[amsat-bb] help with PACSAT and Kenwood TM-D710GA

[Kevin Zari]

I have been trying to get PACSAT Ground Station working with my Kenwood
TM-D710GA, in TNC mode (PACKET96).
I was able to set the Packet speed to be 9600 baud by going into Putty and
issuing the command HBAUD 9600 (and the PACKET12 changed to PACKET96 on the
front panel of the TM-D710GA)
then I exited putty.
then I entered PACSAT, made sure the serial port was correct, and waited
for a nice high pass of FalconSat-3. I manually adjusted for Doppler (just
trying to RX on the first pass), but nothing.
Then, just to test, I hit the DIR button and the unit TX, but nothing is
RX.

I know the radio and antenna system are capable of FalconSat-3 because when
I place it in APRS96 mode I am able to make QSOs on that satellite (and in
fact, there are a lot of packets getting in the way of my APRS attempts, so
that was why I was interested in learning about this mode of the bird).

If I am unable to use the onboard TNC, then I have a few questions about
the connection from the radio to the computer for use with hs_soundmodem.
Do I need to tap into the lines of the 9600 in/out on the D710 Data
Terminal and bring them into the computer how ?
I vaguely remember something about the filters on a Signalink USB not
passing the 9600 baud data through due to cutoff.

Any advice you could give would be much appreciated.
73 and thank you

-Kevin (KK4YEL)