Indigo Foxtrot…

I was checking out 20m last night to see what South American stations might be working PSK31 when I noticed an unusual trace from an Italian station, IT9AQR, Vincenzo in Sicily.

PSK31 ’symbols’ for CQ and 73 from IT9AQR - how does he do that?

He also has a similar symbol for ‘QRZ’ which I didn’t get a screenshot of. I think it’s quite neat.

I’m not going to get into the rights or wrongs of it (because I haven’t yet seen any other comments on this kind of PSK extension) but I’d love to know how he does it. I’ll ask around and report my findings.

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures PSK31, technology

…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

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

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.

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-897, FT-950, G0RIF, PSK31, Rigblaster, RTTY, SB-2000, SEM TranZmatch, SignaLink, TS-480, Yaesu

Following the recent post regarding countries worked since moving to Lichfield, I had a quick check last night to see what progress I’d made towards my DXCC objectives.

Just to recap - I aim to work at least 100 countries on SSB, CW and datamodes (RTTY and PSK31). I also want to work 100 countries on each of 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 30 and 40m bands (basically all the bands where my antenna works).

In the first instance I’m concentrating on getting the 100 countries on each mode and the scores to date are:-

• 109 countries on SSB
• 116 countries on CW (morse code)
• 129 countries on datamodes (117 RTTY, 74 PSK31)
• 168 countries worked in total

Of the 168 countries worked I have 151 confirmed (QSL received) with 146 by paper card and 110 LOTW (Logbook of The World).

Dean Amateur Radio DXCC, G0RIF, morse code, PSK31, QSL, RTTY, SSB

A few days ago I finally got around to getting my SignaLink USB interface hooked up to my Yaesu FT-897 for the primary purpose of using that setup for PSK31 operating (and other similar ’soundcard’ based digimodes). I will continue to use my Kenwood TS-480 for RTTY where a Rigblaster Plug & Play interface is wired up for FSK operating.

FT-897 with SignaLink USB

I have previously used the SignaLink SL-1+ for PSK31 and other digimodes with great success. Both devices really are very easy to setup and I was particularly impressed with just how straightforward it was to get going with the USB version. I connected the interface box to the radio with the supplied USB cable, connected to the radio via a mini 6 pin data connector, turned on the radio and tuned to 14.070, fired up Digipan (which I have been using for approaching 4 years now) and was rewarded with a waterfall display full of nice clear signal traces.

The built in sound card certainly seems to be less prone to noise than the original which relied on the PC internal soundcard. This is certainly something I’ll investigate further by comparing noise levels between the SignaLink and the Rigblaster (which uses the PC soundcard).

Having got receive working to my satisfaction I set about trying to reply to some of the CQ callers in the waterfall display - this was where I found one of the two minor niggles I encountered. The PTT wasn’t being triggered by the audio output from the PC. It turns out this was just a matter of insufficient audio output from the built in USB soundcard - a quick tweak in the Windows audio settings for that device to set to max audio out seemed to resolve the issue. Fine tune for RF drive is then by the TX level on the SignaLink.

waterfall with PSK31 signals

Having resolved this little niggle the device switches to transmit reliably whenever the software enters ‘Send’ mode. Initial reports from stations contacted confirm that all is working well.

One other minor niggle (the second of two) was an issue I’d seen reported elsewhere, that of the sample rate for the soundcard resulting in slightly offset RX/TX frequencies. This manifests itself in the waterfall display with the received signal being slightly offset from the last received frequency after transmitting. The default sample rate was 11,025Hz but by changing this to 10,000Hz the problem goes away. I have seen others have said they set the sample rate to 8,000Hz but 10,000 worked fine for me.

I’m really pleased with this combination for PSK31 work and I’ll look forward to using this mode a lot more over the coming months. Having used PSK31 for most of my operating a few years ago and having worked lots of ‘new ones’ in that period, I have more recently concentrated on RTTY and CW so it’ll be good to see if I can get any more new ones now I’m QRV PSK31 again.

Dean Amateur Radio, Pictures FT-897, PSK31, RTTY, SignaLink, TS-480, Yaesu

My FT-897 (purchased second hand) arrived about a week ago but was only used on receive for the first few days while I got the hang of the menu system and sorted out a new power supply. Out of the box I have to say that the pictures don’t do this radio justice. Granted it’s what’s on the inside that really matters but it doesn’t hurt if a radio looks good on the desk. To that end the FT-897 is a good looking radio!

…Hello Yaesu FT-897D

In use I have found the menu system simple enough but if you’re used to a more sophisticated user interface you may find some of the key presses required to effect a change in the radio’s setup to be a little bit long winded. My other radio is a Kenwood TS-480SAT and that radio has a very nice user interface - by comparison I am finding the Yaesu FT-897 to be a bit cumbersome.

Receive performance on HF is good and the radio does benefit from audio DSP noise reduction. This does significantly quieten what is otherwise a pretty noisy receiver. There is also DSP bandwidth filtering which is effective in reducing adjacent channel interference to allow the desired signal to be better heard. This was put to particular use in the CQWW WPX SSB contest this past weekend. The receiver seems to cope quite well with crowded band conditions, although it should be noted I do have the W4RT 2.3KHz Collins SSB filter installed which no doubt helps in that regard.

By way of comparison I would say that the FT-897 is not as good as the TS-480 on HF receive but that should come as no real surprise as the TS-480 is HF+6m only and is designed for optimal HF performance. The FT-897 on the other hand covers HF+6m plus 2m and 70cm. The difference is hard to quantify and I couldn’t hear anything on the Kenwood that I couldn’t on the Yaesu - it’s just that the Kenwood seems more in control of the received signal and has better recovered audio that the FT-897.

I can’t say much yet about the transmit performance - I need a few on-air reports to compare a few settings before passing judgement. I hope to be able to conduct those tests in the next few weeks - I’ll report my findings then.

Overall, given it’s design intent, the FT-897 is in my opinion a very good radio. It seems to have ticked all the right boxes and arrived at a good compromise in terms of size, frequency coverage, operator convenience and performance.

I am now looking forward to taking the radio out into the field for some portable operations and antenna experimentation. Until then I’m enjoying using the radio in the shack where it is used for HF SSB, 2m and 70cm work while the TS-480 handles all other HF modes like CW, PSK31 and RTTY (and other digimodes).

In summary then, given what it sets out to achieve, I have to rate the Yaesu FT-897 a very good radio and one I look forward to owning and using for many years.

Dean Amateur Radio contest, FT-897, PSK31, review, RTTY, TS-480, Yaesu

Goodbye JRC JST-245…

In with the new. This weekend I will be selling my faithful old JRC JST-245 and replacing it with a Yaesu FT-897. The FT-897 is a much smaller radio ideal for portable and holiday type operating. Its coverage of VHF and UHF bands will allow me to operate there too, something I have not done previously as I had no radio covering those bands. The JRC is a magnificent radio and it has served me well the past 3 and a half years but I can’t justify

keeping it while it isn’t being used as often as it once was. The lack of tight filtering and the fact that filters for this radio are very difficult to come by mean that it is really not suitable for the narrow bandwidth data nodes I enjoy, like RTTY and PSK31, for which I use a Kenwood TS-480SAT with a 500Hz crystal filter (and thinking of getting the 270Hz filter one day).

Dean Amateur Radio JRC, JST-245, PSK31, RTTY, TS-480

One step forward and two steps backwards! Why aren’t things ever quite as simple as they should be?

I have this afternoon installed a new (well, used really, from eBay) soundcard in my PC. The card works fine and does what I bought it for (decoding amateur radio PSK31 and RTTY data transmissions), however, I now have no means of listening to music on the PC or watching films because there’s no headphone socket and the original onboard soundcard is somehow disabled. Damn!

Dean Amateur Radio, Life... computers, PSK31, RTTY, technology