Radio and rails...

In preparation for me receiving a full callsign (having just passed the full licence exam - yay!) I wanted to get the FT450D ready for 60m. Out of the box it comes with several pre-set frequencies that do not cover the available band slots and so the only recourse is to perform the MARS modification to the radio (aka ‘widebanding’). I uploaded the latest firmware first (v 244). Note that the firmware upload resets all the various settings so in my case I had to wind the power back down, set the CAT baud rate, and set the data type ('D Type') to USB. I found two different sets of instructions on the Web, one referring to jumper JP4002 but another had a different number. However, one page had photos as well which tied in with what I could see. The instructions there are clear and are what I followed, the URL is https://radioamateur.us/ft-450d-mars-mod/ Following those instructions I took photos of each stage and have added a few notes below. Note that you do any modifications at your own risk and very probably voiding any warranty - I believe Yaesu will carry this modification out for you but this is…

Well of course you need a soldering station that matches your desk tidy...

Yes I know it's not really cold here in the UK, especially having spent a few winters in Montreal. But it's damp... always damp. I had set up an electronics bench in the workshop but I was always conscious of the humidity. Recently it's been hovering above 80% and so I have finally given up the idea and moved the test gear inside. My original aim was to have the shack in the workshop but three things always stopped me: the fact that having a lot of relatively expensive gear in a wooden workshop in the garden is generally a bad idea; the humidity; and the fact that all my antennas are in the loft. So the radios stayed indoors, now joined by the test gear, which makes sense anyway. Plus there's more light 'up here' with a large south-facing window. So far, so good...

Well, sort of. On FT8 I mean. I just received a couple of transverters from the transverters store in the Ukraine. These are not the newer model with the TCXO but are cheap and cheerful. Yes, they do drift a little but it's a toe in the water for me pending something else later on. I already have the Spectrum Communications 70MHz transverter and that works nicely but these are small units when compared, so I got a 70MHz and a 144MHz one. I connected the 144MHz one up today and set the FT450D to 28.174 and immediately heard FT8 tones. I'd not even fired up WSJT-X but sorted that quickly and made my first 144MHz FT8 contact within 2 minutes of turning the transverter on - followed by one further QSO and an indication via pskreporter that I had been heard all the way in NI. Yes, I know this is a minor achievement compared to those of other radio amateurs but it's still a new one to me... I now plan to sell off some kit including the Trio TR-9130 which has worked well. The one thing I don't like about that set is the notchy and fairly…

I've been fiddling recently with trying to receive satellites but without all the going outside and waving yagi antennas around... I've heard a few QSOs on DIWATA 2 and there is a very good pass in a day or so where I may be able to get a call in. This is using the Trio TR-9130 as receiver as it has a horizontal dipole connected, and the FTM100DE as transmitter, though so far without success on transmit. Anyway, I remembered the FTM100 has APRS built in and the ISS often sends and receives this in 145.825 and so I've been leaving the radio switched on. Today I noticed it did indeed receive packets from the ISS. I also downloaded UISS by ON6MU which seems to 'just work' - nice that, I downloaded it and ran it and it found the sound card and returned an APRS message on a later ISS pass. Oddly, the FTM100D did not decode that message (the squelch is set to 0). It comes with a module called SoundModem by UZ7HO which seems pretty comprehensive. Another package to play with...