Kevin,
Thanks... I had a feeling it wasn't that easy. My FT-847 gets infrequent use because I don't have a permanent station for satellite, and as you and others have pointed out, it may be "car" portable, but certainly not "man" portable. Mine also has 1st generation CAT so I don't have full bidirectional PC control -- just one way. I used a special SATPC32 exe for FD this year that was provided to me by Erich (with my sincere thanks); I had to control the radio completely from the laptop.
As for split VFOs on an 847... it doesn't really operate that way. To operate manually on the 847, you first go into SAT mode which changes the function of a number of buttons, the memories, and several other things. The easiest way to use the rig is to set up the SAT memories... ...There is a sub tune knob, but it moves at a much slower rate and is really just to keep up with doppler changes. So no, it doesn't really operate the two VFOs separately like having two radios. The closest you could operate like that is to adjust one band, hit the VFO 'A-B' swap button and then adjust the other band. Kevin N4UFO<<
I’ll take a look at the SAT memories. I would like to fully utilize this rig.
Bill W1PA