New Zealand account is open

Great propagation into New Zealand the last few days on 10 metres. ZL2FT - Jason was coming in strong with a 5x9 signal and despite being plagued by frequency drift on my Kenwood we still managed a pretty good QSO.

I received a 5x9+10dB report from Jason and the first "+10 over" I've had with my little 10 watts. Very pleased.

I'll have a YouTube clip to follow shortly.

Re-housing a Motorola XTS3000

My new high-viz housing for the Motorola XTS3000 arrived today and I was straight into it.

Not a complicated task by any means but maybe a few tricks.....

You don't really need the special Motorola tool to get the housing off unless you are truly hamfisted. I used 2 flat blade precision screwdrivers and a circlips pliers with an angled attachment.

Just pop the two screwdrivers in between the radios metal body and the housing and gently angle them outwards till the tabs are visbile and free.

Using the circlips pliers in the other hand I gently prised the radio from the housing. Just be gentle and your case should not crack. Disconnect the radio from the controls connector that is inside the housing - just pulls off (but not by the ribbon cable).

Get the other housing ready, make sure the rubber gasket running around the radio is properly in place, you have reconnected the ribbon cable from the new housing to the radio, the keypad is in?

I forgot this one and had to pull it apart again. You can see the ribbon cable in the old housing above. Angle the radio in at the top and ensure it is seated up as far as it goes and then gently push the rest of the radio into the base. Watch out for the little switch board on the side of the radio foulding the radio chassis and also make sure the gasket doesn't sneak off as it goes in.

Check everything works.

....and this is the final product with the newer UHF/GPS antenna on board.

....and with the rest of the family to give a sense of scale (Alinco DJ-G5, Moto XTS3000, Moto Saber II)

There's a bit more detail on the disassembly from "Snarlingrabiddog5150" on Youtube who goes chasing an encryption board inside his XTS3000. Some of his other videos are also very informative if you check out his youtube channel.