Hi!
Show me an all-mode HT that retails for the same sort of price and is the same sort of size as an FM HT and I might be interested. Otherwise, to get UHF and VHF SSB I'm stuck with an inconveniently large radio which is only really useful for the twenty minutes a day that a satellite is overhead.
An all-mode HT.... doesn't exist at this time. Probably the closest you get in an HT would be a TH-F6/TH-F7 with its all-mode receiver, but still an FM transmitter. You could attempt transmitting CW by keying that transmitter, but it's not ideal with the 5 kHz tuning steps at FM on that radio (SSB tuning steps on a TH-F6/TH-F7 can go as small as 33 Hz) and no provision for computer control. Otherwise, an FT-817 gets close to the HT size, is an all-mode transceiver at HF and 6m as well as 2m and 70cm, and would qualify as a radio that can be used more than "twenty minutes a day that a satellite is overhead." It does cost more than an FM HT, but FT-817s should be available on the secondhand market as they have been in production for a decade. Even two FT-817s as a portable all-mode full-duplex satellite station are not what I - or many - would consider "inconveniently large". If you prefer computer control, the 817s have Yaesu's CAT port to allow for that.
Not to mention the difficulty involved in tuning the radio and aiming the antenna. Doesn't the Doppler shift mean you need to constantly retune? How do you manage to do that, key the mike and point the aerial, *and* have enough brainpower left to make a contact?
You are having to make minor adjustments to your frequency - or frequencies - when working SSB or CW via satellite. If you follow the so-called One True Rule, you're making the adjustments to one of the two frequencies (usually the higher of the two frequencies). Everyone had to work SSB/CW via satellite this way in the past, before the advent of computer-controlled stations, and it is still an option today even if some (many?) discourage it.
If you've worked FM satellites, you already know about the "key the mike and point the aerial" part. Then just focus on the QSO in progress. Don't try to remember everyone you worked - leave that on an audio recorder, or recorder app for a mobile phone or iPod type of device or laptop/netbook, and play it back later to update your log.
Pedro EB4DKA has posted a lot of useful information for working SSB via satellite. I read the writeups and watched the videos as I started out on the SSB birds. I don't operate using a mobile setup like Pedro does, but with one directional antenna (an Elk 2m/70cm log periodic) through a diplexer to my two-radio setup. I've uploaded some videos working those satellites at:
I used both of my FT-817NDs on the SSB passes shown in these videos, but on occasion swap out the 817 I use as the receiver and put my TH-F6A in its place.
73!
Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK http://www.wd9ewk.net/