[amsat-bb] Need for 2M antenna preamp with Icom 9700?, Receive tip for what it's worth

[Wes Baden]

(1) Preamp question: AMSAT newbie here, just having made my first contacts
with an Icom 9700 and small yagis on tripods on my deck, fixed in place due
to Maine weather.  Come Spring, I plan to install the M2 LEO Package on an
existing tower, with a rotor.  I'm interested primarily in Mode B, and so
here is my question.  Do I really need a mast-mounted preamp with this set
up?  I'll be using a 100 foot run of LMR 400, by the way.  Right now, with
a 2M 4 element yagi and a 30 foot run of LMR 400, I have no trouble copying
a lot of signals on receive when satellites are in the one yagi's
beamwidth, given the 9700's extraordinary sensitivity and built in preamp.
Would a 2M mast mounted preamp be overkill and an unneeded expense?

(2) Receive tip: For what it's worth (and probably old news to most SAT
ops, so I apologize in advance)….  When using CW on the 70 cm uplink, I've
kept the 9700 on USB while listening on 2M.  The SSB filter is almost 2 KHz
wider than the CW filter.  This has enabled me to listen to Doppler shifted
CW signals with little or no RX tuning, hear any adjacent QRM and avoid it,
and just have one button to hit when I switch from CW to SSB, transmitting
on 70 cm.

Thanks in advance for feedback about the need for a 2M mast mounted preamp.

Wes NA1ME, FN54