More Antenaeeeeeeeesssss

A little bit of work on the second mast with my DIY UHF beam replaced with a VHF-UHF beam and the HF vertical was straightened. Still waiting on the EFHW to arrive.

Is 27MHz CB still active in Australia?

We had a bit of skip rolling in recently and judging from the amount of activity on 27MHz LSB there is definitely a solid number of people still on the band all around Australia. On my Uniden Grant I was able to hear NSW, Tasmania, Victoria, and of course Queensland, all from a Station Master vertical, the same antenna I use for 10m and 40m.

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.

Quick field fix

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. ***

Motorola 2M rig for the car.

....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.

It's a Motorola thing.....

Some of the forums I'm on seem to have some rabid Motorola fans on them and I decided to give the "bat" a bit of a try.

Picked up 2 VHF Motorola Saber II handhelds from the states, in pretty good condition but very pricey on shipping - Saber info here: Repeater Builder. Waiting for the radios I had a scout around for a charger and also picked up another 2 chargers for $30 each. The shopping continued with 2 new VHF antenna, a Motorola RIB and cables to interface the radios with the computer for programming.

One of the attractions on the Sabers I picked up was the optional DES encryption modules (called Securenet) they came with.....research ensued and that's when the Motorola quirks started to come out: CryptoMuseum , Batlabs

1. You need a Key Loader to put the encryption key into the radios
2. Radios without power for about 40seconds lose the encryption key
3. KVLs are hard to get outside the States and they're not keen to ship them outside of the USA
4. By all reports encryption cripples the radios range and as it is not permitted on a ham licence you may choose not to bother with it.
5. Forget what the seller says the radio is - you need the model code off the actual radio and then decode it to ensure you are getting what is being advertised - go here to decode your model code: Repeater Builder
6. Because of the way the programming software is coded you need an old (slow) computer - as in a 286, 386, and you're pushing it with a 486.

The last point is where I came unstuck. I thought I'd try a newer one and see how it went but that didn't work no matter what I tried. I also thought finding an old PC would be the easy part but it appears that old computers are now called vintage and command a fair whack from collectors. The hunt started and after a bit of messing around I landed a Dauphin 486 pen computer (ipad forerunner for PC) dating from circa 1993. This was a mistake and I should have gotten a normal PC rather than something so unique.






















So after a lot of messing around with the Dauphin, the cables and connections, and software the radios were programmed with VHF Marine frequencies, charge fine in their chargers and work quite well.

Some feedback:

• They are solid in the hand, not girly-man radios - I like them
• They feel industrial - I like this too

• Squelch settings are universal on all channels and the level has to be programmed (no squelch knob)
• Channels are limited to 12 per Zone - bit of a pain for a bandplan with more than 12 channels (VHF Marine, UHF CB).

• Does scan but I haven't bothered with it.
• Programming is a pain, slow, and at times can be cryptic.
• Software is DOS based - no GUI here.
• I haven't tested battery life yet but feel optimistic of a good result.
• Chargers are industrial as well and can keep the battery topped up.

Some tips for the uninitiated:

1. You need the old computer
2. Using tricks such as throttle and slowdos to slow down your computer will not work
3. You need the RIB and cables
4. You need the correct version of the software - if your radio is programmed with a different version of the same software you may have problems reading  and writing to the radio.
5. Always read from your radio the first time and save the config (codeplug in Motorola parlance) in case you need to restore this to the radios.
6. My sabers ended up locked with an error code when I tried to write to them with a version of the software that proved incompatible. The fix is to begin programming them again and turn the radios off half way through the programming, changes the error code and the radio will now accept a fresh codeplug in full - this is where you reload the original one you read before you started playing.
7. For the issue above this is where I also changed the version of the programming software I was using and the writes no longer caused the radios to error.
8. Be careful when writing to your radio and choose to use the RF settings in the radio not the ones from the CPS - otherwise it messes with your radios alignment.
9. Get onto the Batlabs forum and search for Saber - lots of information and help there: Batlabs forum

Overall it was "fun" (but expensive) to get the gear in and play around with them myself.....so much fun I bought some more....see the next post.

Special event station - Kesennuma earth quake

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:

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!

My RST is wrong

Made a contact with Doug KH6QR this morning - Brisbane to Hawaii. Doug was running 200W from a Kenwood TS480HX into a 6 element beam 40 foot off the ground. A lot of fading on the signal and he had a little chuckle at the 1x3 RST I gave him.......hmmmm....oh oh, I've been confusing my RST...woops! Seeing as messed up the RST I'll not log this one. Have also printed out the RST matrix so I can get my signal reports correct for the future.

Ham Radio RST Signal Reports
R-S-T Characteristics	Readability R	Strength S	Tone T (cw)
1	Unreadable	Faint signals, barely perceptible	Sixty cycle a.c or less, very rough and broad
2	Barely readable, occasional words distinguishable	Very weak signals	Very rough a.c., very harsh and broad
3	Readable with considerable difficulty	Weak signals	Rough a.c. tone, rectified but not filtered
4	Readable with practically no difficulty	Fair signals	Rough note, some trace of filtering
5	Perfectly readable	Fairly good signals	Filtered rectified a.c. but strongly ripple-modulated
6	N/A	Good signals	Filtered tone, definite trace of ripple modulation
7	N/A	Moderately strong signals	Near pure tone, trace of ripple modulation
8	N/A	Strong signals	Near perfect tone, slight trace of modulation
9	N/A	Extremely strong signals	Perfect tone, no trace of ripple or modulation of any kind

Another contact with Japan and VK8 (NT)

A quick QSO with JA2DYI - Mike in Nagoya, Japan. A lot of fading on the 10m band today but we still managed the contact.



Also spoke with Peter - VK8HPB in Darwin a couple of days ago. Need to start collecting all the states and territories around Australia.

Japan is open for business

Propagation on 10m was pretty good this evening and after trying for a while I managed to generate a contact on 28.480 with Masa - JE1SDO in Japan.

Great to talk to another ham in a different country and he very kindly gave me a 53 to 55 signal report. Masa was running 200Watts into a Yagi so I didn't feel too bad making the 6,631 kilometre return trip on my 10 watts and the 1/4 wave vertical. WooHoo!!!!!

Success!!!!!!

A bit of trying and I have made my first contact with an overseas station as a licenced amateur. P29FR Renzo was a solid 5x7 on 28.490Mhz USB beaming in from Papua New Guinea. Spotted on VKlogger and tuning in I could hear Renzo fade in and out but with a solid signal in the main talking to some VK stations of which I could only make out VK4LOT. Unfortunately I could not hear any of the other stations speaking with P29FR so tried to time my call to minimize calling on top of other stations trying to work PNG. Luckily Renzo came back and in between some fade we managed to swap our signal reports and conclude the 2280 kilometre QSO. Not bad for 10watts up a relatively short vertical.

Very happy to have completed this one and hopefully will have a few more now that the first one is in the bag. I've setup my account on eQSL and also QRZ so hopefully Renzo can confirm the QSO on his side.

eQSL card below:

Gear Addiction

Amateur Radio (at the start anyway) is all about collecting gear and getting on the air. Luckily I've been stashing away radio gear for ages, although a recent thinning of the herd has cut a bit deeper than I would like.
Focus for me at the moment is improving my operations on VHF with my Yaesu 2800 2M rig and working HF on the Dragon SS-485H 10m transceiver.

Unfortunately my Kenwood 440SAT HF rig, Yaesu VX3, and some other choice HF units have moved on but this is always an opportunity to improve stock.........

Cherry Post

........2013 is here and I've picked up an old hobby - Radio. I started out in CB radio over 20 years ago and while I gave it away for a long time it is something that I've always liked. The excitement of talking to someone very far away using an age-old method of communications has always held a higher place for me than the telephone, mobile phone or internet. It really is a case of the journey not the destination.

A couple of years ago I sat and passed my amateur radio Foundation Certificate and received the VK4FLYN callsign. As always one thing led to another and after a spurt of enthusiasm I was focused on work and family. Still, with a young family I'd like to get back into the hobby, use my current certification and if possible upgrade to a standard or advanced licence. For me DX holds the most appeal although I'm not having much success so far. So settle back and let's see how far we can go in 2013 and if Amateur Radio is really all I remember it to be.