When I first made the move from FM to SSB satellites, I was using just an FT-100D (predecessor to FT-857D.) While it is semi-duplex by itself, as VE6WK suggested you can use it with a second receiver for full-duplex. For several months, I experimented with an FT-857D as my transmitter and FUNcube Dongle Pro+ as my receiver. It made for a very nice "poor man's Flex" station.
The easiest bird to work with a single FT-857D is probably FO-29. You can setup on a fixed transmit/uplink frequency, and tune the downlink to compensate for Doppler shift. I've made many contacts this way in a pinch. My video for the FT-817 on YouTube can be carried out very similarly using an FT-857D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vke3pWkKULU
73 Clayton W5PFG
On 1/21/2016 11:55, [email protected] wrote:
Anybody using a Yaesu FT 857D to work the SSB satellites? If so, what do you think? Can you take it outside and use it with an Arrow antenna?
Steve AI9IN
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