Tuesday, January 17, 2017

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

Sunday, January 08, 2017

Full Duplex Radios for Satellites

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