I have previously mentioned my failed attempt to upgrade my radio interface unit. The proposed replacement unit on that occasion was one of the very smart G3LIV Isoterm Multimode interfaces.
G3LIV Isoterm Multimode
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Despite my own best advice I have now done the deed and replaced my old SB-2000 unit with an Isoterm Multimode and this time I am happy to report that all went well and everything works at least as well as before the change.
You may well wonder why I bothered to try again having had the problems last time and having made a very public statement to the effect I really shouldn’t be trying to fix something that wasn’t broken. The answer is simply this - the G3LIV interface is a better fit in my setup when you consider how I like to operate and which modes I prefer.
Having had terrific help and support from Johnny (G3LIV) in identifying and resolving the issue I’d seen first time around (FSK RTTY wasn’t working) I was confident that I’d see no such problem this time…and so it proved. |
The unit is now installed and all modes tested and working with the respective software - CW (CWType), PSK31 (Airlink Express*) and FSK RTTY (Airlink Express). The SB-2000 will now be sold off to cover the cost of the new arrival. Job done!
* I will be writing a review of the Airlink Express software in a later post. I only recently discovered the software and I’m liking it a lot. Works well for PSK31 and FSK RTTY. More soon.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures CW, FSK, FT-950, G3LIV, PSK31, RTTY
A little over a week ago I wrote that I was hoping to get on the bands for this contest. The only requirement was that I’d need to fix my wind damaged antenna. Well that was done and I did enjoy several hours giving away points seeing how many countries I could rack-up during a bit of casual operating.
Conditions (on the bands I used, 40/20/15m) seemed to me to be better than for the CQWW CW contest last November with 15m in particular showing increased activity (with only 1 contact there in the CW contest).
My 107 contacts yielded 46 DXCC entities which are shown in this table:-
WPX RTTY Feb. 2010. 46 countries worked (36 on 40m, 21 on 20m and 11 on 15m)
I adopted my usual (for now) contest approach of seeing how many countries I could work while giving away points to those who are looking to compile a competitive score. I reckon on 50 countries being a sensible target given my compromise antenna and to that end I am pleased with 46 countries worked in what amounted to some 5 or 6 hours operating over the 48 hour contest period.
Quite unexpectedly the highlight of my operating occurred within the first 5 minutes of my first stint early on Saturday morning. I’d popped outside to [quite literally] lash the far end of the antenna (which remember is a random length sloping end fed Zepp) to the back fence and then fired up the rig (Yaesu FT-950) on 40m, which just happened to be tuned around 7.080MHz, higher in the band than I’d usually go looking for RTTY signals, and there he was, PJ4R (Bonaire & Curacao) calling CQ WPX. I worked him within a few calls for one of the easier new ones of recent years. Having not been on the bands previously this year (due in part to the broken antenna) this was also the very first log entry of 2010. What a way to kick-start the year!
WPX RTTY Feb. 2010. Geographic spread of the 46 countries worked,.
Dean Amateur Radio antenna, contest, DXCC, FT-950, RTTY, WPX, Yaesu
It’s been 5 weeks now since I took receipt of my FT-950 so I think it’s about time I posted a short review based on my experiences with the radio over that period. This won’t be a highly technical review based on test figures and technical data, rather it will be a user review based on how well the radio fulfils my requirements and how it compares to other radios I have owned.
The FT-950 is a complex radio that needs a significant amount of configuration and setup to get it working just the way you want it, but, having done that, it is a radio that performs very well. Highlights for me are DSP IF filtering, triple band stacking registers (which retain all band and mode appropriate settings - this is a very powerful feature) and the CW peaking contour facility.
I’m very pleased with my Yaesu FT-950 as it is significantly better than any other radio I have owned. It is more than capable of fulfilling all of my requiements for SSB, CW and data communications (especially RTTY and PSK31).
Dean Amateur Radio FT-950, review, Yaesu
This weekend is the IARU HF championship - a contest for both SSB and CW for the 24 hours commencing 12:00 UTC on Saturday the 11th of July. Bodo in Nigeria (see previous post) would be active as 5N0HQ and I was hoping I might get a contact at some point over the period of the contest.
I set about working a few stations, initially on SSB but then moved to 15m CW where I’d seen 5N0HQ spotted. Although I wasn’t putting out a huge signal I was concerned when no one, not a single station, responded to my calls on CW. I should mention at this point that having made some SSB, RTTY and PSK31 contacts since getting the FT-950 setup, I still hadn’t logged a single CW contact. I began to wonder if all was well with my interface configuration.
I’m using the CwType software by Sergei (UA9OV) for sending contest exchanges. This communicates with the radio via a MyDel SB-2000 radio interface unit which also handle rig control and RTTY FSK keying, as well as audio in and out. Although it seemed to be keying the rig and I was hearing the CW tone in my headset, on closer inspection the radio was just sending a steady tone and wasn’t being keyed to send the CW characters. It turns out I had the wrong setting in the CwType software - the PTT port pin was set to RTS when it should be set to ‘NONE’. Keying is then via the DTR pin to send the CW characters. Having made that change I got a response from the next station called…and several more after that.
So having made the change and realised the error of my ways, I’ll be back on the hunt for Bodo in his 5N0HQ guise. I fear I may have missed my best chance of a 20m contact but I’ll see what I can do if he pops up on 40m this evening. At least now I’m sure the setup is working as expected so any failure to log him now will be down to the propagation gods!
Dean Amateur Radio 5N0HQ, CW, CWType, FT-950, IARU, RTTY, SB-2000, SSB, technology, UA9OV
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WSPR, an acronym for ‘Weak Signal Propagation Reporter’ and pronounced ‘whisper’, is a program written by Joe Taylor (K1JT) that allows radio amateurs around the world to conduct real time propagation tests in conjunction with an online spots reporting database.
I had previously tried WSPR about 6 months ago but with little success at that time. I decided to try again last night on the FT-950 and was pleased to see it worked perfectly. I can’t be sure but I think the FT-950 has something to do with it - the digital filters really help in pulling out the very weak signals that the software is looking for.
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WSPR screenshot
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Part of the appeal of WSPR is that you can have it ‘watch’ a particular band for you (although activity is limited outside of the 30m band) to see what propagation there is to various parts of the world, even as you do other things. You can optionally configure the software to transmit to a pseudo-random schedule, to see where in the world your ‘whispers’ are heard. I have uploaded a few screenshots of the software and the online spots database where you can see how this information is presented (Pictures >> Amateur Radio).
If you would like to read more about WSPR there is a very good write-up on Julian Moss’s (G4ILO) website in his article entitled WSPR - Distant Whispers.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures FT-950, propagation, WSPR
…with the FT-950 are in the log but it wasn’t all plain sailing! Despite leaving it all in a working state when I powered off last night, turning it on this evening intent on meeting Richard (M0SNR) on 6m for a quick RTTY sked resulted very much in a ‘back to square one’ type scenario - nothing would work!
To cut a long story short the problem appears to have been 6m. Whenever the radio was set to transmit on 6m it would stay in transmit even if the PC software sent a PTT off command. HRD wouldn’t unkey the transmit, neither would MMTTY. Only unplugging the USB cable to the interfce box (the SB-2000) would force the radio back to receive mode.
I’m going to see what others on the HRD forums and the FT-950 Yahoo user group think about this but I suspect RFI on 6m getting the interface software or low level COM port driver into a bad state.
The good news was I made a few contacts tonight once I had figured out what the problem was. At 20:02 UTC I had a short PSK31 QSO using the Digipan software with HA1FB (Feri) and at 20:32 UTC I had a RTTY QSO with OH1LWZ (Hannu) using the MMTTY software. I do eventually hope to use DM780 for PSK31 but I will continue to use MMTTY for RTTY even though this does mean you have to close the HRD software because they both use the same COM port. Not ideal but I am prepared to put up with it for the sake of using MMTTY and FSK keying.
I have more work to do but the first thing I’ll check tomorrow is that tonights settings are still ok when I power it all back up again after shutting it down tonight!
Dean Amateur Radio computers, DM780, FT-950, HRD, PSK31, RTTY, SB-2000, technology, Yaesu
The Yaesu FT-950 - detail
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It’s here and it’s all hooked up and working. There are still a few things to check out but so far so good. The Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) software is installed and rig control is now working after some initial problems (of which more in a later post). MMTTY is configured and I’m QRV for RTTY.
I’ve turned everything off now for the night but I’ll hope to try PSK31 tomorrow night and maybe get CW keying working for contest operating (I use CWType). Beyond that it’ll be getting to grips with the HRD software which is all new to me but widely used and respected so I’m keen to adopt it here.
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The pictures really don’t do the FT-950 justice - in the flesh it’s bigger than I expected and it really has presence sat here on the desk. I have yet to get to grips with all of the radios many advanced features but early indications are that it’s a radio I’ll very much enjoy using. More to follow, but for now…it’s bedtime.
Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures FT-950, HRD, MMTTY, RTTY, Yaesu
I have received email notification from Martin Lynch & Sons that my Yaesu FT-950 was dispatched today. It should arrive tomorrow while I am out at work so I’ll look forward to unpacking it and getting it setup tomorrow night.
There is a new radio-to-computer interface box being shipped with the radio, the MyDel SB-2000, this enables PSK31 and other soundcard data modes, FSK RTTY, CW keying and rig control. It’s going to be an ongoing setup and configuration exercise through the rest of the week and into the weekend but it’s good to know that the radio is finally on its way!
Dean Amateur Radio, Blog CW, FSK, FT-950, PSK31, RTTY, SB-2000, Yaesu
…are blowing through amateur radio station G0RIF! I have made the decision to finally commit to getting a radio that I believe will be with me for a very long time, a Yaesu FT-950 (pictured). The reason? Digital IF filtering! For too long I have put up with adjacent channel interference, even with the 500Hz filter in the TS-480. With the FT-950 (with the PEP updates) this will be [mostly*] a thing of the past.
In addition I am now moving to a ’single radio setup’ with a single interface unit (MyDel SB-2000) for PSK31 and other soundcard data modes, FSK RTTY, CW keying and rig control.
Yaesu FT-950 HF/6m transceiver
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To that end I have agreed a sale on my TS-480SAT that has been a faithful servant for the past few years, mainly used for RTTY and CW.
Other gear for sale includes my LDG AT-200Pro auto antenna tuner, my SignaLink USB radio interface, my Rigblaster Plug & Play radio interface and my Yaesu FT-857 radio, used primarily for portable operating.
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The net result of this change will be that I have one radio (the FT-950) with one interface unit (the SB-2000) and one antenna tuner (the SEM Tranzmatch - see earlier posts for details). The FT-897D currently in use as the primary PSK31 set (and standby HF rig) will then be used for portable work (as and when required) and will retain it’s role as a spare HF set.
* I do accept that even modern digital IF filtering has its limitations and that there will still be occasional circumstances where signals are so close together (or when one is particularly strong) when interference may still occur. I believe that such occurences will be significantly fewer with the FT-950 than with the TS-480.
Dean Amateur Radio, Life..., Pictures FT-857, FT-950, G0RIF, PSK31, Rigblaster, RTTY, SB-2000, SEM TranZmatch, SignaLink, Yaesu