[amsat-bb] Re: Kenwood THD7AG availability

[STeve Andre']

On Tuesday 03 June 2008 23:07:55 John Mock KD6PAG wrote:
> > At dayton, here is what I heard... they can no longer get about
> > a handful of parts.  The radio has been in production for 10
> > years!  Of the handful of parts, they have come up with some
> > substitutes for all but one of them.  There is still one tiny
> > chip transistor that has no substitutes and impossible to find.
> > Unless they can solve that problem, they are stuck...
>
> That is MOST unfortunate!  It is important to operate in full-duplex
> in Mode J-FM, and with the demise of the Icom IC-W32A, the Kenwood
> TH-D7AG was the only HT available which had that capability. Every
> other multi-band HT available commercially tries to be a scanner
> from DC-to-daylight, and that is inherently incompatable with full-
> duplex operation.  I believe that the number of people who can't hear
> their own downlink has alot to do with the amount of chaos on the FM
> satellites.
>
> Please, please, PLEASE!!  AMSAT-NA and AMSAT-*, lobby the amateur radio
> manufacturers to make another satellite-friendly HT!  This is important
> to the future of amateur radio.
>
> 		     -- KD6PAG  (Networking Old-Timer, Satellite QRPer)

Thats an excellent idea.

It would also be a good thing to make a list of the HT's which can do full
duplex.  My Icom IC-32AT can, for example, and a friend who got his ham
license a few years ago got one with accessories on Ebay for $80.  He
didn't get it for sat work, but he has it if I can snare him into it. ;-)

--STeve Andre'
wb8wsf  en82