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...

http://www.bouvetdx.org/news-and-updates/

http://www.bouvetdx.org/



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....

This is a message from the founders of WSJT about a new experimental weak signal mode to have fun with:


Steve (K9AN) and I have developed a potential new mode for WSJT-X. We're calling the mode "FT8" (Franke-Taylor design, 8-FSK modulation). FT8 is designed for situations like multi-hop Es where signals may be weak and fading, openings may be short, and you want fast completion of reliable, confirmable QSOs.



Important characteristics of FT8:

• T/R sequence length: 15 s
• Message length: 75 bits + 12-bit CRC
• FEC code: LDPC(174,87)
• Modulation: 8-FSK, keying rate = tone spacing = 5.86 Hz
• Waveform: Continuous phase, constant envelope
• Occupied bandwidth: 47 Hz
• Synchronization: three 7x7 Costas arrays (start, middle, end of Tx)
• Transmission duration: 79*2048/12000 = 13.48 s
• Decoding threshold: -20 dB (perhaps -24 dB with AP decoding, TBD)
• Operational behavior: similar to HF usage of JT9, JT65
• Multi-decoder: finds...

Come April I have been a member for 4 yrs. Couple yrs ago I posted some pics of the install of my old honda. I figured it's time to share some pics and info on my home setup. This is, as the title of thread suggests, a work in progress. It's been about 3 yrs in the making and not complete yet. Lots of hard work, time, $...ect.. I'm very thankful for the help of my radio friends both new guys and elmers. Lots of digging by hand. Did it by my self over a couple weeks with limited time off work. My neighbors house is close so no room to leave a big dirt pile in my yard. Everything I shoveled out went into the bed of my truck and had to be hauled off. This pic is about 3/4 complete. Hole ended up at about 4x5 and 5ft deep. Bottom 6in was lined with gravel for tower leg drainage. After all that I had my concrete pored from a truck. Wasn't about to mix that many bags of sack create!! It turned out pretty well. I then ran out of...

When Kenwood announced that they were coming out with an HT that would include not only D-Star, but also include and expand on the features of the TH-D72, I knew that I had to have one as soon as they were available. Before I wrote a review, I decided to make sure I had enough experience with the radio to give it a fair evaluation. After 6 weeks with the TH-D74, I can confidently say that this is the best, most complete HT on the market and it's not even close.



The TH-D74 has a few cosmetic and ergonomic changes from the TH-D72: The most noticeable change is the new color, high resolution dot-matrix screen, but it doesn't take long to notice that the buttons are much larger and as a result, much easier to use. The four-way button is also moved to the center of the radio, which is important since it is used extensively in D-Star mode.

The radio now includes a microSD...

This weekend I picked up the new Kenwood TH-D74 HT from Ham Radio Outlet here in Southern California. From the preliminary information, I new this radio was an updated version of the TH-D72 but with D-Star included, but I definitely didn't realize how sophisticated and complete this little radio is.



I can honestly say that I haven't been this impressed or excited about an HT since the introduction of the Yaesu VX-8. This radio is like the love-child of the Kenwood TH-F6, the Kenwood TH-D-72, and the Icom ID-51. The TX range covers 2 meters, 220 Mhz, and 440 Mhz. It has a built-in GPS and TNC supporting APRS and KISS modes, much like the TH-D72. The D-Star support is on par with the Icom radios and works flawlessly. Like the TH-F6, it can receive HF & MW bands, including support for SSB, AM, CW, and FM modes. Lastly, it features USB, SD-Card, and Bluetooth...

Icom has released a few details on the new ID-51A Plus 2 D-Star HT. It has all of the same feature set of the very popular ID-51A Plus / Anniversary Edition, but now adds the capability to connect directly to the internet via USB cable. This new feature will allow you to connect directly to reflectors or internet-connected repeaters across the internet, even if you don't have a local D-Star repeater. In addition, the Plus 2 will also allow you to use it as a D-Star Hotspot so other D-Star enabled radios can use it as a gateway to the D-Star network.

I haven't yet found out if popular software such as DSTARRepeater or MMDVM will support the radio as the terminal device, but I imagine it won't take long to incorporate support. I don't have price information, but we've seen how competitive Icom has become with pricing lately, so it's a pretty safe bet that it will come in under the price of the Kenwood TH-D74. More info to come as it's released...