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NQ4T's Station · nq4t.com:
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nq4t.com:
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<h5>spurious emissions</h5>
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<p class="side-lead">Jay · Ham Radio Operator<br>QTH: Manassas, VA, USA<br>LOC: FM18 · ITU: 8 · CQ: 5</p>
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<h6>Powered by jekyll and Fohdeesha.
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<br>Last updated: 2023-01-21 17:49:08 +0000
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<br><a href="https://git.pickmy.org/dewdude/nq4t-dot-com-jekyll" target="_blank">Site source</a> · nq4tango(at)gmail.com</h6>
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<h1 class="page-title">NQ4T's Station</h1>
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<p>You can skip to any of the following sections you’d like:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>HF Rigs
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#currhf">Current HF Rig</a> (Although it’s literally right here.)</li>
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<li><a href="#pasthf">Previous HF Rigs</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li>V/U Rigs
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#currvu">Current V/U Rigs</a></li>
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<li><a href="#pastvu">Previous V/U Rigs</a>
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<br /><br /></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p><a id="currhf"></a></p>
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<h2 id="current-hf-rig-yaesu-ft-1000mp">Current HF Rig: Yaesu FT-1000MP</h2>
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<p><a href="/images/ft1000mp.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/ft1000mp.jpg" style="width:100%" /></a>
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My main HF rig is a Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark-V with a MFJ-974HB Balanced Tuner. I built both a digital interface to the DVS-2
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port as well as a TinyFSK keyer for FSK.</p>
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<div class="img-row">
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<div class="img-column-2">
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<a href="/images/doublet-day.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/doublet-day.jpg" style="width:100%" /></a></div>
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<div class="img-column-2">
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<a href="/images/doublet-night.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/doublet-night.jpg" style="width:100%" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<p>My antenna is a 72’ (21.9m) long center-fed doublet. It’s about 50’ (15.24m) up in the air supported by trees. The feed-line held mostly vertical from the feed-point about
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6’ (1.8m) from the ground using a line attached to the house. I originally built this doublet in 2018, and it stayed up until 2022 when the line hung up during a wind-storm
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and it tore the loop at the end. The feed-line has had a few patches and pieces spliced in to it; but it’s window-line so it doesn’t affect performance. One leg had a
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cut/tear in the insulation close to the feed-point, so I did some pre-emptive work to prevent this from getting worse. It really shows up in the night shot as a
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blurry white spot.</p>
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<p><a id="pasthf"></a></p>
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<h2 id="previous-hf-rigs">Previous HF Rigs</h2>
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<h3 id="icom-ic-725">iCom IC-725</h3>
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<div class="img-row">
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<div class="img-column-3">
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<a href="/images/ic7251.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/ic7251.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div class="img-column-3">
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<a href="/images/ic7252.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/ic7252.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div class="img-column-3">
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<a href="/images/ic7253.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/ic7253.jpg" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<p>My first HF rig was an iCom 725 I picked up at the Berryville Hamfest in 2015. I’d only been licensed for about 4 months and hadn’t expected to get an HF rig that quickly. I had
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a small budget from a surprise influx of cash the night before and had been making rounds looking at boat anchors. A friend found this radio on the floor from a vendor that was
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selling surplus radio equipment; the type of setup where it looked like a truck just dumped random gear everywhere. I made the usual mistake of buying an untested radio; but my
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friend told me the old iCom’s were pretty tough. It came with the PS-55 power supply but no mic. I talked the guy down to an agreeable price because of these two factors. Despite
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looking like it came right out of a barn, the radio fired up when I got it home. I bought an 8-pin mic plug, a random microphone from a $1 bin, and spent my last $20 on a MFJ-16010
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long-wire tuner. I made contacts that night. While I may not have kept the power-supply, I kept the radio. Not only because it was my first; but because it’s a tank.</p>
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<h3 id="icom-ic-756">iCom IC-756</h3>
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<p><a href="/images/ic756.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/ic756.jpg" /></a></p>
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<p>A year after getting the IC-725 I picked this up at the Berryville Hamfest. It was actually tested and working at the hamfest; and when I was the first to throw my money down there
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was both sighs of disappointment and slight applause from the small crowd of OM that’d gathered. But, don’t get too excited. What started off as a few bad lines turned in to a fully
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dead display in about a week. It came with a replacement; but after some work I wound up blowing it up. Thanks iCom for numbering your connectors backwards.</p>
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<h3 id="icom-ic-728">iCom IC-728</h3>
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<p><a href="/images/ic728.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/ic728.jpg" /></a></p>
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<p>I wound up trading my half-dead 756 for this 728. Was it a good trade? Probably not. But at the time, I was defeated and didn’t care. The 728 didn’t suffer from the filtering
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issues the 725 did; plus it had a speech processor, something the 725 lacked. Don’t get too excited. A few months later the RX lost all sensitivity. I sold it for parts at a
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hamfest and managed to recover $75, putting me in the hole for $425 between it and the 756.</p>
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<h3 id="icom-ic-7300">iCom IC-7300</h3>
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<div class="img-row">
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<div class="img-column-2">
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<a href="/images/radiofam.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/radiofam.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div class="img-column-2">
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<a href="/images/ic7300.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/ic7300.jpg" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<p>In keeping with the trend of acquiring iCom rigs; I bought this brand new from HRO in August of 2018. I’d wanted one since they came out, so I drove down to HRO that day and
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bought it. Fantastic rig. I owned it all of 10 months before a serious accident forced me to sell it. I still miss this radio for many reasons. In fact the one picture is the
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one I used for the emergency sale since I hadn’t owned it long enough to take many.</p>
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<h3 id="icom-ic-7100">iCom IC-7100</h3>
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<div class="img-row">
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<div class="img-column-2">
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<a href="/images/ic71001.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/ic71001.jpg" /></a></div>
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<div class="img-column-2">
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<a href="/images/ic71002.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/ic71002.jpg" /></a></div>
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</div>
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<p>In mid-2020 I picked up this IC-7100 from a friend on IRC. I’d put my 725 back on the air a couple of months earlier after, but was quickly reminded at how annoying that thing
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was with it’s barn-door-wide filtering. I quickly fell in love with it. Almost as good as the 7300 RX wise with the advantage of the remote head and 2m/70cm. I didn’t use those
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much due to the inability to keep a VHF antenna up in the trees; but I had a hotspot, so it served as a D-Star radio for that. I did an RF tap for my SDRPlay for a nice big
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waterfall. I sold it in the summer of 2022 after yet another situation forced me to sell the shack.</p>
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<h3 id="the-qro-station-i-never-got-to-use">The QRO Station I Never Got To Use</h3>
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<p><a href="/images/qro.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/qro.jpg" /></a></p>
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<p>I don’t even want to talk about this. I made my first trip to Hamvention in 2022 for the sole purpose of buying the SB-201 and tuner off a friend for a ridiculously good price. The
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amp was in fully working condition and had all the major mods done by someone who knew what they were doing. I never even got this on the air. By the time I got the rest of the
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parts to let my antenna setup do kW; that situation arose and it went out the door. I was so heart-broken after everything that I had zero intentions of getting back on the air
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until the current rig was bestowed upon me. On the flipside; the shelf I had to add to the station location to accommodate that beast wound up being needed to hold the Yaesu.
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<br /><br />
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<a id="currentvu"></a></p>
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<h2 id="current-vhfuhf-radios">Current VHF/UHF Radios</h2>
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<h3 id="yaesu-ft2d">Yaesu FT2D</h3>
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<p><a href="/images/ft2d.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="wrap-left" src="/images/thumbs/ft2d.jpg" /></a>
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For Christmas 2016 I bought myself a little gift, a Yaesu FT2D. The club had recently taken the deal on the System Fusion repeater, so I figured I might as well get over the pain
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of paying over $300 for an HT. I bought it along with a Mirage BD-35 amp; my reasoning being it would allow me to use the HT as a mobile radio with the option of plugging up a
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different mobile radio in the future. Though I was very unimpressed with System Fusion and WIRES-X as a whole, it’s been a damn good radio. It’s been dropped and beaten to hell,
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but it fires up every time I need it to (provided it’s charged).
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<br /></p>
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<h3 id="dmr-hts">DMR HTs</h3>
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<p><a href="/images/dmr.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/dmr.jpg" /></a></p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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<h4 id="tyt-md-380">TYT MD-380</h4>
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<p>This one was on “extended loan” from a guy as no one else had a use for it, he wanted me to give a presentation on MMDVM hotspots, and the only mode I didn’t have a radio for at
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the time was DMR. It’s an OK radio, I guess. I don’t really use it much these days, it’s more of a backup. I do have the battery eliminator for it, which I used for mobile use with
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the hotspot.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<h4 id="radioddity-gd-73">Radioddity GD-73</h4>
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<p>I was looking for a hotspot radio, and I bought a hotspot radio. The one thing I like about it is the use of standard USB for charging and programming.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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<h4 id="cotre-co01d">Cotre CO01D</h4>
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<p>This, at the time, was a $16 DMR radio. No display, one zone, few buttons…but it was $16. How bad could a $16 DMR radio be? I bought it to find out. I was surprised to find other
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than the horrible interface, it too made a decent hotspot radio; and it actually does Tier2. I still have it, but have completely misplaced it and haven’t seen it in quite some
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time. It’ll turn up one day.</p>
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p><a id="pastvu"></a></p>
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<h3 id="previous-vhfuhf-radios">Previous VHF/UHF Radios</h3>
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<h4 id="kenwood-tr-7850">Kenwood TR-7850</h4>
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<p><a href="/images/7850.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="/images/thumbs/7850.jpg" /></a>
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A friend from an audio site gave me a Kenwood TR-7850 2m monobander after hearing I’d gotten my license. It belonged to his father and was just sitting around. He included another
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2m rig; an even older Kenwood monobander. It’s….somewhere around here in storage. I only briefly used the rig because of the 2m antenna issue I mentioned. I’m pretty sure I still
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have it…again…in storage. After 8 years it’s hard to tell where it’s gone.
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<br /></p>
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<h4 id="kenwood-th-d74">Kenwood TH-D74</h4>
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<p><a href="/images/d74.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="wrap-left" src="/images/thumbs/d74.jpg" /></a>
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Yes, I bought one of the D74s. I bought it the same day I bought my 7300 at HRO. Nice little radio. It saw very little use and sold it after selling the rest of the shack. One of
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the nice things about it was it’s general coverage receive would actually do sideband modes; and it actually had a ferrite bar antenna for AM BCB. Mine did suffer that issue where
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the internal charge controller died; so the power jack on the radio was 100% useless. But it was my first D-Star radio, the one I first used with a hotspot, I used it for a couple
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of foxhunts, and it did send an <a href="/images/aprsiss.jpg" target="_blank">APRS packet through the ISS</a>.
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<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
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<h4 id="baofeng-gt3-tp">Baofeng GT3-TP</h4>
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<p><a href="/images/potato.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="wrap-right" src="/images/thumbs/potato.jpg" /></a>
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Look…I was a new ham and broke. I bought one of these and made use of it; but it was a pretty lousy radio overall. Tons of front-end overload issues. It’s final resting place
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is a field in California. That being said, I did make a magmount for it and beaconed a lot of APRS with it while I did own it. I think I even did an event or two. The few comments
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I got on repeaters were complmenting me for having “good deviation” as most of them shipped FMN by default. I later stole the crystal out of it’s programming cable to fix the dongle
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for my HF digital interface.</p>
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