[amsat-bb] Re: 2 ht vs. 1-duplex ht

[Zachary Beougher]

Hi Patrick,

You are the go-to guy for any Kenwood HT questions - have you owned/used all 
of them??? ;-)

The toggling between VFOs was not as big of an issue for me (like you say, 
small price for a full duplex HT), but the receiver seemed weak.  I know I 
commented a few weeks ago about the 8800 having a weak receiver, but I think 
after using the G71As for so long, I got spoiled with the receiver in it.

The s-meter is also practically useless on the D7.  You have to toggle back 
and forth between bands to see it, and it also never goes above approx. 
s3-s5, on a good pass.  It makes it difficult, especially when a bird is 
quiet, to tell if you are on it or not.  You need to have keen ears to tell 
whether you are listening to the carrier or noise.

I didn’t use the D7 for much satellite work before I went back to the G71A 
for receive, so I probably need to try the full duplex again and give a more 
accurate observation.

73!

Zack
KD8KSN

-----Original Message----- 
From: Patrick STODDARD (WD9EWK/VA7EWK)
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2011 10:24 AM
To: amsat-bb at amsat.org
Subject: [amsat-bb] Re: 2 ht vs. 1-duplex ht

Zack,

> I have the D7A (full duplex), but I don’t like the receiver sensitivity. 
> I
> went back to using one THG71 for the down and the D7 for the up.  The 
> other
> thing I don't like about the D7 is you have to switch between back and 
> forth
> between band A and B to adjust doppler.  I would probably not recommend 
> the
> D7 for satellite work.  I have heard things about the D72.

If someone is looking for a single HT for full-duplex satellite work, I 
would
recommend the D7 despite having to switch VFOs for Doppler adjustments.
I have the TH-D72A, which works the same way as the TH-D7 regarding
the need to jump between the two VFOs to adjust the receiver.  It's a small
nuisance, but a small price to pay for not having to deal with two radios
when working full-duplex on FM satellites.  I've picked up a couple of old
D7s (one appears to be a TH-D7A(G), and the other may be an original
TH-D7A), that I hope to get new battery packs for and make a couple of
FM satellite stations when combined with Elk antennas.

Your TH-G71A is a good dual-band HT.  Not capable of full-duplex operation,
but worked well for me using groups of memory channels for FM satellites.
The receiver was pretty good, and some would notice that I changed to a
different radio from my normal radios when I used that HT.

73!





Patrick WD9EWK/VA7EWK
http://www.wd9ewk.net/

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