[amsat-bb] New operator on uplink power

[Michael Walker]

Mike

It depends on the gain of your uplink antenna.

When I get down to about 5 watts, I just don't speak as loud.  :)  It
happens pretty quickly.

Mike va3mw


On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 10:19 AM Mike Wilhelm <af5at.radio at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello,
> I'd like to get involved with satellite work and haven't gotten on the air
> yet.  After reading the recent messages about being careful with power,
> I've been tempted to set up my IC-9700 with a pair of coax switches and an
> attenuator, so that I can get some attenuation on transmit and straight
> thru on receive.  That way I would have more control over how low I could
> reduce Tx power.  Any thoughts?
> 73!
> Mike AF5AT
>
> On Tue, Mar 10, 2020 at 7:51 AM Michael Walker via AMSAT-BB <
> amsat-bb at amsat.org> wrote:
>
>> I want to share something for those new operators.  Old farts can jump in
>> with 'I told you so!'  LOL
>>
>> I know this has been stressed before, but I wanted to share an uplink
>> power
>> experience.
>>
>> I am using a 7 Element Quad on UHF.  There are times that I have to dial
>> down the UHF uplink power on the IC-9700 to 1% and even then I think that
>> is too much signal.  Case in point was this morning working CAS-4A.
>>
>> For those IC-9700 operators, I highly suggest that you  keep the
>> Multi-Knob
>> focussed on RF power and adjust as required.  This will of course limit
>> your ability to use the RIT since it is hard to use both at the same time.
>>
>> It is unfortunate that I can't seem to use the waterfall on the IC-9700 to
>> also see the beacon in the panadapter.  It isn't a 'width' issue but a
>> gain
>> issue.    I already have my REF set to +12db.
>>
>> I'm always open to suggestions.
>>
>> Mike va3mw
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>