have both the FT-817 and the THF6. I admit I use the F6 more often outside in the yard chasing FM because its smaller/lighter but I'd never exclude my FT-817 from sat operations. Here are my reasons:

- If you ever consider SSB birds like vo52 and fo29, or even use ao16 that RX in DSB, the F6 cant transmit SSB and the SSB RX is very, very painful to fine tune for clear copy. - The 817 has more convenient cross band operation. With the F6 you have to flip between vfos/memories by hand during the pass. When its time to change for doppler, you have to flip VFOs, then flip back. Cant count how many times I forgot to do this and just Xmit on the downlink (duh). The speaker/mic makes this much easier because it has 3 soft buttons on top. Normally you set one for toggling between vfos, and the other two for channel up/down. Also lets you clip the HT to your tripod/shirt for convenience - 817 can do computer control (I've seen portable use via laptop and it works) - F6 not full duplex (nor is the ft-817)

I do love my F6 though and if you can afford it, keep both. The nice-and-small F6 goes with me every time I take a business trip (especially post 9-11) because it can RX most anything including air traffic control, public service police/fire (except digital), AM/FM broadcast, and even TV audio (for now). The 817, on the other hand, is an awesome ham "all-mode/all-bander", rather like a QRP FT-857. I'm currently using two 817s when its too cold outside for full duplex SAT.

BTW, good choices on the Arrow and Elk. I have both and love 'em. The Arrow is a total workhorse for portable ops. As an experiment, the Elk is temporarily sitting in the back yard on a sawhorse with a cheap rotor at fixed 20% elevation. With an outboard duplexor (comet cf-416) I can run two radios inside the house full duplex on it. A little cross talk going VU, but works great on UV (i.e. VO52).

----- Original Message ----- From: "Guy Brauning" guyjeanbraun@comcast.net To: amsat-bb@amsat.org Sent: Sunday, December 07, 2008 12:06 PM Subject: [amsat-bb] Kenwood TH-F6A for AO-51 / SO-50??

Thanks for reading this. I am considering buying an HT for AO-51 and SO-50 as well as AO-27 (hopefully!). I have been using a Yaesu FT-817 and either an Arrow or Elk antenna and this has worked very well; however, an HT would be easier to carry around. I am looking for recommendations / warnings / etc. specific to the Kenwood TH-F6A. I would like some advice from those who have used the radio for satellite work before I shell out $320.00. I seriously considered a used IC-W32A on e-bay but it went for over $150.00 and I couldn't see paying that much for something that may or may not work properly. Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Guy

N3SCR

Finksburg, MD

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Message: 3 Date: Sun, 07 Dec 2008 18:43:38 +0000 From: Nigel Gunn G8IFF/W8IFF nigel@ngunn.net Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: Question re rx/tx relays and diplexer To: Curt Nixon cptcurt@flash.net Cc: amsat-bb@amsat.org Message-ID: 493C195A.9010004@ngunn.net Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed