Etikett: ic-705

Today, 2020-11-11, I made my first satellite QSO since 1993 (when Oscar-13 was alive). My two QSOs was via PO-101, IC-705, 10 watts output to 13 el X-Yagi.

I was interested to know how my RS-918 (a mcHF SDR HF radio clone) performed with FT8 compared to my new IC-705.
I have done a series of test. Very non-technical tests, without any promise if this is the truth. But it was possible to repeat the results several times. I have done the following:

• RX test: 10 minutes with one radio, switch antenna and then 10 minutes with the other radio. Then counting number of received stations.
• TX test: 10 minutes with one radio, switch antenna and then 10 minutes with the other radio. Then counting number of stations that could RX my signals.
• Test done on 20 meter (14 MHz) and 40 meter (7 MHz) band during day and evening time.
• 5 watts output was used. The RS-918 needed a little PA calibration to reach 5 watt.
• The tests has been repeated three times on both TX and RX.

RX:
What I can see is that the number of station received are similar, in the image below the RS-918 actually received more stations but in the other tests I could not say that one of the radio was better than the other.

TX:
In all tests, the IC-705 performed better. The output (5 watts) is the same but it seems that the IC-705 have some more punch in the modulation. I do not know, I have not investigated this further…

So, for some ”local” FT8 contacts in Europe I can use the RS-918 but if I would like to hunt some DX I will use the IC-705 with 10 watts.

Here a short video of IC-705 Frequency and Doppler control from SDR-Console.
The first part is frequency control with VFO following the radio.
The second part is doppler control from the Satellite External Radio control.

Download the OmniRig config file from: https://sm7iun.se/station/ic705/
Be sure to use the correct CI-V hex code in the seetings for IC-705.

To setup the new IC-705 for doppler control with PstRotator software you just have to follow these steps:

• Download the OmniRig file for IC-705 from here https://sm7iun.se/station/ic705/
• Be sure to set up the IC-705 for USB control according to the manual from Icom
• Follow the guidelines in PstRotator documents for satellite and rig control, choosing IC-705 from OmniRig setup

Here a short video after the setup: