John,

A big concern is transmitting into it. In the beginning, I used the Hamtronics converter into a Ten Tec Corsair II HF rig. The Corsair has a aux receiver input that can be selected which will completely eliminate any possibility of RF damage to the converter. I've done my share of burning up preamps so a person has to be careful.

I used the converter/TenTec, an IC-251A (2M/10W), and an 11 turn helix with no preamp on FO20/29. It worked really well, but a preamp does help.

In fact, I used this original rig setup today to make three QSOs on FO-29. It's still working well although there is now a SSB preamp out at the antenna.

If you have a two rig setup operating both "U" and "V" uplinks and switching back and forth between rigs, somewhere along the line you'll make an error and screw up. An aux receive input to the transceiver would be nice or just setting the HF transceiver up so it can't be transmitted would be a second choice.

If your interested in my Hamtronics CC432-5 converter (435-437 MHz to 28-30 MHz), give me an email or phone me.

73,

Mike (K9QHO)