Kenwood radios

Kenwood support covers the TS-2000 as a one-box satellite radio (Beta), and the TH-D74 / TH-D75 as downlink or uplink legs in a dual-radio station.

TS-2000 (single radio)

The TS-2000 is supported as a single satellite radio (Beta). OscarWatch drives SATL over Kenwood ASCII CAT (SatPC32-style SA / FA / FB), including entry on pass start and exit when you quit or disconnect.

Before each pass (or once per session)

1. Close any radio menus. Leave memory mode off on VFO A/B if you can — OscarWatch also clears memory mode via CAT when needed.
2. Putting the radio in SAT on the front panel before tracking is still the most reliable start; OscarWatch will then confirm and maintain SATL over CAT.
3. In OscarWatch: Settings → Radio — rig type TS-2000, correct COM port and baud (57600 8N1). Hardware RTS is on by default; turn it off under Settings if your CAT cable has no flow control. TRACE/TRACE REV in SATL is also on by default — turn it off if you want OscarWatch alone to handle Doppler.
4. Pick the satellite and transponder mode in the frequency panel.
5. Press Resume tracking (shown in place of Standby) and start tracking.

What OscarWatch controls

• SATL entry and layout (SA), then receive/transmit frequencies via FA/FB (Doppler and your offsets).
• Modes where the driver supports them for the selected transponder (bracketed with SAT CTRL so uplink stays on Sub).
• CTCSS on FM satellites when configured.
• Link-hold reads (~1/s FA;) while tracking, matching SatPC32 habits.
• Satellite mode exit when you quit or disconnect (untick Turn satellite mode off when OscarWatch closes in Settings → Radio to stay in SAT), then COM port close with RTS/DTR dropped so USB serial adapters release cleanly.

FT4 reads the set power and will not transmit above 30 W. Tick Lower RF power to 30 W in the FT4 modem settings and OscarWatch sends PC030; before transmitting. The radio stays at that setting.

If SATL cannot be confirmed via SA;, OscarWatch continues FA/FB tracking in a degraded state and avoids falling back to ordinary FR split commands. Check the radio front panel and leave menus closed.

Tuning tips

• Linear SSB — use passband trim on the receive VFO; Doppler follows your offset.
• Adjust Doppler thresholds if tracking feels sluggish near TCA.
• Pause CAT in Settings if you want full manual control for a while.

Receive-only and same-band

• Beacons / SSTV (uplink 0): OscarWatch keeps SATL and Doppler-tracks the downlink on FA only (Sub / FB is left parked). This avoids leaving SAT and losing Doppler on the TS-2000.
• Same-band modes (uplink and downlink within 10 MHz, e.g. ISS Packet): OscarWatch turns SATL off and uses split (FR0;FT1;), as on other non-cross-band passes.

See also receive-only overview (ICOM behaviour differs; sat mode off for beacons).

Dual radio: TH-D74 and TH-D75

These handhelds do not appear as a single-rig type. Enable Settings → Radio → Dual radio and assign each leg a type and COM port. OscarWatch drives Band B (the all-mode path for SSB/CW/AM and narrow FM). The PC-command dialect is CR-terminated and is not the same as TS-2000 SATL.

Setup checklist

1. Tick Dual radio.
2. Choose TH-D74 or TH-D75 and the USB/PC COM port for downlink and/or uplink.
3. Start at 9600 baud 8N1 (OscarWatch default); change if your radio menu uses another rate.
4. Use normal PC-command mode (not KISS/TNC). Disable unsolicited GPS PC output if it is enabled.
5. Close other CAT programs on that port.

What OscarWatch controls

• Band B VFO session (VM / BC), frequency (FQ / FO), and mode (MD).
• Fine tuning for linear modes (about 20 Hz steps) and a 5 kHz grid for NFM / data-FM.
• Re-applies fine-step settings after a coarse band jump (HF / VHF / UHF), because the HT stores step per band.

OscarWatch does not change RF power, and does not program CTCSS over CAT yet. For FM satellite uplinks that need a tone, set CTCSS on the handheld yourself until a hardware-validated tone path is added.