Ham Radio Satellite Tevel-7

Welcome Back!
Join me for a pass of FM Satellite Tevel 7 on Mothers day. Not many stations on this one, but those that were had good signals. The Tevel Sats are great FM Birds.
Equipment used
Icom Ic-9700
CSN Technologies S.A.T. Controller
Yaesu G-5500 Rotor
WiMo X-Quads
SHF Elektronik Mini 70 Preamp

[@thesaltyham7144]

Brutha thats a great set up and I am glad its working so well. You are hitting that sat amazingly. 73!

[@W0CYC-HamRadioEndeavors]

Thanks man! It’s been a long road to get there. The system is definitely working to its near full potential. There’s only a couple things I could do for minimal improvements at this point.

[@paulsharp5473]

How do you find powering the preamp with the 9700? Is the delay long enough and you haven’t blown the preamp up yet? I am thinking of a preamp with my setup. Appreciate the video.

[@W0CYC-HamRadioEndeavors]

Great question!! To this point it has been flawless. 99.9% of my time is spent using them on satellite and I run twin coax. There is just a split second when you unkey where you can hear it off, then it kicks back in. So the delay I am guessing is about a half second to turn back on. As far as the key side, It appears to drop voltage instantly and the relay kicks in. I have pushed it several times to see what happens and so far so good. Mine are rated at 75 watts FM and with my coax loss figured in I have given the VHF 80 watts output, which should be about 76 watts at the unit. Now FYI, I have noticed SHF Elektronik as lowered the rated FM on the website to 50 watts. So I am not sure if they changed them or if they had problems and told people to run less power. If I were buying today, I would not buy one rated that low. If mine blows, it'll be time to upgrade the VHF. My UHF Is perfectly fine though, I can only run 75 watts and that's the limit.

[@paulsharp5473]

@@W0CYC-HamRadioEndeavors hi thanks for your reply. I’m thinking of an ssb until for 70cm for now and I couldn’t find any details on how the 9700 operated in this setup. So looks like it should be ok. Thanks for your help.

[@W0CYC-HamRadioEndeavors]

No problem at all, I appreciate you reaching out and watching the channel! Here is a link to the preamp I use for UHF. It can handle 150 watts SSB/75 FM. www.shf-elektronik.de/index.php/en/products/preamplifiers/preamplifier-70cm/174-mini-70-en.html

[@yeahitsk]

Hey Rob, random question- what are you using for your cross boom in the G-5500? I can't bring myself to pay the 390 bucks M2 wants for their version.

[@W0CYC-HamRadioEndeavors]

Holy cow that’s crazy! I use a solid fiberglass rod from Max Gain Systems in the 46.5” length. Here’s a link it was less than $100 including shipping. mgs4u.com/product/1-12-od-fiberglass-round-solid-rod/

[@yeahitsk]

@@W0CYC-HamRadioEndeavors Thank you sir! That's much more tolerable. Never heard of that company but they look to have some good stuff otherwise.

[@W0CYC-HamRadioEndeavors]

Absolutely, glad I could help! Yeah they carry a lot of the oddball things you don’t usually think about. I’ve had zero issues with them thus far.

[@noimnotarobotcanubeleiveit7024]

How much did the antenna setup cost?

[@W0CYC-HamRadioEndeavors]

There is right around $2100 in the complete antenna setup. That includes both antennas, phase cables, both preamps, and two runs of coax.