Hi Zack!
You are the go-to guy for any Kenwood HT questions - have you owned/used all of them??? ;-)
Not exactly Until the past 3 months, I have not owned any Kenwood gear since the mid-90s. The G71 was my ex-wife's HT, and I used it for some satellite work a few years back. A nice radio. I've bought two new Kenwood HTs since November, a TH-F6A I use for my SSB work and the TH-D72A I've written about here. Good radios.
The toggling between VFOs was not as big of an issue for me (like you say, small price for a full duplex HT), but the receiver seemed weak. I know I commented a few weeks ago about the 8800 having a weak receiver, but I think after using the G71As for so long, I got spoiled with the receiver in it.
I haven't tried out the D7's I picked up recently. I need to get new battery packs for them, and then I can try to work the satellites with them. Pair the D7's up with an Elk antenna, and I'll have two stations ready to go for FM satellites. And ready to be left somewhere, for someone else to use...
The s-meter is also practically useless on the D7. You have to toggle back and forth between bands to see it, and it also never goes above approx. s3-s5, on a good pass. It makes it difficult, especially when a bird is quiet, to tell if you are on it or not. You need to have keen ears to tell whether you are listening to the carrier or noise.
For most FM satellite work, the S-meter is an amusement at most. You're working based on what you hear, since the downlinks are generally weak. If you hear the ISS, the S-meter may be pegged due to that downlink's strength.
I didn’t use the D7 for much satellite work before I went back to the G71A for receive, so I probably need to try the full duplex again and give a more accurate observation.
Give it another try, and don't worry about S-meter readings. Most of the time on any of my radios, I see no movement on the FM passes. On SSB, that can be very different.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/