Tried for JA5WNH (Tosi) but unfortunately he could not copy all of my suffix. Tosi was calling for Europe and Africa long path on 40m. I didn't think I would qualify as long path so waited till he finished his calls and went back to his Japan based QSO and then I called. Nearly but not quite as he could not hear all of my suffix. Oh well, until next time.
Tosi's QRZ profile: https://www.qrz.com/db/JA5WNH
And we were doing so well with the cheap HF radio and then the PLL unlocked again across all bands. Opening up the radio it then locked and was back to normal???????? Put it back together and it was fine for 20 minutes and then unlocked again. Opened it up AGAIN and probed around, touching/pressing two cans caused it to lock up and then on touching them again it unlocked and then locked. OK, seems to be a bad joint, bad track, or some other issue with the board, maybe due to stress??
In case this helps anyone else with FT-900 PLL issues (and I know there are a few after perusing the QRZ forums), I've circled the area that I reflowed.
First contact on my new to me $40 Hamfest special is FK8IK (Mic) in New Caledonia. Using my max licence limit of 10W which is still QRP for phone and it made the trip of 1463 kms no problem. Audio is much nicer than the Anytone 6666 and the notch and shift make a big difference there.
Mic's QRZ profile: https://www.qrz.com/db/FK8IK
$40? Well yes, at todays GCARS hamfest I picked up this FT-900 which the seller said was missing the PA module but received fine. Well it’s a little deaf but it does have it’s PA. I think the seller confused the space for the ATU as a missing PA....at least I hope so. Took a lot of cotton buds to clean it and now to buy a mic, get it in front of a tech and see if it’s salvageable otherwise it’s off to the chop shop to be broken up for parts and sold.
