For the benefit of anyone who may experience a similar problem in the future, Erich, Howard, and I had a discussion of this issue via private email. The method I described in my prior post apparently does not work with Yaesu rigs, because they do not allow variation of the transmit frequency while transmitting. So Yaesu owners should do the following, per Erich, the author of SatPC32:
"While the satellite, say FO-29, is in range for you choose that satellite and open menu "CAT". Transmit and whistle or say "Test" etc. With the "Downl. Corr." controls tune the RX radio until you hear your own signal with the correct audio pitch. Then stop transmitting. You will see the correction value in the "Downl. Corr." window. For certain reasons this correction can't be stored automatically, however. Therefore with the "Upl.Calibr." controls set the same correction value, but in the opposite direction. If, i.e., you corrected the downlink by +1450 Hz correct the uplink by -1450 Hz. Click on "Change/Store Data File" and save the uplink calibration. In the frequency list of menu CAT you will see that only the uplink entry changes. When you restart the program it will start with the calibrated uplink frequency and no downlink correction."
--- On Fri, 5/15/09, Bill Dzurilla [email protected] wrote:
From: Bill Dzurilla [email protected] Subject: Re: Satpc32 with 2 Transceivers To: [email protected] Date: Friday, May 15, 2009, 4:22 PM Howard,
With Erich's kind help, I was able to get SatPC32 working last week with 2 transceivers.
I had a similar problem with the SSB sats at first. I could not hear my downlink while the program was controlling the frequencies on the 2 rigs. It turned out that the issue was that the default settings for some of the birds was off (either because my rigs are off calibration or because the frequency on the sat's transponder drifted since Erich wrote Doppler.SQF).
The fix is not difficult. With the program controlling the rigs, and with the satellite near to its maximum elevation on a pass, tune to a clear downlink frequency and click CAT on the program. Then start transmitting (say testing, testing, count to 10, anything) while clicking on the up and down arrows under "Upl. Calibr. (Hz)". When you hear your voice on the downlink in a natural sounding tone, click "Change/Store Data File" and then click save, which automatically changes the Doppler.SQF file. Once set correctly for each bird, your uplink and downlink will track perfectly.
I couldn't get it right at first because I kept clicking on the 10 hz arrows. This was insufficient, as some of the sats were over 500 hz off. But it was easy after I started clicking the 100 hz arrows.
You can also manually review and edit the Doppler.SQF file by clicking ? and then Auxiliary Files, but this should not be necessary.
73, Bill NZ5N
Date: Fri, 15 May 2009 11:22:53 -0500 From: "Howard Kowall" [email protected] Subject: [amsat-bb] Satpc32 with 2 Transceivers To: "[email protected]" [email protected] Message-ID: 000a01c9d579$65dbc2f0$6701a8c0@sysoffice Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Good morning everyone Trying to run Satpc32 with a FT897d and FT817nd The ft897nd is on the uhf antenna and the ft817nd is on the vhf antenna it all seems to work on the FM sats but having some problems with ssb sats AO7,VO52,FO29 The trouble I am having is on the calibration of the freq. and doppler adjument has anyone run into this hopefully someone has a few pointers and tricks Thanks to all who reply Howard VE4ISP