The wet string chronicles…

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 proper 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). If you would like to read more then the complete review is available on my Yaesu FT-950 page.

Dean Amateur Radio FT-950, review, Yaesu

…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

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.

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

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

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