I cut my satellite teeth with a Icom IC-970 back in the early ‘90s. Getting to look through the IC-9700s manual was nostalgic. The 970 was my first VHF/UHF rig. I bought it used and it served me well for several years until I sold it and acquired an Icom IC-810. Satellites have been my passion ever since. I even wrote a Macintosh program to control the 970.

The 970 was like an old used sports car – it required constant maintenance and repair. Every couple months, the 970 would stop transmitting. I soon learned that meant I had to open up the case and re-flow the solder tabs on the final.

The 970 was where I realized the most important frequency to be aware of was the frequency of the uplink and downlink signal “as measured at the satellite.”

In almost three decades, the satellite radio universe has changed a lot – for the better.

Ron W5RKN