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Posts published in “Radios”

Shack Update 2023

It has been awhile since I posted about the QTH so here goes. Beth and I moved in September 2022 to Clearwater, FL. We decided it was time to leave the beach. While it was certainly pretty looking over the water from the rocking chair on the deck, honestly the wind was getting a bit too much for me. Fortunately, the buyers wanted to leave the tower there so I did not have to arrange for that to come down. A few of the guys from SPARC came over the…

Controlling the Elecraft K4 and KPA1500 with Home Assistant

For awhile now I have wanted to be able to have my “Goodnight” scene in HomeAssistant turn off my network attached ham gear. I finally had a chance to do some experimenting and created this config to turn on and off the KPA1500.This sends a command via UDP to the amp to turn it off and uses Wake_On_LAN to turn it on. A similar thing could be added for other device types. This is added to the configuration.yaml file. Put your real MAC address of the amp next to mac. If you mac address is…

Chronology of a New Ham Radio Release

Part of any new radio release is a treasure-trove of commentary on the new radio’s email reflector. This is a summary of those topics so when you order your new radio you can recognize some of these common patterns. I started this with the Icom 9700 and it has been true for every new radio since then. Discussion if the rumored radio will actually be sold and when. General hand-wring regarding the vendor’s included/missing features. Consternation regarding how long it is taking to release anything. The inevitable price guessing (and…

Building a Serious Field Day Satellite Station

I have been acquiring hardware for a serious portable satellite station for several years. I have used various setups at Field Day and Winter Field Day with irregular success. Here is what I have so far: Green Heron RT21 Az/El Rotor Icom 9100 HF/VHF/UHF Satellite Radio M2 LEO Pack Satellite Antennas Yaesu G5500 Az/El Rotor SSB Preamps for 2m and 440 Mac Doppler for radio and rotor control One website I check out from time to time is the wonderful site of Fred [QRZ call=AB1OC] and Anita AB1QB. I first…

Radio Gear for Sale

Updated 8/4/2016 – Any items not crossed-out are still available. I am selling some surplus gear. All prices are for local pickup. Actual shipping paid by the buyer. I could also meet in the Tampa Bay area. Microham DB-37 cable for Icom $40 Microham USB sound card interface (with an icom cable) ($65) Icom ID-1 1.2 Ghz Analog/DStar radio. Includes data mode via Ethernet connection to send 128kbs data via DStar. Have microphone, manuals and cables. I have a second one if you want to make a pair for a remote…

Station Building

I ran across a very good blog on building a station. This chap built it from soup to nuts including the room, adding A/C, generator, two contesting operating positions and more. There are many good ideas in his station building series. Look here for more.

Drake Twins C-Line

I just got these back from Ron Baker in Tennessee. Ron took them apart and put them back together as well as cleaned them throughly. He repainted the cases too. He did a very nice job, they sound great.

Icom 775DSP For Sale

The rig is sold.   I have an Icom 775 DSP (Serial #1185) for sale. The rig is in great shape, works flawlessly and has ALL optional filters except for the AM filter. Internal Antenna tuner, 200 watts output, built-in power supply. Dual-Watch complete with 2 VFO knobs for ease of listening to the receive side of a pile-up. I have the manual, but no microphone as I use a headset. I wil be taking to the Tampa Bay hamfest but I figured I would offer to fellow FCG’ers first.…