Re: FTM-300D and FM Sats
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Steve [AA8AF]
Hmmm… your question caused me to have a look as full duplex operation in a mobile form-factor would be great! At the AMSAT booth at Hamvention this past week, they were using a pair of FT-817’s to work the linear/SSB satellites, and not a “fancy” radio like the IC-9700, but straight forward.
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From the literature the FTM-300 is described as dual receive - i.e. two different frequencies can be heard simultaneously, which several other Yaesu dual-band radios do (FT-5DR comes to mind). However when you transmit, the second receiver mutes (again the FT-5DR, FT-3DR do this). So, I’m not sure if the FTM-300 is truly full duplex. While somewhat helpful for satellite operation - but not full duplex - some of the Yaesu radios permit saving a 2M & 440 frequency into a single memory channel. This is convenient as you can setup a series of channels with the appropriate transmit and receive frequencies, changing the receive frequency in steps to accommodate the doppler shift. As the bird passes overhead you can manually step through these channels during the pass to improve reception. This has been written about for the FT-60R by Clint and others, and is probably the next best configuration to purchase if a full duplex radio is not available (or in lieu of 2 independent radios). Personally, I am intrigued by the voice recording capabilities of the FT-5DR to capture the activity during a pass for later replay and logging. Let us know what you are able to confirm. 73, Steve AA8AF
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