Hello!
I am re-entering this hobby after a nearly 20 year hiatus- good thing I kept my license renewed all this time! I am thinking of bypassing HF (sunspots, you know...) and going straight for the good stuff- EME and Satellite. For the former, I will probably tinker with the 70cm up / 2m down modes. For the latter, some preliminary Google searching yielded the JT65 (sp?) and similar modes that make EME more doable than ever. (JT65- now that is a good idea! Wish I'd thought of it!!)
I still have my ancient Kenwood TS-520, and a dusty Icom-706 that I bought in '96 but never really used. I figure that for EME I *might* be able to get away with the '706 and a good preamp/poweramp setup, if I couple that with a good antenna, patience, and luck. For satellite I could probably use a transverter with the '706 but without full duplex this would be difficult- I am perhaps better off with a new transceiver.
If I were to buy a new transceiver, this would be my shortlist: Kenwood TS2000 (the HF to 1.2GHz rig), Icom 746/756, or Icom 910H.
The Kenwood looks the most versatile and perhaps has the biggest bang-for-the-buck, but I am worried that it's "all in one" feature may be somewhat gimmicky. (e.g. jack of all trades, master of none??)
Thanks in advance!
PS. I'm posting this to the Satellite forum since I could not find an EME forum. If there is an EME forum somewhere, please do let me know!