flex 6600 and satellite ops

James Kennedy-WU5E

I have many radios and trying to trim down.. I currently run SATELLITE ops on TS-2000X one evening I ran into a using his FLEX 6600 on satellite. I started to ask question how to do it.
I currently have my TS-2000X up for sale so I can fund two transverters. The question I have is this a wise decision? what advantage will I gain? Having a waterfall on Satellite would fantastic!
thanks in advance 

Jim
WU5E

KENT HUFFORD

Robert Lonn

Dwayne_AB6A

Joel N9LQ

James Kennedy-WU5E

Thanks Joel, tonight I paid for the PstRotator and have got a agreement on my TS-2000X , when ordering the Q5 I see a lot of selections I have a 2m amp for the birds that have 2m uplink, but the T/R rate is a little slow. thanks for the info.

Dwayne_AB6A

Can you share the purchase parameters you used for the Q5’s ? There are a bunch of options!

Alan

I have a Flex 6600, so a configuration that works well for me:

- Common RF
- Common IF
- Keying, PTT-L
- Power - your choice, low power for Sats, Higher for terrestrial work.

The common RF and IF allow you to plug and play without adding external relays.

Alan
WA9WUD

Mack

Joel N9LQ

Here were my Q5 ordering choices: Common IF Common RF IF Drive level : 0dbm to +20dbm PTT polarity : Low Filter Tuning: Wideband 430MHz to 450 MHz (so I could also use it for repeaters if needed) Local oscillator stability : standard Standard IF : 28 MHz Good luck! 73, Joel

Dwayne_AB6A

Sweet - How many watts - i suspect 50W yransvertwrs to be more than adequate?

James Kennedy-WU5E

Mack

Search for FlexSatPC32 on google. It can be found on the FlexRadio website. Mack

Mack

50 W is plenty and is it’s good operating practice you should always use the minimum required power to communicate. The power is going to vary based upon the quality of your antennas, coax, and the elevation azimuth of the bird. Mack W4AX

Alan

It depends on your antenna gain.  My antenna, as I recall, is an 8Dbi yagi.  For that, I never use more than 3 watts on the uplink.  Often I need to reduce it to near zero to keep from overloading the Sat.   Antenna gain is really only useful on receive, considering the SAT's TX outputs are in the 10 milliwatt range and coax losses on the ground to the receiver.

Currently, on the AMSAT discussion group, there is a lengthy discussion on this same subject.

For terrestrial, I read that on 2M, anything over 25 watts is wasted due to the necessary power for a line of site range.

Alan
WA9WUD

Justin W4JTD

Hi Mack - 

I see the article copied from AmSat on the Flex website, but is there anywhere that FlexSatPC is available? Or do you have to get it directly from W0DHB?

id love to try this out, I’m currently using MacDoppler which works great, but I’d like to try this out too. 

Thanks!

Justin
KL2D 

Robert Lonn

Mack

That’s funny! I too love my gold dust twins.

Norm - W7CK

James Kennedy-WU5E

James Kennedy-WU5E

when I ordered my IC-9700 , it came I upgraded to 1.21, then I tried to connect to SATPC32 on Win-10 computer and it was not successful until I change the radio from IC-9700 to IC-910H and then everything worked. I sent a email to the German that wrote SATPC32, 3 weeks later I trade a guy for the IC-9700 for TS-2000X. 

Dwayne_AB6A

KF4HR

James Kennedy-WU5E

Dwayne_AB6A

Icom destroyed the used radio market with the IC-7300. I ordered Q5 transverters for my 6600. Started with 2M/70CM to upgrade my Ukrainian transverters and will add 23CM in the near term. 

KF4HR

Me too!

James Kennedy-WU5E

just ordered a Q5 432 transverter and going to use transverter-stores for the 2m I have a pre-amp to plus up the signal

Kevin Rich

Catching up on this thread and also have DEMI/Q5 transverters for 2m and 70cm on my Flex 6600. What software are people using for tracking and rig control with this setup?

Joel N9LQ

I also have a Flex6600 with Q5 transverters for both 2m and 70cm. I am using PSTRotator software. It works well for automatic doppler correction of the radio, and controls my Yaesu G5500 Az-El rotator as well. I think the program can be tried for free, but it is only $20 euro to register it, and I think it is a real bargain.

Alan

I have tried them all and keep coming back to SatPC32.

• Ham Radio Deluxe - Poor tracking, must enter Sat Data manually. Poor support
• Mac Doppler - Will not interface with Smart SDR or Maestro. Works well with DogPark SDR. Excellent Support. I built a "connector" to work between MacDoppler and my Maestro. However, frequency changes all comes from within MacDoppler (Maestro cannot command a frequency change which would be nice when working linear satellites.

Also, in support of the Flex Smart SDR/SatPC32 configuration, look at FlexSatPC as a nice tool to enhance the Flex. However, does nFSPC ot work well using Multiplex or with a Maestro.

https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/8023217/dogpark-macdoppler-node-red-interface

I built my own interface:

https://community.flexradio.com/discussion/8023627/node-red-frstack-satellite-tracking-raspberry-pi-image-download

Alan

WA9WUD