Heavy metal

M0RVB

The first new (to me) toy of 2026 is a Yaesu G5400B Az/El rotator and controller. This is another thing I have been looking for and this came at a reasonable price. Not yet tested as it needs cables which are made to measure... I've no idea even where to mount it! I can see it ending up on a short mast somewhere up the garden with a couple of Yagi antennas on for 2m and 70cm for satellite work. EME has always been a dream and this has potential and for me EME is more something I want to do but not do all the time. Plus it's hard!

A photo of the two parts of a Yaesu G5400B azimuth / elevation rotator.

So, above is is the two parts of the rotator itself, azimuth on the left and elevation on the right. And the controller is shown below.

A photo of the control unit of the Yaesu G5400B azimuth / elevation rotator. It has two meters, 4 black keys and 1 red key.

The unit is 240V powered and once I get some cable I will test it.

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M0RVB

Moving metal

Just recently I have been comparing results on 2m FT8 between the Big Wheel and the QFH. I found there is very little diference between them, and although measuring via reported strength via pskreporter is hardly scientific the varying reports between the two - sometimes in favour of the Big Wheel and sometimes the QFH - brought me to rationalise the metalwork currently in the loft. Suffice to say the Big Wheel is no more and I am using the QFH from now on. This not to say that I don't want a nice Yagi and rotator on the chimey but that is a project for another day. Now the next interesting experiment is to see if I can reach FM satellites on the QFH. It should be better suited to those.

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