[amsat-bb] FW: [FWD: RE: Southern CA Satellite Presentations]

[Peter Laws]

On Tue, Jun 28, 2016 at 9:42 AM, Jerry Conner via AMSAT-BB
<amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
> Then what I am hearing, "AS A NEWBIE" is that I am not welcome on the Sats because I do not have the financial resources to invest in all the equipment needed to run full duplex.  It is more than two cheap Chinese radios, it also involves an antenna, which at the very least it is almost double the cost of the two Chinese radios.


I think I paid $150-something for my Arrow II with the diplexer
(because I only use one radio) so yeah about the price of two cheap
Chinese HTs.

There is nothing stopping anyone from building an entirely adequate
antenna themselves.  See, for example,
http://www.wa5vjb.com/references.html .

SO-50, with the FM uplink on 2 m, I don't see much need for full
duplex and, in fact, I've had good contacts on a single radio.  I can
see where AO-85, with the FM uplink on 70 cm having a bigger Doppler
swing, that it would be very helpful to have an ear on the downlink.
For data, since most digis seem to be on 2m up and down, I don't see
the big deal.

On the sats with a linear transponder, it's a different matter since
you need to find where you are unless you are using a computer to
correct your at-sat frequency.

All that said, if you want this to be a cheap hobby, you're really
going to have to work at it.


-- 
Peter Laws | N5UWY | plaws plaws net | Travel by Train!