For whatever reason, I have gotten interested in amateur satellites
again after being away for almost 10 years.
I've gone through the last two months in the archives and I have a
couple of things:
1. I saw some questions about the the K3. I have the K3 and the KX3 and
do not know of a satellite app that will "talk" to them. Both use "a
Kenwood" command set, but I do not know which. Thus far, I have not been
able to get either SatPC32 or MacDoppler to talk to my K3.
2. I have access to an FT-847 I sold my father several years ago. This
is the radio I used on the satellites when I was active. I had initially
thought about buying the 2m transverter for the K3, but after talking to
many users of that transverter and explaining what I wanted to and that
I had access to the FT-847, it was advised that I go with the FT-847.
3. I have a 2m / 70cm QHTenna turnstile pair. I *also* have an Arrow
144/432 antenna. I think either pair will work well from my
plywood-decked, shingle roof. I would like to use the Arrow, but (a) I
don't have a good way to point it, and (b) I cannot find the gain. If
memory serves, it has a fairly good gain around 4dB for 2m and 6 dB for
70cm. I don't know that there's any gain to the turnstiles, but at least
I won't need a rotor for those. Any other advice here?
4. I also have the AG-25 2m preamp. I know the FT-847 will power this
preamp. It is not quite as good as the DEM preamps, but it's what I
have. Any suggestions here?
I am really not interested in the FM satellites. I am very interested in
the linear transponders - especially CW. Any CW ops out there? I'm still
slow (13 - 15WPM), but I'm working on my speed. From what I've read, the
linear transponders are on AO-7, FO-29 (I cut my teeth on FO-20), VO-52,
and AO-73. It looks like AO-7 is both mode A and mode B, FO-29 is mode
J, and both VO-52 and AO-73 are mode B. It sounds like there is really a
lot to play with up there.
73,
Joel - W4JBB
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