I figured it out with the help of a service monitor. It turns out that while you can set the frequency of the sub band by pushing the sub button, you can not turn on the Tone Encode that way. You have to move the TX to the main dial, turn on the Tone, and then move it back. Therefore, I was not putting out a tone. By the way - the manual did not mention this. Thank you to those who sent me suggestions.
________________________________ From: Douglas Phelps dphelps1@ameritech.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Mon, June 20, 2011 4:24:53 PM Subject: SO50 Help Please
My equipment is an FT-847 feeding a pair of 8 element RHCP antennas with Advanced Research Preamps mounted at the antenna. I use SatPC for the automatic tracking. I am supposedly transmitting a 67 Hz PL on TX.
Ar elevations above 40 degrees, I can hear AO50 full quieting with just a little fading. What I can not sdeem to do is TX through AO50. I can TX OK through AO51 in its current mode (QRP transponder and no PL) but not AO50. I seemed that if TX right when someone ended the TX, I could get in for a fraction of a second. Can anybody tell me what I am doing wrong? Is their some quirk with PL in the Sat Mode on the FT-847?
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.