with the downlink, I\nwould hear some additional noise and - at some points - it sounded like\nmixing that yielded the local National Weather Service radio station in\nmy ear. Around the midpoint of the pass, the mixing was not present, but\nI could tell that the downlink would quickly degrade if I didn't have\nthe antenna lined up with the downlink. I started with 145.980 MHz as my\ndownlink frequency, and during the pass tuned down to 145.9875 and then\n145.975 MHz for the last part of the pass. These adjustments were the\nonly times I needed to switch VFOs during the pass.\n\nNot many were on the pass, and I was able to work everyone I heard on the\npass. John K8YSE/7 was on as the satellite came up from my northwest, and\nhe was joined by a few others - Wyatt AC0RA in Iowa, Frank K4FEG in\nTennessee, Ed N7EC north of Phoenix, and Ron N8RO in Texas. As I was using\nthe KG-UV8D and Elk to work these stations, my SDRplay SDR receiver with an\n8-inch Windows 10 tablet and HDSDR connected to my AMSAT-UK VHF crossed\ndipole was making an RF recording of the AO-85 downlink. The RF recording,\nalong with the MP3 audio I recorded from the HT and other files, have been\nuploaded to my Dropbox space at http://dropbox.wd9ewk.net/ (look for the\nfolder \"20151129-AO85_Fox1A-DM43\" and the recordings with names having the\ntime around 2250 UTC).\n\nEven after this test of using the KG-UV8D to work AO-85, I won't change my\nranking of the Chinese-made HTs I have tried with this satellite:\n\n1. Wouxun KG-UV9D\n2. AnyTone TERMN-8R\n3. Wouxun KG-UV8D\n4. Puxing PX-UV973\n\nWouxun learned from the issues with the receiver in the KG-UV8D, leading to\nthe improvements I saw using the KG-UV9D on comparable AO-85 passes. If the\nreceiver didn't have the extra noise and mixing taking place when the AO-85\ndownlink wasn't strong, this could have been tied with the AnyTone TERMN-8R\nfor second on my list. The issues I heard with the KG-UV8D receiver, on the\nother hand, are not as bad as what I heard from the Puxing PX-UV973 - a\nsmall benefit, but still (in my opinion) a reason to rate the KG-UV8D above\nthe PX-UV973.\n\nWhen I saw that the KG-UV8D was able to work AO-85 full-duplex last month,\nthat vindicated my comments last year after testing it against the Fox-1A\nengineering model. At the same time disproved some comments I saw on the\nQRZ.com satellite forum from 18 months ago like:\n\n\"... the '8D - like the Puxing UV973 - although are true dual-receive\nunits, that they are not suitable for U/V nor V/U sat ops ... Considering\nAlinco couldn't accomplish that with a $250 HT, I wasn't really surprised\nthat these $100 units couldn't do it.\"\n\nI have seen similar comments to the above in other forums, and in\nreference to other dual-band HTs that I have recently tested against\nAO-85.\n\nThis ignores the fact that before AO-85, the last time we had a U/V FM\nsatellite (excluding the ISS U/V cross-band voice repeater) was SO-35,\nwhich went silent in 2001. Unless you went rogue and used an HT on a U/V\ntransponder, there wasn't a satellite that could be used for a true real-\nworld test of this HT like I have done with AO-85. As for the reference to\nthe DJ-G7T, that radio arrived on the ham market in 2009, 5 years before\nthe KG-UV8D, and what Alinco was (or wasn't) able to do with the DJ-G7T\nreally isn't relevant to what Wouxun did with the KG-UV8D. Even though none\nof the Chinese-made HTs I tested are able to work V/U FM satellites like\nSO-50 and LilacSat-2 full-duplex due to receiver desense, Wouxun certainly\nlearned lessons and improved the receiver from the KG-UV8D to the KG-UV9D.\n\nAfter these tests, I have used 5 different HTs and an Icom IC-2820H 2m/70cm\nFM mobile radio to make QSOs via AO-85 in the past 7 weeks. It has been fun\nto try these radios out with similar settings. Having this knowledge helps\nto answer questions I get via e-mail, in online forums, and at events where\nI represent AMSAT (i.e., hamfests). After the initial disappointment that\nHTs would not be able to work this satellite from AOS to LOS, I think it\nshould be clear that HTs are a viable option for working AO-85 during\nportions of higher passes. Working a U/V FM satellite is different than the\nV/U FM satellites most have been familiar with, but there are now a few\noptions for using a single handheld radio to work AO-85 full-duplex - and a\ntwo-radio setup remains a viable option for full-duplex operation.\n\n73!\n\n\n\n\n\nPatrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK\nhttp://www.wd9ewk.net/\nTwitter: @WD9EWK\n",
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}