Hi Bob: I have used my VX-8 for satellite work, off a cruise ship, using a Pryme AL-800 whip. Definitely the bare minimum equipment, but very portable. I made a few contacts here and there, as time allowed. Ham radio was not the focus of that trip and I did not want to have to assemble/disassemble an Arrow or Elk before each pass.
The VX-8 performed very well. Note though that the earphone plug is a recessed one that likes earphones used by iPods and such. I recommend using a splitter so you can connect a small voice recorder to record QSOs. This is much easier than trying to write them on a piece of paper. Battery life was good (on the 1800 mAmp one).
The only unfortunate thing is that the built-in GPS only gives you your location in lat/long and not in Maidenhead, so I had to use a different GPS to get my current location.
* 73 de K9CHP Amir Findling, Member ARRL, ARRL/ W5YI VE, WAC, WAS * Website: www.K9CHP.net http://www.k9chp.net Blog: http://k9chp.blogspot.com http://k9chp.blogspot.com/ * Senior K9 Handler, Eagle Valley Search Dogs http://evdogs.org http://evdogs.org/ * K9 Certification Tester, NYS Federation of SAR Teams * 1st Special Response Group (1SRG) www.1srg.org http://www.1srg.org/
Bob Herrell wrote:
Hi all,
Is anyone using the Yaesu VX-8R for handheld satellite work?
73, Bob Herrell, AJ5C AMSAT #36645
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