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 <title>nq4t.com:</title>
 <link href="http://0.0.0.0:4000/atom.xml" rel="self"/>
 <link href="http://0.0.0.0:4000/"/>
 <updated>2023-01-21T04:09:28+00:00</updated>
 <id>http://0.0.0.0:4000</id>
 <author>
   <name></name>
   <email></email>
 </author>

 
 <entry>
   <title>Sudden RF In The Shack</title>
   <link href="http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/20/sudden-rf-in-the-shack/"/>
   <updated>2023-01-20T16:21:22+00:00</updated>
   <id>http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/20/sudden-rf-in-the-shack</id>
   <content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Updated since first posting&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;We all hear about it, we’ve probably experienced it, and we’ve all done our fair share of fighting with it.
So what happens when RF decides to suddenly appear in your shack? How did I solve this latest problem? How
the hell did I even notice it in the first place?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;!--more--&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Last night while on a weekly video chat with some other hams, I decided to fire up the rig and run some FT8.
Everything seemed normal until I went to tune my antenna. I was greeted with funky operation from my rig, and
the sudden death of everything plugged in to that USB hub. That one was easy; turns out the shield connection
to the USB Hub (which has seen much much better days) had broken from the board. The solution was a 40 minute
operation where I removed the old, short, flat USB cable; and replaced it with a spare. Nothing complicated
here, just a simple cut and solder job. Being essentially a glorified electronics technician by trade for 
almost 20 years, I learned my way around a soldering iron. The tight quarters of a small “travel” USB hub did
add to the difficulty, but I’ve got the small tips needed for the job.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This went smoothly. After wiring up the new cable I plugged everything back in and not only did it work; but
no more cutting out on TX. But there was a new problem, one that most hams probably don’t have in their shack.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I was getting RF in to the audio system.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My shack does double duty; it’s both a shack and an office. Since I’m an audio guy at heart, I keep my “good” 
sound system down here. Sometimes it’s nice to listen to something while working FT8. But during the test TX
for the hub, I noticed the other RF problem. My audio was buzzing before cutting out. It will do this on 17
and 15m; due to the fact I do have an antenna practically running over my head. But not on 40m; and not enough
to make the audio cut completely out. It wasn’t a problem the other week, so I knew something had changed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;My first step was trying to see where the problem was coming from. Was it the headphone amplifier, the pre-amp, 
the DAC, or the EQ? I turned volume knobs down and quickly determined it was either the EQ or the DAC; and
watching the status of my devices along with the DAC display told me it wasn’t that. It left one culprit, my
Sansui SE-8 Graphic Equalizer. This thing has had it’s issues in the past; both from RF and age. I blew the 
spectrum analyzer circuit years ago with a 10m FM transmission; watching all the bars max out and blink before
dropping silent. No big deal. It was also the source of some of the buzz on 15m when TXing; since that’s one of
the few times the spec-an on it registers any activity. But this buzzing and going in to it’s power-on-reset was new, 
especially on 40m.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I checked a few things inside, rearranged some wires, and verified I still had ground connections. All of that was
fine, no change there. But what changes had I made since putting the antenna back up and getting the FT-1000MP on the
air? Well, nothing; at first. But I recalled some behavior that lead me to my next path, the antenna. I had noticed
that when my tuner wasn’t properly tuned; I’d get more buzz. I run a balanced-line fed doublet; and then I remembered
I had risen and lowered the antenna due to bouts of wind recently. I went to the “interconnect” I have from the tuner
to the feed-line coming inside. The level of noise was not dropping nearly as much when both sides were connected. 
AH-HA. I bet one of my solder joints broke.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I wish I could explain why I soldered my feed-line vs crimping it; it was just something I felt like doing. I’ve
actually built two versions of this doublet, my original from 2015 and a replacement in 2018; but I kept all the
balanced line. Sure it might look rough and be kinked in spots; but it’s still perfectly usable. In 2018 I had one
solid un-spliced run on my antenna; it performed no better or worse than the previous one with splices everywhere.
I had once read the most important thing when working with this stuff, aside from keeping it away from metal, is to 
maintain the spacing of the conductors. This was one of the reasons I stuck with the stuff; not only was it’s 
performance suited for the application, but you can actually splice it back together. There’s no worry about water
ingress damaging it like coax, so even the old pieces I tossed under the shack for storage were easily able to be
put back in to service.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;How do I keep it from falling apart and stranding my antenna in it’s raised position? Zip-ties. I run a couple of 
zip-ties through the “windows” to act as somewhat of a physical strain relief, but mostly backup support. If things
broke at a splice…the ties would still allow me to lower the antenna.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, I went outside, loosened one leg of the antenna, and began lowering it via gentle tugging on the feed-line. It
was then I saw it; one of the splices had broken. “This explains everything,” I thought to myself. The one side’s
solder joint was still strong, only the one had failed. It was the last one of the repair job, so I was likely
tired and having issues getting it to flow; that solid core just sucks up the heat and the flux core in my “antique”
solder probably isn’t much good anymore.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I cut the wire from the center insulation enough to jam a crimp splice on to it, making sure to keep the overall
length matching the good leg and crimped it down.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Of course, while doing this; the wind decided to blow the feed-line out of reach while working on it. It was probably
too windy to safely keep the antenna up, so I’ll have to wait and confirm my repair worked. However, I’m &lt;em&gt;really&lt;/em&gt;
confident it will do the job. The other splice was still intact and since the radio was still receiving things; I
knew the patched-up leg wasn’t an issue.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;div class=&quot;message&quot;&gt;Update: With the winds diminishing after the sun went down; I pulled the anntenna back up to
operating position and confirmed the problem had been solved. No more buzzing on 40m and my expected tuning solution
had been restored.&lt;/div&gt;
</content>
 </entry>
 
 <entry>
   <title>Mirroring Page Up</title>
   <link href="http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/19/mirroring-page-up/"/>
   <updated>2023-01-19T03:47:48+00:00</updated>
   <id>http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/19/mirroring-page-up</id>
   <content type="html">&lt;p&gt;I have completed (I hope) modifying all of VK7ZJA’s pages for mirroring and have created a page where I will list
those and future mirrors. The link is in the sidebar/menu. 73.&lt;/p&gt;
</content>
 </entry>
 
 <entry>
   <title>Jason-VK7ZJA Has Passed</title>
   <link href="http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/18/jason-vk7zja-has-passed/"/>
   <updated>2023-01-18T20:51:12+00:00</updated>
   <id>http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/18/jason-vk7zja-has-passed</id>
   <content type="html">&lt;p&gt;I have just received word that Jason/VK7ZJA passed away on the morning of 17-JAN-2023. I never spoke to him, but he did write a &lt;em&gt;very&lt;/em&gt; detailed page of modifications and technical documentation
for the Anytone 878 DMR HT; as well as a few others.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Though I currently don’t own one, I may in the future; and the amount of work and information Jason put on to the page is too valuable to lose. As a service to the ham community, I am mirroring
his pages so that they may be reliably available in the future (or for however long I can keep my hosting). I am currently working my way through modifying all of his HTML pages to facilitate
mirroring, removing external and unnecessary file hosting links, and adding SK notices. All of these will be collected on a page when the project is finished. However, the 878 page is complete.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nq4t.com/anytone/878techmods.htm&quot;&gt;Jason/VK7ZJA’s Anytone 878 Page&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</content>
 </entry>
 
 <entry>
   <title>FT-1000MP MKV DVS-2 Article Posted</title>
   <link href="http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/15/ft-1000mp-mkv-dvs-2-article-posted/"/>
   <updated>2023-01-15T05:58:05+00:00</updated>
   <id>http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/15/ft-1000mp-mkv-dvs-2-article-posted</id>
   <content type="html">&lt;p&gt;One of the reasons I started this site back up was to have a place to write about my experiences building a digital interface to the FT-1000MP MKV and
some of the lessons learned while doing it. So it makes sense it was one of the first things I did &lt;em&gt;after&lt;/em&gt; the long process of building the site.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https://nq4t.com/pages/ft1000mp/2023/01/15/why-the-dvs-2-port-is-better-for-digital-modes/&quot;&gt;Read it here.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
</content>
 </entry>
 
 <entry>
   <title>Why The DVS-2 Port Is Better For Digital Modes</title>
   <link href="http://0.0.0.0:4000/pages/ft1000mp/2023/01/15/why-the-dvs-2-port-is-better-for-digital-modes/"/>
   <updated>2023-01-15T04:05:58+00:00</updated>
   <id>http://0.0.0.0:4000/pages/ft1000mp/2023/01/15/why-the-dvs-2-port-is-better-for-digital-modes</id>
   <content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Recently over the holidays I took possession of a Yaesu FT-1000MP MARK-V. It’s an “extended loan” arrangement thanks to a couple of guys from
&lt;a href=&quot;https://w4ovh.net&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;the local club&lt;/a&gt;, KG4NXT and N7QLK. One of the reasons this rig was available to hand-off to me is they are
serious FT8 operators; and they claimed they could not get the MKV to operate FT8 reliably. I took this as a challenge. I poked around the internet and 
found that many indicated they had similar problems operating the MKV on digital modes; and a little more searching showed why.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;the-packet-port&quot;&gt;The Packet Port&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;wrap-left&quot; src=&quot;/images/ft1000packetport.jpg&quot; /&gt; Conventional wisdom says to use the PACKET or DATA port on your radio. On a few of my previous
rigs that lacked an internal USB codec, this is how it was done. Both of these rigs were also iCom. It’s also not uncommon for the audio on the this port
to only be available in a data mode as opposed to normal LSB/USB mode. But the hangup with the FT-1000MP is that this port is “locked” to LSB mode. It is
literally designed to be just for packet communications, which usually happen in LSB mode.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class=&quot;wrap-right&quot; src=&quot;/images/page18.jpg&quot; /&gt;But while the default mode for the PKT mode is software-locked for LSB, there’s a little trick hiding in the menus; User Mode. It is possible to specify a
custom “User Mode” for PKT that you activate by holding the button for .5 seconds after entering the mode. Page 18 of the manual even talks about setting the User Mode to
PS31-SU for USB mode. &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.contesting.com/_yaesu/2004-05/msg00007.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;KN4LF even confirmed this in a 2004 mailing list posting.&lt;/a&gt; He
even mentions the very confusing fact that the radio will continue to indicate LSB mode even when in User Mode set to PS31-SU. The sheet of paper clipped to the manual
(as I did get the physical book) which talks about doing FT8 on this radio said to leave User Mode off.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;So, at this point, I was pretty sure I’d cracked the problem. It was in fact a menu option that was getting missed compounded by bad information from the radio. I wouldn’t
have to resort to the universal hack of interfacing with the MIC and headphone jacks. I just had to wait for the parts to build my interface to arrive. When they did, I wired
everything up, set the radio’s User Mode to PS31-SU, and was working FT8 reliably. All I had to do was flip the main and sub VFOs to User Mode rather than let WSJT-X do it.
Even this could be set-up to take advantage of the “front/back” VFO feature you get when tapping a band button a second time; as they remember the previously used mode. I
think the radio would even flip to the “back” VFO when the frequency was set over CAT. Either way, I was off to the races and operating FT8; right?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Well, not entirely.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;pkt-filtering&quot;&gt;PKT Filtering&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;/images/iffilters.jpg&quot; /&gt;
One of the issues I became aware of after a day or two was the IF filtering in PKT mode. The MKV has no shortage of filter configurations as you can see from the image
taken from the manual; and even those can be configured from within the menu. But take a look at the PKT options. The widest you can make this is 2.4khz. Since my previous
rigs were either barn-door wide or at least 3khz; this meant I was missing activity above 2500 on the FT8 spectrum. People do operate up there, so it might be nice to
not exclude them. But, thankfully, my desire to DIY/hack together everything I could for this radio lead me down another path, the DVS-2 port.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;any-port-in-a-qso&quot;&gt;Any Port In A QSO&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;/images/dvsbanner.jpg&quot; /&gt;
&lt;img class=&quot;wrap-left&quot; src=&quot;/images/dvsport.jpg&quot; /&gt;One of the things on my list was to see about home-brewing a DVS-2. I didn’t feel like spending the money to find one on that auction site, in fact I refuse to do any
business with that place to start with. I knew the port had some additional control lines other than just audio and PTT, so I did a little digging around to see what
they might do. That’s when I stumbled across &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.va3cr.net/accessories/DVS2.htm&quot;&gt;VA3CR’s page&lt;/a&gt; (SSL expired) about the DVS-2 as well as 
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.qsl.net/gm0onx/ft1000mp%20interface.htm&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt; GM0ONX’s page&lt;/a&gt; about an interface that used the DVS-2 port. Both pages provided information
about interfacing with this port, with VA3CR’s page providing a truth-table for the control lines. Though I’d originally planned on making a hardware device for voice-keying, 
this was just single-tracked thought. Both of these pages gave me the solution I really needed: just interface with the DVS-2 port. The muting of the microphone when keying
the port properly would avoid issues I had with my IC-725 of needing to unplug the microphone, it would allow me to work digital modes with wide filtering, and it would allow
easy operation of software voice keyers, like N1MM, in a contest in a seamless fashion. Audio from the PC when the DVS-2 port is triggered, audio from the mic when I key up. 
The interfacing was also quite easy. While I would have normally provided some isolation on the key lines; the DVS-2 port being designed for an external device made me skip
all of that. In fact, GM0ONX’s diagram of driving both control lines from the RTS line along with a transistor for PTT seemed too good to be true.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;h3 id=&quot;now-were-cookin-with-rf&quot;&gt;Now We’re Cookin’ With RF&lt;/h3&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;/images/wsjt-flat.jpg&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;/images/wsjt-flat.jpg&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;
The results with this method were absolutely outstanding. I think the screenshot speaks for itself; a nice flat response all the way to 3100 and beyond, right to the 
limit of 5000 the software will handle. Of course, I have my “Normal” IF bandwidth set to as wide as I can get it. I can let WSJT-X set the modes of the main and
sub VFOs to USB; and all I have to do is disable eDSP so it’s not filtering/modifying my transmissions. Although, even if I forget to do that; it doesn’t affect FT8
operations.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I’m not upset about all the work I did to get the thing going with PKT. While I’m sure PKT mode is nice for packet; I’ve only actually run packet once doing APRS on
30m. Even if I wanted to do that again, I could still do it through the DVS2 port. I could look in the manual to see what, if any, advantages PKT offers for actual
packet. But I did it through Direwolf on my IC-725 which had zero special features. All in all it was a great learning experience all around. I have a fantastic rig
that’s ready to operate just about anything I want it to do. It’s a really nice rig for being a few generations back. I can understand why people who have them are
reluctant to give them up.&lt;/p&gt;
</content>
 </entry>
 
 <entry>
   <title>Welcome to the new NQ4T.com</title>
   <link href="http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/14/welcome-to-the-new-nq4t.com/"/>
   <updated>2023-01-14T20:46:54+00:00</updated>
   <id>http://0.0.0.0:4000/blog/2023/01/14/welcome-to-the-new-nq4t.com</id>
   <content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Hi,&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I’ve decided to revive the website. I had no real content on the previous one, so we’re starting fresh. Please be patient as I work on getting everything up
and new stuff finalized.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;73,
NQ4T&lt;/p&gt;
</content>
 </entry>
 

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