I recently decided to expand my digital capabilities beyond D-Star and decided to purchase the TYT MD-UV390 VHF/UHF dual mode FM/DMR HT with GPS along with a ZumSpot hotspot from Ham Radio Outlet. The Zumspot is based on the Raspberry PI-Zero and MMDVM project. I couldn't be happier with this combination, which will get you on DMR for under $300.



The TYT MD-UV390 dual band radio lists for about $150 and comes with the programming cable / software and additional high-gain antenna. The manual and documentation is a bit rough, but once you understand the programming principles is pretty easy to get going. The ZUMSpot comes pre-loaded with Pi-Star and is a snap to setup if you've already registered for the appropriate digital ID's. There are plenty of guides online on how to setup Pi-Star, but if anyone has questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Once you...

Icom just released a preview video showcasing the new Icom IC-9700 rig. This thing looks pretty sweet, especially for satellite ops. Icom only has a pre-release brochure out and not all of the features are covered, but I attached it anyway.

Enjoy the video:

Hey guys,
Just a quick update on the shack progress. I had purchased the yellow Robyn 240D a while ago and quickly realized that I didn't have a good place to put it. I am not a fan of stacking radios on top of one another and the Madison on my grandfather's Hammerlund kept bugging me. I wanted to build a shelf that was worthy of being in this station and I wanted it to look like it belonged. Here is a picture of the old station.

Not all of the station but my favorite.

Just got my radio room painted and new carpet today. Now I can order the new corner cubicle desk that I want. I was moving stuff around and snapped a pic of the family.

Hey guys,
Just wanted to share a few pictures of my little shack. It started out as a computer hutch in a side office off of the living room about 15 years ago. Now it had turned into a closet / storage room for Christmas decorations and my daughters French Horn collection. The hutch hasn't had a computer in it for about 10 years and seemed to have things in it that we never needed anymore. So I got to thinking "What a waste of space". One of the things I have started doing in our house when things get cluttered and nobody seems to care, is I clean them up and take them over and they become mine. The wife and kids have not complained so far. I made one back room into a hobby room where a sewing machine on a table resides along with a big table that is now an RC car workbench. I told the kids that if they junk it up I am going to lock the door and it becomes mine. So far so good. Enough of my rambling.

Now The Shack.

This is my mid 90's Motorola Spectra converted to 2m. This is the 110w trunk mount with the system 9000 control head. I use it as a base station with a Diamond X50 antenna. These radios are built like tanks and can't be beat, especially in a metro area. They are dirt cheap on eBay. Only problem is most will need to be recapped, but not a big deal.

First off this is NOT my solution. It was presented to another party via a private conversation on this forum and I was asked if I could move the posts to a thread. I cannot do that so I created this thread and have copy/pasted the relevant info here.

Robalo posted the following:

The TS940S along with other Kenwood transceivers are prone to a common fault - that of displaying a row of dots instead of a
frequency readout. This is caused by one or more of the Phase Lock Loops (PLL) going out of lock.
A number of suggestions have been put forward to cure the fault. The most common two being to remove all the wax from parts of the PLL
board by heat or other methods and the other is to resolder all the joints on the underside of the board. Either method may cure the
problem but (unless great care is taken) they could induce additional faults thereby adding to the problem and obscuring the original
fault. An alternative method would be to narrow down the fault to a particular part of...

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This will be the most costly and difficult Dxpeditions ever planed and executed.
I wish them well and Hope All remain Safe and WARM.
This is listed as the MOST Remote Island in the world. This trip has been in the planing stages since 2007.
I had the privilege of working the 3Y0X to Peter Island as well as meet some of the Team after their return.
This will be even greater challenge as All equipment and supplies must fly-in via Helicopter.
Godspeed the team and hope all goes well. I look forward to working them.
They are trying to secure additional flight time for the Helicopter's.
This will land equipment and supplies on the Island.
Donations for fuel/flight time are in the critical stage now.
All the Best
Gary/W9FNB

I've owned the Kenwood TH-D74 since the first week it became available and finally decided to perform the extended transmit mod. Some of the sites that have already published this mod make it seem like a big deal, but it's really pretty easy. Here are the steps:

1. Remove the antenna and rotary knobs on the top right. The rotary knobs just pull off.
2. Remove the SMA nut. If you plan on doing this type of work for all types of HTs, you should consider purchasing the proper tool for the job. I use one of these inexpensive $7 wrenches that you can find on ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/310808572946?rmvSB=true. After the knobs and SMA nut is removed, your radio will look like this:


3. Remove the battery and the four screws holding the aluminum back to the radio body....