Hello, I'd like to get involved with satellite work and haven't gotten on the air yet. After reading the recent messages about being careful with power, I've been tempted to set up my IC-9700 with a pair of coax switches and an attenuator, so that I can get some attenuation on transmit and straight thru on receive. That way I would have more control over how low I could reduce Tx power. Any thoughts? 73! Mike AF5AT

On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 7:51 AM Michael Walker via AMSAT-BB < amsat-bb@amsat.org> wrote:

I want to share something for those new operators. Old farts can jump in with 'I told you so!' LOL

I know this has been stressed before, but I wanted to share an uplink power experience.

I am using a 7 Element Quad on UHF. There are times that I have to dial down the UHF uplink power on the IC-9700 to 1% and even then I think that is too much signal. Case in point was this morning working CAS-4A.

For those IC-9700 operators, I highly suggest that you keep the Multi-Knob focussed on RF power and adjust as required. This will of course limit your ability to use the RIT since it is hard to use both at the same time.

It is unfortunate that I can't seem to use the waterfall on the IC-9700 to also see the beacon in the panadapter. It isn't a 'width' issue but a gain issue. I already have my REF set to +12db.

I'm always open to suggestions.

Mike va3mw _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb

This abuse on uplink power is getting bad on IO-86 satellite it made an operator dominating the whole pass and prevents other stations with portable setup to qso with others (IO-86 satellite was specifically designed for emergency communication in mind utilizing a simple setup of HT and a hand-held directional antenna). On the next satellite that AMSAT-ID is working on, also equatorial one, we are going to add RSSI detector, and the over powered station will be replaced with a tone on the downlink. 73 de Yono YD0NXXAMSAT-ID Technical Team On Tuesday, March 10, 2020, 07:53:38 PM GMT+7, Michael Walker via AMSAT-BB amsat-bb@amsat.org wrote:

I want to share something for those new operators.  Old farts can jump in with 'I told you so!'  LOL

I know this has been stressed before, but I wanted to share an uplink power experience.

I am using a 7 Element Quad on UHF.  There are times that I have to dial down the UHF uplink power on the IC-9700 to 1% and even then I think that is too much signal.  Case in point was this morning working CAS-4A.

For those IC-9700 operators, I highly suggest that you  keep the Multi-Knob focussed on RF power and adjust as required.  This will of course limit your ability to use the RIT since it is hard to use both at the same time.

It is unfortunate that I can't seem to use the waterfall on the IC-9700 to also see the beacon in the panadapter.  It isn't a 'width' issue but a gain issue.    I already have my REF set to +12db.

I'm always open to suggestions.

Mike va3mw _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. AMSAT-NA makes this open forum available to all interested persons worldwide without requiring membership. Opinions expressed are solely those of the author, and do not reflect the official views of AMSAT-NA. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: https://www.amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb