Daily Archives: 3/12/2010

5mw signal from W1BW

Overnight I heard and was heard by a number of VK and ZL stations, but perhaps my most interesting spot was from long time QRSS/grabber/WSPR participant W1BW. Despite the fact that he was running a mere 5mw, I managed to pick him up twice overnight:

2 spots:

Timestamp Call MHz SNR Drift Grid Pwr Reporter RGrid km az
 2010-03-12 02:48   W1BW   10.140228   -25   0   FN42hl   0.005   K6HX   CM87ux   4286   281 
 2010-03-12 02:58   W1BW   10.140230   -26   0   FN42hl   0.005   K6HX   CM87ux   4286   281 

What’s even more amazing is that he was heard by VK7ZL, VK2/VK6DI and distances of greater than 16000 km.

A potential replacement for the Kenwood TH-D7A?

I was reading the pre-announcement for this month’s QST, which apparently includes a product review for a new tri-band Alinco HT: The Alinco DJ-G7T. It is intriguing because it includes two features which are uncommon. First, in addition to 2m and 70cm, it includes operation on 1.2Ghz. But more importantly from my perspective, it is full duplex.

You see, I like to work the FM satellites using only an HT and a small handheld yagi antenna. If you have full duplex, it is considerably easier: you can hear your own signal coming back down from the satellite, and can monitor signal quality and whether anyone is doubling with you. It is for this reason that I continue to use my TH-D7A, despite the fact that on the whole, it’s kind of a clunky and outdated (and is now discontinued) HT. If this HT checks out, it could be a reasonable replacement for my Kenwood.

Anybody have any experience with this one yet?

Addendum: Since you can apparently operate full duplex between any two modes, in theory you should be able to work mode L/U on AO-51 using this HT, although the Doppler correction might be pretty fast.