At 08:24 AM 10/26/2006, you wrote:
Hi Bob
I couldn't agree more. It is very much under utilized down here. Hope to hear VK3JED on VO52 real soon.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned in private email, one big issue for me is the UHF side of the bird. I don't have much in the way of UHF SSB gear, and I have noticed this is quite common, especially outside the major cities. Everyone has HF, and quite a lot of people have 2m SSB, but 70cm SSB starts to get scarce. Most of those who have it these days only have it because they managed to afford one of the newer all band, all mode rigs (FT-847, IC-706IIG, etc). I don't fall into that category, I'm another of the group who have 2m all mode (2 rigs even!), but nothing other than FM on any higher bands. :(
In the country, even UHF FM operators start to become thin on the ground, let alone SSB.
73 de VK3JED http://vkradio.com