Clint Bradford wrote:
...which handheld do you use or which
handheld is "the best" for sats. It must be full duplex.
There are no new full-duplex HTs on the amateur market. The Icom IC- W32a was the last nit to have true full-duplex.
The Kenwood TH-D7A is still being manufactured, and has full duplex. I've used it with great success on AO-27, SO-50 and AO-51, and (just last night) on the voice repeater on the ISS. Browse back through my blog at http://brainwagon.org for some recordings that I've done off the air, using the TH-D7A, an Arrow antenna, and a little sony voice recorder. It makes a very nice setup.
Knowing that, the feature that is needed in an HT is the ability to RX on one band, and TX on another.
So you have dual-band, dual receive HTs (TH-F6a from Kenwood...user un-friendly VX-7R from Yaesu) that can do it - obviously. I overlook the Kenwood TH=D7A(g) because it is a battery hog and much older technology than what is now avalable in amateur HTs.
While it's fairly ugly, had terrible battery life and the like, I don't think it should be so quickly written off. I wish it had a more modern replacement, but it has a unique set of capabilities that still make it a quite reasonable buy.
But there are also HTs that are dual-band, single-receive that work excellently. I show off the Yaesu FT-60R for my demos and sessions. 1,000 memories, strongest belt clip of any HT on the amateur market, built tough, 108-to-a-gig receive, easy to program...and, when using its optional AA dry cell case, you are working at FULL POWER! Unlike the TH-F6a - when you use its AA case, you're at 1/2 of one Watt.
Al that in a radio for well under $200. See a picture of it in action in the December, '07 issue of CQ Magazine, where I am using the FT-60 with an Arrow antenna to wow an audience at a fair demo.
The FT-60 is indeed an excellent little radio, and a great buy. I'd recommend that people who operate half duplex be especially careful about being polite on the FM birds though: you can easily double an existing QSO.
Clint Bradford, K6LCS / KAF3359 909-241-7666
On Feb 1, 2008, at 1:10 AM, amsat-bb-request@amsat.org wrote:
I would like to know which handheld do you use or which handheld is "the best" for sats. It must be full duplex. Thanks in advance!
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