Hey Tim,
Welcome back! I'm very new to the satellites, having been totally off the air for more than 15 years. I'm having more fun than I ever had in ham radio just using a handheld station (HT with an Arrow antenna or an AL800 whip) to work the three Mode-J FM satellites (AO-27, AO-51 and SO-50). They have me excited to get on the other satellites in orbit, and I'm take the two-radio approach you mentioned. I'll be using a Yaesu FT-857D for transmit and an FT-718ND for receive. Yaesu's printed receiver specs for the radios are pretty much identical for VHF/UHF, and I expect to use the 817 for some QRP work on HF, which I enjoy very much.
I agree with Simon about preamps. My friend Rick, WA4SVM, has an SSB preamp, and he swears by it. That will be my next purchase because I've learned very quickly with the handheld station that optimizing reception is much more important than pumping watts into space.
Best of luck with your station. I hope to hear you in orbit soon!
73,
Tim - N3TL Athens, Ga. -------------- Original message from "Tim Tapio" tim@timtapio.com: --------------
Hello all!
Looking at ideas for all mode transceivers for working analog sats.
I haven't ruled out two individual radios, actually see a lot of benefit.
Need to be able to control Doppler on up and downlinks. It appears SatPC will do that.
Does anyone have a favorite setup that works?
73 de Tim, K4SHF
(no Amsat number, just signed up again)
Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb