Hi John, I had heard of the down converter solution before and purchased a used down converter. Unfortunately it seemed to pick up the TS- 2000 bird nearly as well as the TS-2000. I just lashed the setup together so maybe taking more care to isolate the converter from the TS-2000 might improve my results. I'll have to give it a try again.
Mike kc9doa On 30 Nov 2011 at 10:49, John Papay wrote: > As many of you know, my satellite radio is a TS2000X. > If you have visited my satellite webpage, you have seen > many recordings of AO-27 and SO50 from AOS to LOS. Most > of these recordings were made when I was not sitting in > front of the radio. > > At first I used a uhf mobile to hear AO-27 and SO-50. The > problem was that those radios were not computer controlled > so you had to tune for the doppler. That worked fine when > I was in the shack, but it didn't work when I was away. The > obvious solution was another radio that didn't have the > birdie > problem, or a simple UHF to 10M downconverter which wouldn't > have the birdie problem. Back in the day, UHF and VHF down- > converters were very popular because we didn't have a lot of > DC to Light radios out there. Now these converters are > sitting > in junk boxes and are long forgotten by their owners. > > One of the more popular manufacturers of these inexpensive > downconverters was Hamtronics. They made all kinds of stuff > for repeaters etc. At first their products were not that > great, > but they evolved into some better designs including their > UHF to 10m downconverters. Unfortunately most downconverter > manufacturers stopped making them when the devices they were > using > became obsolete and unavailable. The use of current > production > devices required a redesign of their PC boards and since the > demand > was no longer there, these products were abandoned. > > I was fortunate to find a Hamtronics converter on a qrz.com > posting > from several years back. It never sold back then and the owner > still > had it. I purchased it and ran some tests on it against the > receiver > in the TS2000. It turned out that the downconverter had a > slightly > better sensitivity than the TS2000! > > The big concern when using a converter or preamp is the fear > of > transmitting into it and smoking the front end. But the > TS2000 > has an auxiliary antenna jack which is receive only and perfect > for > a downconverter output on HF. As Drew mentioned, SatPC32 can > compensate for a downconverter and tune the TS2000 for > doppler > in the 10m band. This allowed me to track AO-27 AO-51 and > SO-50 > unattended and make all those recordings without any human > intervention. > > A coaxial transfer relay was inserted into the uhf antenna line > so > that when the converter was in use, the UHF antenna was > switched > to the downconverter input (which outputs to the aux antenna > jack > on the TS2000) and the UHF antenna jack on the TS2000 is > switched > to a dummy load. So if you transmit on UHF, power goes into > the > dummy load and all equipment is safe. When I want to transmit > on > UHF (VO-52 and AO-7 mode B), the coax relay switches the UHF > antenna > back to the UHF antenna port on the TS2000. The downconverter > is out > of the antenna circuit at this point. I did not use the > downconverter > when operating on FO-29 so the aux antenna jack had to be > switched to > normal in the tS2000, menu #18 (FO-29 is a linear bird that > outputs on > UHF, currently not working). > > Every owner of a TS2000 that operates satellites needs a UHF to > 10M > downconverter. Hamtronics is making a VHF to 10M downconverter > now. > If everyone emailed them to encourage them to make a UHF model, > they > might just do it. The only other solution is to make one > yourself, > or find a used downconverter or transverter that is gathering > dust on > someone's shelf. I now have an IC910H and am doing comparisons > against > the TS2000. My first impression it that I prefer the TS2000 > but that > might be because I'm so familiar with it. I use another TS2000 > in the > mobile sat truck but don't have a downconverter for it. I > simply use > a uhf mobile for receive on AO-27 and SO-50 since I'm in front > of the > radio and don't run it unattended. I have a coax switch to > switch > the UHF antenna from the TS2000 to the UHF mobile. > > Now that AO-51 is silent, all of the FM operation is on SO-50 > and AO-27. > If you have a TS2000, you'll want to investigate the use of a > downconverter. > > 73, > John K8YSE > > > _______________________________________________ > Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of > the author. > Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur > satellite program! > Subscription settings: > http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
