[amsat-bb] Re: Which Handheld...

[Bruce Robertson]

On Feb 1, 2008 1:46 PM, Clint Bradford <clintbrad4d at earthlink.net> wrote:
>  >>...which handheld do you use or which
> handheld is "the best" for sats. It must be full duplex.
>
> There are no new full-duplex HTs on the amateur market. The Icom IC-
> W32a was the last nit to have true full-duplex.
>
> Knowing that, the feature that is needed in an HT is the ability to
> RX on one band, and TX on another.
>
> So you have dual-band, dual receive HTs (TH-F6a from Kenwood...user
> un-friendly VX-7R from Yaesu) that can do it - obviously. I overlook
> the Kenwood TH=D7A(g) because it is a battery hog and much older
> technology than what is now avalable in amateur HTs.

Just to be clear, though: the TH-D7A is full duplex, if by that you
mean you can listen to one band while transmitting on another. Moving
your receive frequency might take a couple more button pushes than the
simplest case, but it really is quite easy. Furthermore, it has a TNC
built in that can receive the 1200 bps and 9600 bps AFSK transmissions
made by many birds. Data from the satellites operating in APRS mode
can be viewed on-screen without an attached computer.

Though I'm sure the other HT options are excellent, I'm glad I got a
TH-D7A  because it has offered a quite easy path to exploring the
digital birds and terrestrial APRS in general.

73, Bruce
VE9QRP

>
>
> On Feb 1, 2008, at 1:10 AM, amsat-bb-request at amsat.org wrote:
>
> >  I would like to know which handheld do you use or which
> > handheld is "the best" for sats. It must be full duplex.
> > Thanks in advance!
>