Thanks for the response. I tried a pass last night at 19:30 local time but didn't hear anything. Must have been a good football game on after the contest.

One thing I noticed right away is the increase in coax loss on 70cm compared to using the stock Arrow duplexer and an HT. Of course, the last sat I worked was AO-51, and it always seemed to boom in when overhead. Right now I'm using RG-8x because I have a lot of it on hand. LMR400 flex looks like the stuff to get, but it may need to wait until spring unless I can find some surplus somewhere.

Actually, I'm looking forward to a tablet controlled radio, but I'm likely the exception not the rule. The problem seems to be one of cost. Chips and LCDs are a heck of a lot cheaper than knobs and analog meters. By orders of magnitude.

One idea that might help to bridge the gap comes from the pro audio world, where there's been an aftermarket emerge for hardware controls for audio workstation software. The link below shows a somewhat excessive example of what I'm talking about:

http://www.avid.com/US/products/ICON-D-Control-ES

Believe it or not, that entire unit is just a controller. No audio processing path (other than monitoring) in the device.

Not all radios would be open to the level of remote control that you may be asking for, but I'm sure many of the most used settings could be assigned to a controller and sent via the CAT jack. Getting feedback from the radio could be a little more difficult, but if HRD can do it, there's no reason other devices can't.

I'm starting to work the linear transponder satellites. Last night I was able to hear myself on the downlink, but not able to make any contacts despite it being a great pass, directly overhead. I'm using an FT897d and FT817 both controlled by Gpredict, adjusting for Doppler shift automatically (tuning the receiver retunes the transmitter to match transponder inversion and Doppler). I did hear a few stations during the pass (VO-52).

I've read a few articles online that explain the linear transponder concept, but none tell you what the accepted practice is concerning uplinking using USB or LSB. Similar to the practice of using USB on 20 meters and above and LSB below. Is it a standard across the board or different for different transponder modes?

Thanks for the very complete answer. You've pretty much confirmed what I expected, that there are components available but they haven't trickled down to the ham radio world yet. I know that power is always a trade-off, but I like the idea of a $25 solar panel with a 4000 ma battery running a small radio all day.

Given the proliferation of small 5 Volt power packs for recharging phones and other USB devices, I got wondering if there are any small radios that are powered by 5VDC? What would be some of the limiting factors to 5V, assuming a high current draw was acceptable?

Another Elecraft W1 builder/user here. Easy to build, set up, make one adjustment and it's very accurate. A little hard to see in direct sunlight and BNC connector position isn't great. I use it more for testing/verification then pull it out of line, but both my HF radios have built in SWR meters that get close enough.

Ate one yesterday after I heard the news.

I'm good for another 20 years.

As for Wonder "bread," life's too short for that stuff. It's a little like McDonalds. Every so often I get the idea I want a Quarter Pounder or their french fries. Then, as soon as I'm done I always wonder what the hell I was thinking!

I used to use it when I was hiking in a remote location where I couldn't hit repeaters on 5 watts. That is to say, I set it up, but didn't really use it. Just figured it would be a way to possibly call for help if I got in a bad way.

The Kenwood D700 has some ability to control it via touch tones which makes it a little more useful, if you remember what the commands are. I kept a laminated, shrunken copy of the manual pages in my backpack. I used the 440MHz side to communicate with the HT and 144MHz side to hit the repeater. It all worked if you put everything into memory channels first and got the PL settings right.

There's a great open source program called Stellarium that basically simulates a planetarium on your PC. Also has builds for Windows and Android that I know of. It is able to point telescopes as well, although not to track, just to aim and let the internal sidereal motor control take over.


Not at all. I doubt you'll find one that is, since stargazing isn't much fun when it's cloudy, let alone raining! But I want it for portable use, like during field day (and because it's an interesting hack). I was thinking that a tent might be able to act like a radome if the weather gets bad.

The specs say 9 lbs. I set it up clamped from the back of the mast with a 2.5 lb counterweight and it didn't have any trouble, but I didn't see any advantage to that setup either.

however, this particular mount is no longer manufactured. There are other mounts that use the same communications protocol, from small to larger to add-on kits.

http://www.telescope.com/Mounts-Tripods/GoTo-Mounts-Tripods/pc/2/36.uts
http://www.celestron.com/astronomy/mounts.html?technologies=126#filter_menu

Spent a few hours this weekend testing a rotator based on a computerized telescope mount. Initial results look promising. Too bad we had snow all weekend or I would have been testing outside. I'm sure being under a snow covered roof attenuated RF a little.

http://youtu.be/Avp1ROEkgeA

Please don't pick on the talent! 

One of the coolest things I ever saw in the sky was when the shuttle undocked from the ISS and they were doing the insulating tile check that was instituted after the Columbia failure.

Two points of light racing across the sky in tandem. I'll never forget it.

I'm constantly amazed at how well Google  recognizes my voice when I'm looking up something on the road in my very noisy truck. Right now there's no incentive for a big push like there is/was with voice recognition. But just through evolution of software and steady improvements it will get to that level. I'd say a few programs do a very good job now if you can get a narrow enough filter.

One other thing I read about PSK31 decoding in the box. You can use the paddles to send PSK31, but you can also use the computer interface to send (somewhat) plain text and have it transmitted. It's not quite like hooking up a dumb terminal, but I think it should be fairly trivial to hack a terminal program together on an Android phone (or just use the Windows software) to make it happen. There are already people working on this. So it turns PSK31 into a one USB cable solution, with no screwing around with soundcard interfaces, tweaking levels (oh, yea, I was watching that video before and had the volume cranked up... Sorry guys I didn't mean to blow out the band for the last half hour), and Windows system sounds going over the airwaves.

Similar system could also be used for CW.

I recently bought a used FT817 and one of our club members brought his KX3 to the last meeting for show and tell. Strictly from a first impressions standpoint the KX3 is:

• Heavier, although it included the autotuner, roofing filters and a "full power" battery pack (the FT817's internal battery limits output).
• larger, when you consider the knobs and such will need to be protected more than the 817s, although not by much.
• Easier to use, in that the large knobs and display aren't as "fidgety" as trying to push buttons on the 817 (at least for my fat fingers).

Of course, I only had a few minutes to test drive it, and we didn't put it on the air, just passed it around. If the KX3 had a 70CM module (and the 2M module was available) for satellite use I'd already own one, just for the user interface. As it is, I might pick one up in the spring depending on finances (and if I know code well enough to actually use it). The FT817 was bought more for general coverage receive and for satellite work, but now I'm looking forward to portable ops, just need to learn code.