VX-7R

A little photography on a lazy New Years Day......

Easy install in the Alfa Romeo 159

So I'm a glutton for punishment and bought myself another Alfa Romeo and not only that but after swearing to never buy another black car, I bought this black one, now black car #3.

As stated before the install for the Yaesu VX-7R is really easy using the ClicOn phone mount and RAM mount for a GPS 'button' which matches the Yaesu perfectly. Now to figure out how to attache a button to my iPhone so I can interchange the 2 as desired and only use one mount otherwise I'll have to get a second ClicOn mount which goes up on the dash....not my ideal mounting spot.

Here it is in the car, nice and simple.

I think it needs some more antennas on the back...............

Mobile is almost done

The KT-8900D arrived and I was able to easily mount it in the car. Programming it however seems to be a different story. I manually entered all my local 2M and 70cm repeaters but the radio does not seem to keep the shift and tone on each memory. I'm not sure where I'm going wrong but will keep at it.

VX-7R can hear again

RF Repairs got back to my email with a lead time of 6 weeks for the part to be in the country. I spoke with the guys at JNB Electronics (http://www.jnb.com.au/) who had the part on hand, shipped next day and in my letterbox the day after. Great service. After a stiff drink I opened up the handheld, following TimC's instructions (http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~timc/e/vx7r.html) I was able to easily replace the part and then put the unit back together...twice - I forgot the battery latch. Whack on an antenna and hearing was restored. Always great to make your own repair and I'm glad it was through hole as I'm not an SMD guy.

Yaesu VX-7R has gone deaf

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.

http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~timc/e/vx7r.html

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.

Reliving past glories

A long time ago I bought a Yaesu FT-530 and moved it on after about a year. It seems to have reached some sort of cult status as it is very popular in reviews and sought after to some degree. I started looking for another one.......didn't find one but up came an Alinco DJ-G5. Cue past glories from around 1998/99. I sold my last one as I headed over seas for a year but had fond memories of it as a solid performer. Price was right and I won the auction. Opening the parcel I received a mint example and am very happy with the unit. Feels solid in the hand - more than the Yaesu VX-7R I have.....

.....and in typical fashion right after I buy the Alinco a Yaesu FT-530 pops up for sale and goes for $65.....DOH!

Annoying antennas and other updates

I had some problems last night with the antenna giving me a high SWR intermittently. It didn't seem to matter what I did or what rig I was using I was getting a reasonable SWR reading and then a high one. The antenna tuner was struggling bringing it into something usable and it switched back and forth for a while until I came to the conclusion that my 25 year old 11m vertical is due for retirement.....so I bought a new one. I gave Peter a call at Shockwave Antennas - http://shockwaveantennas.com/ - and after a quick chat settled on just replacing the Station Master with like for like. Some advice on tuning the antenna length for 10m and that was it. I'm looking forward to retiring the current vertical and putting up the new one, I also have a new connector coming and will dump about 5 inches of the RG213 in case I have some water in the coax. Hopefully the intermittent problems will disappear after that although...it is behaving itself really well at the moment. Doh!!!

Other items of note are that the LDG Z11 auto antenna tuner has arrived, gave it a quick test and it worked well. A bit noisy when cycling it's relays during a tune but nothing to worry about. It's about an inch smaller width-wise than the Dragon SS485H I'm looking to pair it with but no problems on depth. Should work well portable.

I also have another 3 antennas on the way: 1 Military HF antenna ~2.7 metres in length, a 10m dipole, and a super flexy antenna for my VX-7 handheld. Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS) has bitten hard. I also have an old Kenwood 2 metre VHF rig on the way which I'll pop into the car to replace the scanner I have now returned to the shack.

The Standard licence study material has arrived from the Radio and Electronics School (RES) - http://res.net.au/ - so it's time to knuckle down with the books and get to work on the passing the theory and reg exams.

And the last thing I have done is to install the HRD suite of Ham software. I'm not fussed on the remote control stuff but the HRD Logbook app certainly looks complete.