Trying to get answers on Full duplex HT for satellite

I know some people have had great success with dual baofengs and the FM sats, but my experience was similar to yours - no matter what I tried, I couldn't get in to either AO-85 or SO-50. Got a Kenwood for Christmas, and my very first attempt at SO-50 was successful!

 

I wonder if the issue is with the PL frequency? I don't have issues with repeaters in the area, but there is no Doppler to worry about. Should this ever have to be adjusted?

 

Not sure, but I can tell you that for AO-85, where you have to adjust uplink frequency, I keep the tone the same across all tuning steps. Never an issue with the Kenwood.

With SO-50, I don't tune the uplink at all - so obviously no tuning of the tone, either.

 

It makes sense I guess that you don't need to tune the tone since it is such low frequency. Not much doppler compared to 400 MHz. Same reason we don't have to adjust the 2m band.

 

not sure that's how it works - I think the only thing that matters is the carrier frequency. But same results either way (and I could be wrong - I'm an engineer, but the mechanical variety - not electrical).

 

No, you don't have to tune the PL tone

 

Since the signal is Frequency Modulation, doppler doesn't affect the frequency of any audio... neither PL tones nor voices change in pitch since the doppler shifting only affects the center of the carrier frequency, not the deviation amount.

 

I see this is an old post but it is what I am trying to understand. I have a Yaesu VX-8DR which has 2 VFOs. I am looking to buy an Arrow 2 Yagi. Do I need the duplexer? Will this work in full duplex then? Any help would be appreciated.

 

From what I can see, the VX-8DR is not full duplex. So If you want Full duplex, you'll need a second radio. The "duplexer" (diplexer) is required if you are connecting ONE radio to TWO antennas (such as a TH-D72 to an arrow antenna dual yagi), or if connecting two radios to a single antenna (such as using two half-duplex radios with an Elk log periodic).

You can still use a half duplex radio only, but keep in mind it is more difficult to tell if you are actually getting into the repeater (or not stomping on somebody else).

 

Or, could I use my VX-8DR as the receive radio, along with my 8 watt baofeng for the transmit connected to a non duplex version of the arrow? Is that a solid combination?