TS-2000 and SAT Work

[W1MSG]

Well I sold my FT-847, somebody give me a kick please. I had a line on a nice Flex 5000 and that fell through so I opted to buy a brand new TS-2000. Got a decent deal from HRO Salem and then had to set everything up.

I really like the TS-2000, I have always wanted one and dreamed about them when they first came out so I have fulfilled my dream so to speak.

Anyway I had some work to do, first I needed to remove the power chokes from my AR2 Mast mounted Preamps, that was pretty simple and I wired up the connectors and hooked up 12v to the power connectors on the preamps.

Next I set up the software SATPC32 and everything was working Great, made a couple of contacts on the AO-51 bird and I was really impressed with the RX of the TS-2000, then I tried AO-27 and SO-50, Houston we have a problem. Yup the 20 over S9 Birdie on 436.800 is a real bugger. Luckily I can still work the birds but with a very reduced footprint and it has to be a pretty high pass. Using the AR2 Preamp I can pull the stations out and make the contacts but its not fun.

I was talking with the Kenwood Rep at the HRO Manufacturers day yesterday and he said that if they fixed it when it first came out the birdie would have been on one of the other SAT Freq's so they opted to stay as is. The only good thing is that none of the future birds that are listing frequencies are using the 436.800 area. One of the birds is due launch mid 2012. I have yet to work any of the linear birds and with Hurricane Irene a couple of hours south I probably wont try today.

Anyway its really a nice radio, I have tried SSTV and PSK with a Racal Interface and it works flawlessly. I also interfaced it to my TL-922A and again that was pretty simple and works perfectly.

On an overall scale of 1-10 I will have to go with an 8 due to the birdie on 436.800..

Enjoy !

Craig

 

[W5LZ]

Nice, ain't it?

I've yet to see an 'all-n-one' radio that didn't have birdies somewhere. If Kenwood managed to only have them on one band (and they just happened to fall where you didn't want them) then I think that's pretty good designing. If you decide that you just don't like that '2000, I could be persuaded to swap a TS-711 for it. Wouldn't even ask for any 'boot'. Now, that's a deal, right?!
- 'Doc


(Might even throw in a '708, maybe. And yes, I know there's gonna be more than one birdy.)

 

[Qwazyone]

Well I sold my FT-847, somebody give me a kick please. I had a line on a nice Flex 5000 and that fell through so I opted to buy a brand new TS-2000. Got a decent deal from HRO Salem and then had to set everything up.

I really like the TS-2000, I have always wanted one and dreamed about them when they first came out so I have fulfilled my dream so to speak.

Anyway I had some work to do, first I needed to remove the power chokes from my AR2 Mast mounted Preamps, that was pretty simple and I wired up the connectors and hooked up 12v to the power connectors on the preamps.

Next I set up the software SATPC32 and everything was working Great, made a couple of contacts on the AO-51 bird and I was really impressed with the RX of the TS-2000, then I tried AO-27 and SO-50, Houston we have a problem. Yup the 20 over S9 Birdie on 436.800 is a real bugger. Luckily I can still work the birds but with a very reduced footprint and it has to be a pretty high pass. Using the AR2 Preamp I can pull the stations out and make the contacts but its not fun.

I was talking with the Kenwood Rep at the HRO Manufacturers day yesterday and he said that if they fixed it when it first came out the birdie would have been on one of the other SAT Freq's so they opted to stay as is. The only good thing is that none of the future birds that are listing frequencies are using the 436.800 area. One of the birds is due launch mid 2012. I have yet to work any of the linear birds and with Hurricane Irene a couple of hours south I probably wont try today.

Anyway its really a nice radio, I have tried SSTV and PSK with a Racal Interface and it works flawlessly. I also interfaced it to my TL-922A and again that was pretty simple and works perfectly.

On an overall scale of 1-10 I will have to go with an 8 due to the birdie on 436.800..

Enjoy !

Craig

Nobody needs to kick you, you're probably beating your head against the wall because of selling the 847. The real question is, is how big of a birdie is it, can you hear it at 436.795 or 436.805? I think one guy posted on the amsat-bb that he got around the birdie by listening on AM(it's been a while since it was posted).

I saw your post on Clint's yahoo group, did you get the doppler.sqf file set up the way you want it?

 

[W1MSG]

Nobody needs to kick you, you're probably beating your head against the wall because of selling the 847. The real question is, is how big of a birdie is it, can you hear it at 436.795 or 436.805? I think one guy posted on the amsat-bb that he got around the birdie by listening on AM(it's been a while since it was posted).

I saw your post on Clint's yahoo group, did you get the doppler.sqf file set up the way you want it?

I'll have to give the AM a try, the birdie is pretty bad. Luckily some of the bnew Satellites scheduled for launch wont be near that, wonder if Kenwood had anything to do with Frequency choices.

Yes I think I got my doppler file straightened out, I had a mess but I think after some testing I finally got it all where I need. ARRISAT has been a real pain trying to get a good SSTV picture, I just need a good high pass I guess.

 

[KB1PVH]

You can come to my place to get a good copy on SSTV, HAHAHA.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

 

[W1MSG]

You can come to my place to get a good copy on SSTV, HAHAHA.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Thanks Dave, I knew I could count on ya ! Maybe I will get the new Antenna's by the weekend.