Makezine's approach to "Catching Satellites on Ham Radio"

Nice to see that the maker movement recognizes the opportunities that Amateur Radio Satellites provide: Here's an excerpt: My favorite ham activity is making contacts via satellites. Not only is there the romantic notion of sending messages into outer space, but you have to trace the orbit of the satellite with your antenna while tuning the radio, to compensate for the Doppler effect. The satellites AO-51, SO-50, and AO-27 orbit the Earth acting as repeaters. Repeaters are automated relay stations that allow hams to send signals over a greater distance using low-power hand held transceivers. The satellites allow hams to relay messages from Earth to space and back to other hams somewhere on the planet. The International Space Station (ISS) also has a repeater, but occasionally, if you’re lucky, the astronauts turn on their radios to make contact directly with hams on the ground. The following instructions will get you started listening to birds (satellites) on FM, which can be done with a simple VHF/UHF FM radio with a whip antenna, without the need of a ham license. For better coverage, you can use a Yagi antenna (like the one pictured above) connected to a mutli-mode radio and a license (if you want to transmit). A Yagi antenna can also be used to improve the signal of your hand held radio. more found on the original site....

Catching Satellites

Full Duplex Radios for Satellites

Full Duplex Capable Radios   1-8-2017

Written by Andrew Koenig    (update from Patrick Stoddard compiled by me)

Following a discussion on the AMSAT-BB, I've decided to post the list of full duplex capable radios here, on my website. If there's a radio that needs to be added to the list, please use the Contact Us link above. 73 de KE5GDB Handhelds:  Tone Capable? Comments Icom IC-W2A Yes Icom IC-24AT Optional Tone optional with ???? Icom IC-W31A Yes Icom IC-W32A Yes Icom IC-32AT Yes Icom IC-Z1A Yes Icom IC-X2A 440MHz/1.2GHz Yaesu FT-470 Yes Yaesu FT-530 Yes Yaesu FR-51R Yes DTMF Text Messaging Kenwood TH-D7 Yes Internal TNC Kenwood TH-75A Yes Kenwood TH-77 Yes Kenwood TH-78 Yes Kenwood TH-79A Yes Alinco DJ-G5T Yes Alinco DJ-580T Yes Alinco DJ-582T Yes Alinco DJ-G7 Yes Also has 1.2GHz Tone Capable? Comments Chinese KG-UV8E, KG-UV8T, and KG-UV9D Yes "U/V" only. 2m desenses 70 cm downlink on “V/U” satellites like SO-50. The 70cm amateur satellite subband at 435-438 MHz is almost a perfect 3rd harmonic from the 2m satellite subband at 145.8-146.0 MHz - especially with SO-50 Kenwood TH-D72A Yes Best current full duplex HT Mobiles:  Tone Capable? Comments Alinco DR-570T Yes/No "E" version needs EJ-5U tone board Alinco DR-590T Yes Alinco DR-599T Yes Alinco DR-600T Yes Alinco DR-605T Yes Alinco DR-610T Yes Alinco DR-620T Yes Alinco DR-635T Yes Kenwood TM731 Yes Kenwood TM732 Yes Kenwood TM733 Yes Kenwood TM741 Yes Triband with optional boards (see below) Kenwood TM742 Yes Triband with optional boards (see below) Kenwood TM941 Yes Triband with optional boards (see below) Kenwood TM942 Yes Triband with optional boards (see below) Kenwood TM-D700/710 Yes Internal TNC Yaesu FT-4700 ? Yaesu FT-5100 Yes Yaesu FT-5200 Yes Yaesu FT-6200 Yes 440MHz/1.2GHz Yaesu FT-8800 Yes Yaesu FT-8900 Yes Quad Band- 10m/6m/2m/440 Icom 2728H ? Icom IC-2800 Yes Icom IC-2340 Yes Icom IC-2350 Yes Icom IC-2710 Yes Icom IC-2720 Yes Icom IC-2820 Yes Icom IC-Delta-100 Yes 2m/440/1.2GHz Heathkit HW-24/HW-24A ? Current mobile rigs Tone Capable? Comments Alinco DR-635 Icom IC-2730A Kenwood TM-D710 Kenwood TM-V71 Yaesu FT-8800R Yaesu FT-8900R Base Rigs: Tone Capable? Comments Yaesu FT-726 Optional Full duplex with OSCAR module; tone with FTE-36 board Yaesu FT-736 Optional Tone optional with the FTS-8; Quad Band (See Below) Yaesu FT-847 Yes Kenwood TS-2000 Yes Optional 1.2GHz (TS2000X) Icom 820 Yes Icom 821 Yes Icom IC-910H Yes Icom IC-970 Yes Optional 1.2GHz (UX-97) Kenwood TS-790A/E Optional Optional tone with TSU-5 Kenwood triband plugins (for TM741, TM742, TM941 and TM942): UT-28S - 10 meters (50/10/5 watts) UT-50S - 6 meters (50/10/5 watts) UT-220S - 1.25m/220MHz (25/10/5 watts) UT-1200S - 1.2GHz (10/1 watt(s)) Yaesu quadband plugins (for FT-736):  FEX-736-50 - 6 meters FEX-736- 220 - 1.25m/220MHz FEX-736-1.2 - 1.2GHz

Last Updated on Wednesday, 10 June 2009 16:09