I dusted off my old Philips portable chassis, bought a new LiPo battery, and paired it with an Anytone AT-6666 I had that was not being used. I needed to 3d print some side brackets to attache the radio to the chassis but they were easy enough to print up. I'm considering whether to add in my LDG Z11 tuner which will mean another set of 3D brackets. Not sure yet.
After a bit of work the 10m manpack is finished. It's built on a Philips TP-92 portable chassis (originally for the Philips FM92 radio) and one of the benefits is that any compact/mobile radio can be added to the unit. I've currently got the Dragon SS485H in there but with a bit of rework my Alinco DX-70 could be used instead.
The radio is attached by removing the top cover and riveting it to the TP-92 door. I could have gone with a normal mounting bracket but wanted to maintain the lowest profile for the unit. This makes it a pain to open up the unit as the radio has to be unscrewed from it's top plate but not the end of the world.
I'm running a 5AH LiPo battery from Turnigy which replaces the original SLA batteries. The original charging circuit and speaker have also been removed. I've added a Power-Meter to monitor the battery......but have put it after the regulator so won't get too much useful info although the ammeter measuring instant and peak current is a good tool to have. With the LiPo in place and the potential to dump a lot of current quickly I have gone fuse crazy with 2 internal fuses and one chassis fuse on the outside.
Without the original internals it does lose some of it's weight and potentially some of it's stability although I have not seen this as being an issue so far. Current weight without an antenna is 4.4Kgs.The main antenna is the 2.7 metre ANT-129 military antenna I got in from Greece - great buy and recommended. Without a tuner I am still getting a sub 1.7 SWR on 10m. If you are looking for one for yourself I bought mine on eBay from a great seller (and their eBay photo below):
I turned on my Yaesu VX-7R after a long time of inactivity and found it to be a little deaf. By comparison my Alinco DJ-G5 was a powerhouse of sensitivity. Swapped antenna, completed a factory reset...no difference. It's out of warranty so no chance of getting it repaired from the original buyer - Andrews Communications. Time to google it and I found that there is a problem with one of the ceramic crystals in the radio that fails and leads to no sensitivity on NFM receive.
I've hardly used this unit so I'm not very pleased that it has broken while sitting in a drawer. Anyway, I emailed RF Repairs (http://www.rfrepairs.com.au/) and will see if they have the part on hand and if I can get it going again.
Nearly a whole month since my last update and unfortunately work has kept me off the radio for a while. I have however managed to add in some additional countries with India, Indonesia, South Korea, Finland and now the DXpedition to Norfolk Island in the log.
VK9NT are running a DXpedition to Norfolk Island at the moment and I managed to get a solid contact on 40 metres. The VK9NT expedition page is http://vk9nt.odxg.org/index.html
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.
Just noticed the Kenwood was jumping around on frequency by about 5Kc - mainly when I keyed up. A little research and the solution appeared to be re-tightening the VFO shield.
Job done, problem solved....so far. It's like a vintage car, always something to fix.
*** Update - problem is back again and present on transmit and receive ***
*** Latest update - bit of research on Google and found the lights in the meter and the VFO display generate a bit of heat that it doesn't like. Ripped out lights and seems steady so far....fingers crossed! ***
*** Latest update - was very good for a while but now it's back again. ***
....so after all that "fun" I had playing with the Motorola Saber IIs I seemed to be on the path to more Motorola ownership. The Kenwood TM241A I have been running in the car became problematic about 3 weeks ago with a dodgy screen (apparently a common fault).
This seemed like a good opportunity to pick up another mobile rig. A bit of perusing on EvilBay and I picked up a Motorola GM339, remote head for a good price. The radio arrived and as expected it had been used commercially in the mines (still programmed with their frequencies) but was in excellent condition.
Same story as before, you need to make sure you get the correct cables and software to program the radio correctly. This time the CPS (programming software) was not restricted to DOS or slow PCs. GUI was back baby. I first tried a serial ribless cable and to do this I used a USB to serial adaptor. This did not work and was a waste of time. Next I moved onto a USB Ribless cable (no need for a serial adaptor), this one would talk to the radio but I got errors about wrong versions. This is where I had to start looking for another version of the software - a little harder bit not impossible to find on the internet. Right cable, right software and we were in business.
Again, I read from the radio and saved the codeplug (radio config) before starting to change the settings. There are a lot more settings to change in this one compared to the Sabers.My main aim was to get it working so after clearing all of the previous channels I loaded in all of my local repeaters. I setup scan as well, the type of squelch, and any tones that were needed. I also customised the power settings so Low was 5 watts and High was 10 watts. A lot of the paging and id management I did not know what to do with so disabled as much as I could. When saving the new codeplug before writing it to the radio the CPS will advise of errors you have and not write till you fix them - this helped to ensure I had most of it right.
The install is pretty simple with the radio body in the glove box and the remote head mounted on top of another mount that is used for my VX-7R.
I even got my callsign to display on startup.
Scan doesn't work properly and I seem to have programmed the backlight timeout incorrectly.....will get to it eventually......have to be eventually as I also bought a Motorola XTS3000. It's a beater but has UHFCB already programmed in and I'll be rehousing it in the hi-viz housing the emergency services use. Will post when complete.
Stephan had the Kenwood TS-120V rig fixed in super quick time and after I found out he had to rebuild the VFO I was even more impressed with both his work and turnaround. Good Work Stephan!
After a quick chat with Pete - VK4BT and Barry - VK3NBW (Geelong) they both gave some positive feedback on the audio. Tuning around 10 metres there was a JA pileup but no chance of getting through that one and as the evening changed to night I tried again and came across Dobrisan Bogdan - YO4RIU calling CQ DX from Romania. He was working a few VK stations and after a couple of tries the contact was made just as his signal was beginning to fade in and out.
I'm pretty happy with the Kenwood as the receive is better than my Dragon 485 and the 10 watts made the grade in getting out some 13,111 kilometres to Romania.
Now to get an antenna setup for some of the other bands and see how that goes.
I've had this Uniden UBCT9 for a long time and finally decided to get the remote access working on the weekend. Long story short, I could have gotten this working years ago if I had enabled remote working on the unit itself. Doh!!!! I spent ages mucking around with serial cables and USB adaptors.
Thinking about the next antenna and I'm liking this end fed half wave vertical in the video below. I already have the squid pole (need to check the length) and just need the 9:1 transformer dooby and some wire...and some coax. Looks great for portable work or on the side of the car when stationary.
Just twiddling the dials and came across 8J7FUKKO special event station remembering the Kesennuma earth quake in Japan. A mouthful for us both to pass our call signs back and forth but a good contact.....and my first QSO video below:
Thanks to Peter VK4BT I now have a Kenwood TS120V 10 watt HF rig to work on. It is in need of a tune and has an issue with no audio or power on transmit but looking forward to getting it going again and on the air. Cheers Peter!
A final bit of motivation and I finished my 10M portable radio. Here we are on Sunday finalising the wiring:
It has a Dragon SS-485H HF rig along with a Z11 ATU and runs a 7Ah SLA, All housed in a bench instrument enclosure from Jaycar. Some space constraints within the enclosure so the ATU is on the outside. I have a section to attach some counterpoise wires but haven't made any up yet.
And out in the back garden running a 2.4 metre ex-mil HF whip - ANT-129 22-30Mhz....
A local operator Darren - VK4HDO, came back to my call on 28.480 reporting my audio as good but the signal was low and according to his radio I was about 3Khz off frequency.
.....and with a more managable HF antenna
.....and on the radio bench running into the external 10M vertical
I'm hoping to get it ready for the WIA National field day on the 13th and 14th of April and see how it goes communicating from a hilltop.
