Hi Tom,
Don’t feel bad – you’re not the only one. I have just about done every combination of mistakes – leaving a cable disconnected, confusing the cables and trying to listen on 2m and transmit on 440, etc. I did I good one last night.... I was about 2 minutes from flipping the switch and seeing if the digi I just put up worked. I got everything hooked up (supposedly), powered everything up, my adrenaline is pumping, and ............... its not receiving anything. I thought a good test would be to beacon with the D7 and see if it would get digipeated, and it did. I watched the S-meter on the digi radio peak, TNC receive and transmit lights come on, and all appeared fine, except for the fact that it wasn’t receiving anything other than my packets. I stuck my head around the backside of the radio (and it was dark), and I realized I hadn’t connected the antenna coax to the radio. Needless to say I quickly powered everything down. The radio is fine, just gave me a good scare.
I would love to put together a blooper reel of all of the dumb things I get into... Trying to contact Europe and the dog starts doing laps around me, trying to listen to a low audio station and a Harley Davidson flies by, stabbing my face with one of the Arrow elements, slipping in the snow and mud, and the list goes on and on.
Operating outside with the Arrow – you can’t beat it. ;-)
73!
Zack KD8KSN
From: Tom Deeble Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2011 12:32 AM To: zack.kd8ksn@hotmail.com ; amsat-bb@wd9ewk.net ; amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: Re: [amsat-bb] Re: 2 ht vs. 1-duplex ht
Zack,
In the discussion of two vs one - I found a new way of screwing things up today. I was trying to operate via AO-51 this afternoon and was never making it into the bird even though I was receiving fine. Turns out I still had the 440 side of the IC-W32A selected as the "main" radio which makes it the xmit as well. Each time I tried to xmit the radio displayed out of range (found out at the end of the pass) So, now I have one more thing to check before the sat comes around! Other than that the W32A with a 440 preamp has been working well for me.
Another time, when I was running late, I wasn't making it into HO-68. That time it ended up being a disconnected BNC to the 440 side of the Arrow antenna.
So it seems that with each new hobby I can find very creative ways of messing things up. Hope you have better luck.
73's Tom - KA6SIP
-----Original Message----- From: Zachary Beougher zack.kd8ksn@hotmail.com To: amsat-bb amsat-bb@wd9ewk.net; amsat-bb amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Thu, Jan 27, 2011 6:02 pm Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: 2 ht vs. 1-duplex ht
Hi Patrick,
You are the go-to guy for any Kenwood HT questions - have you owned/used all of them??? ;-)
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.
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.
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.
73!
Zack KD8KSN
-----Original Message----- From: Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK) Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 10:24 AM To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: 2 ht vs. 1-duplex ht
Zack,
I have the D7A (full duplex), but I don’t like the receiver sensitivity. I went back to using one THG71 for the down and the D7 for the up. The other thing I don't like about the D7 is you have to switch between back and forth between band A and B to adjust doppler. I would probably not recommend the D7 for satellite work. I have heard things about the D72.
If someone is looking for a single HT for full-duplex satellite work, I would recommend the D7 despite having to switch VFOs for Doppler adjustments. I have the TH-D72A, which works the same way as the TH-D7 regarding the need to jump between the two VFOs to adjust the receiver. It's a small nuisance, but a small price to pay for not having to deal with two radios when working full-duplex on FM satellites. I've picked up a couple of old D7s (one appears to be a TH-D7A(G), and the other may be an original TH-D7A), that I hope to get new battery packs for and make a couple of FM satellite stations when combined with Elk antennas.
Your TH-G71A is a good dual-band HT. Not capable of full-duplex operation, but worked well for me using groups of memory channels for FM satellites. The receiver was pretty good, and some would notice that I changed to a different radio from my normal radios when I used that HT.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/
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_______________________________________________ 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