It has been ages since I’ve had a good spin of the dial on my FT-991A, or my IC-7300. I missed the SCARS field day, I didn’t even switch on my radios during field day, and my only appearance on VHF/UHF lately has been on our local tornado siren net on the SCARS 443.700 repeater. …
DMR has taken off in our local ham club, and around the world. If you just want someone to talk to, there is always someone out there, somewhere around the world. If this is what you’re in ham radio for, then you’ve got it made. In these days of sunspot cycle low, it’s getting harder …
The IC-7300 has very good transmit audio out of the box, with the stock microphone. With a little tailoring to your voice tone, it can give excellent results. It seems though, I’m never happy with my transmit audio settings. Even though I am told I have a face for radio, maybe I’ve just not got …
After many people telling me that my blank screen issue is down to a loose ribbon cable, and since Radioddity are replacing my defective GD-77, I saw no harm in having a look inside. After all, if it’s such an easy fix, why not? I would like to report that I found no disconnected ribbon …
I recently bought a Radioddity GD-77 DMR handheld radio. Initially, I was very happy with the performance, if a little quirky. Its quirkiness inspired me to write a post about how to set it up and write a basic configuration to it. However, six weeks into ownership, I turned it on and was greeted by …
Antenna tuners seem to be some of the most misunderstood devices in all of amateur radio. In this article, I’ll try to explain what is happening when you use an antenna tuner. I’ll try not to get too much into mathematics, and I’ll also try to squash a few myths. I really don’t like the …
Do you solder the coaxial shield to the connector body when installing a PL-259 plug? What are those holes really for? I’ve been installing PL-259 plugs onto coaxial cable since I was about 16, and I’ve never soldered the body of the connector to the braid. I’ve not had any problems from not soldering the …
Introduction I bought one of these on an Amazon Deal for about $64. I started to wonder if it was actually such a good deal after fighting with it for a while. It’s pretty good really. Just quirky. (edit – the GD-77 failed me, six weeks after I bought it. Radioddity is sending me a …
For a while now, whenever I’ve had my PC on, and I’ve been talking on SSB (several bands), I hear occasional Windows USB connect/disconnect sounds. Generally a disconnect sound whenever I start talking, and then a connect sound when I finish. You can poke around in the Windows Event Viewer to try and figure out …
Amateur radio transceivers demand power supplies which have a large current capacity. The average 100 watt radio transceiver requires over 20 Amps when in transmit mode. Overview A linear power supply uses a large heavy transformer to step down the input high voltage AC to a level close to the desired output. From there, the …
