I used my old W32A with an Arrow-II on vacation last month and I was able to hear to the AO-51 downlink while transmitting really well. I can do the same with a local 70cm/2m repeater. It's pretty good for such an old HT.
I don't know how much a used W32A goes for, but I think it's a pretty good radio for portable FM satellites. The only extra features that I would like are smaller tuning steps and AFC to track doppler on the downlink, but I don't think any HT can do that.
jeff
Bill Dzurilla wrote:
I've made many sat contacts with my VX-2R but am thinking about upgrading to something with 5 watts output. I used a borrowed IC-W32A and Swan Island and it worked fine, although I could not hear my downlink in full duplex mode, too much desensing. Not sure full duplex is even worth the extra money, as it seems that most duplex HTs have a similar desensing problem.
I was thinking about trading in the VX-2R for an FT-60 or a VX-6R, any comments on these or other sat-friendly HTs?
73, Bill NZ5N
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