Zack,
In the discussion of two vs one - I found a new way of screwing things up today. I was trying to operate via AO-51 this afternoon and was never making it into the bird even though I was receiving fine. Turns out I still had the 440 side of the IC-W32A selected as the "main" radio which makes it the xmit as well. Each time I tried to xmit the radio displayed out of range (found out at the end of the pass) So, now I have one more thing to check before the sat comes around! Other than that the W32A with a 440 preamp has been working well for me.
Another time, when I was running late, I wasn't making it into HO-68. That time it ended up being a disconnected BNC to the 440 side of the Arrow antenna.
So it seems that with each new hobby I can find very creative ways of messing things up. Hope you have better luck.
73's Tom - KA6SIP
-----Original Message----- From: Zachary Beougher zack.kd8ksn@hotmail.com To: amsat-bb amsat-bb@wd9ewk.net; amsat-bb amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thu, Jan 27, 2011 6:02 pm Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: 2 ht vs. 1-duplex ht
Hi Patrick, You are the go-to guy for any Kenwood HT questions - have you owned/used all f them??? ;-) The toggling between VFOs was not as big of an issue for me (like you say, mall price for a full duplex HT), but the receiver seemed weak. I know I ommented a few weeks ago about the 8800 having a weak receiver, but I think fter using the G71As for so long, I got spoiled with the receiver in it. The s-meter is also practically useless on the D7. You have to toggle back nd forth between bands to see it, and it also never goes above approx. 3-s5, on a good pass. It makes it difficult, especially when a bird is uiet, to tell if you are on it or not. You need to have keen ears to tell hether you are listening to the carrier or noise. I didn’t use the D7 for much satellite work before I went back to the G71A or receive, so I probably need to try the full duplex again and give a more ccurate observation. 73! Zack D8KSN -----Original Message----- rom: Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) ent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 10:24 AM o: amsat-bb@amsat.org ubject: [amsat-bb] Re: 2 ht vs. 1-duplex ht Zack,
I have the D7A (full duplex), but I don’t like the receiver sensitivity.
I went back to using one THG71 for the down and the D7 for the up. The other thing I don't like about the D7 is you have to switch between back and forth between band A and B to adjust doppler. I would probably not recommend the D7 for satellite work. I have heard things about the D72. If someone is looking for a single HT for full-duplex satellite work, I ould ecommend the D7 despite having to switch VFOs for Doppler adjustments. have the TH-D72A, which works the same way as the TH-D7 regarding he need to jump between the two VFOs to adjust the receiver. It's a small uisance, but a small price to pay for not having to deal with two radios hen working full-duplex on FM satellites. I've picked up a couple of old 7s (one appears to be a TH-D7A(G), and the other may be an original H-D7A), that I hope to get new battery packs for and make a couple of M satellite stations when combined with Elk antennas. Your TH-G71A is a good dual-band HT. Not capable of full-duplex operation, ut worked well for me using groups of memory channels for FM satellites. he receiver was pretty good, and some would notice that I changed to a ifferent radio from my normal radios when I used that HT. 73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK ttp://www.wd9ewk.net/ _______________________________________________ ent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. ot an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! ubscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ ent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. ot an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! ubscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb