At 05:53 AM 6/2/2010, Michael Tondee wrote:
was fun. Not so if I came upon a station who was using manual tuning while I was trying to let my computer do the work. I had to chase him all over the passband and often lost stations completely that way. I didn't fare much better with manual tuning. I guess I never really learned it like some of the "old hands" have.
I have had quite a bit of success with manual tuning on the SSB birds. It does require a lot of attention, especially on V/U and U/V. On mode A, it's fairly straightforward, though adjusting the uplink on a radio that doesn't allow tuning on transmit is tricky! One has to break their over into short segments of a few seconds long and make the uplink adjustment in steps. :)
On V/U, I was using an FT-847 at a hamfest, which was easier, provided I focused on keeping up with the Doppler. :D
When I can finally afford the V/U unit for my new Flex and get back on linear birds it would be my hope that everyone who was in a base station setup would be using full doppler control via computer. It baffles me why anyone wouldn't, it makes life so much easier.
In my past, it was simply because I didn't have the right radio(s). Now I have an FT-736R, and the first accessory I bought for it was a CAT cable! :) I can even dedicate a computer to the job.
I do understand why portable stations like Tim would not be using full doppler and I have no problem with that. I guess I just need to learn how to manually tune in that situation.
Yep, it can be fiddly, but rewarding.
73, Michael W4HIJ On 6/1/2010 12:14 PM, John Belstner wrote:
Thanks to everyone that responded. For those that have been on the list for years this thread may be
a dull rerun, but as a newbie, the information is useful.
From everyones responses, it appears that indeed there are
currently two conventions:
- Full Doppler CAT tuning
- Manually tuning the higher frequency while keeping the lower fixed
I know that operators have been successfully using convention #2
for years so this is my lack of sat operating experience talking here, but just looking at the math it seems that it would be difficult for two stations with different velocity vectors to the satellite to communicate without at least one of them adjusting both TX and RX. I need to try this for myself I guess.
One thing I did notice is that when operating Full Doppler CAT
tuning I was only able to successfully track other operators who were doing the same.
Cheers,
73, John W9EN DM13le [email protected]
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