THINGS HAVE CHANGED

August 12, 2014. I have decided to begin blogging again after an almost three year absence. Since my last blog a lot has changed here at Radiodayz. Last year, having turned 70 years old, I decided to reduce my ham radio foot print, occasioned by several things, among them my diminished hearing making voice modes difficult for me as well as my increasing interest in the digital modes. The computer to radio to computer modes are much easier communications for me. I sold the Flex 3000 and the old Kenwood TS-570D and replaced them with a new Kenwood TS-590S. I also removed the Kenwood TS-50S from my truck and put it in the shack as a back-up rig. I added two new SignaLink USB interfaces and I now enjoy working several different digital modes on HF as well as VHF. For me, seeing the communication with another station appear on the monitor is much less stressful than trying to understand what is being said by the other station. I still work a little CW (code) occasionally since it is also clearer to me than voice and not only was it my sole mode of operation when I first became a ham over 57 years ago it was a main mode of operation as a Radioman in the Navy. 

I have configured my mobile rig, a Kenwood TM-D710A dual band transceiver, to work APRS by adding a Greenlight Labs GPS receiving unit specifically designed as a companion for that radio. It is working well and I am very pleased with it. My current ham project is setting up a home APRS digipeater to which I may possibly add an Igate later to post the display on the Internet. 

I did finally get off my duff and rid myself of the entire contents of my ham radio junque box that I had accumulated over the last 15 or so years and which took up almost one-half of a two car garage. Many of the ham club members and some other semi-local hams came and picked the items they wanted to put in their respective junque boxes. I finished building a new and faster ham desktop computer and have it working in the shack with dual monitors. Life is good.

As I approach my 71st birth anniversary in a few days I enjoy recalling many memories of my more than half century of hamming. A lot has changed from the days of my first home brewed crystal controlled CW transmitter and two-tube receiver. More changes will occur in the short time I have left. I owe debts of gratitude to all who have guided and helped me along the way and especially to my father, who took the time to encourage me with my hobby although he was never a ham, the ham engineer who was my first mentor and to my father-in-law who was my most influential mentor and whose ham call I now have. Thanks to you all.

Preparing the Flex for Digital Mode Ops.

I have owned the Flex 3000 transceiver for almost two years now and I have operated it using ssb on all bands except 160 meters (no 160 meter antenna). It has performed at or above expectations and I am delighted I made the purchase. Operating the Flex has brought some real joy back into ham radio for me and I recommend one to all who are interested in SDR equipment. It is now past time, however, for me to get serious about setting the Flex up for digital modes operations the way I originally intended to do when I purchased it. I will need to add the Virtual Audio Cable (VAC) application and configure it for use with the HF digital modes using the existing second soundcard in my ham shack desktop computer.

The beauty of using a VAC configuration is once set up properly there are no additional audio cables to be run from the Flex to the computer soundcard as there are with a normal transceiver to soundcard interface setup. The same firewire cable that handles the communications between the computer and the Flex (controlling the operation of the Flex) also carries the audio for the digital modes. The VAC is unfortunately not provided by the Flex folks but is a third party application so I need to order that first. Going digital modes with the Flex is my project for the first week of 2012.

Currently for HF digital modes work I use my faithful old Kenwood TS-570D with a Rigblaster Plus interface to a second sound card, a SoundBlaster 24, in my ham shack desktop computer. It has worked very well and will remain my backup digital station. The 570D also serves as my cw station and that task will likewise be switched to the Flex. The HF the digital modes I mainly work are PSK31 and RTTY, but occasionally I work some Olivia and MT63. I am also set up to work soundcard Pactor using the AGW Packet Engine for my Paclink application for our ARES Emcomm work.  My VHF digital work is only Paclink for the ARES Emcomm operations. That is setup on my old Kenwood TM-G707 dual band FM transceiver using a SignaLink USB interface to my ham shack laptop computer. That will not change.

In the meantime I will finally install my new Kenwood TM-D710A in my truck between Christmas and the New Year. It has been sitting in its unopened box on my shelves in the shack for over a year. I will probably have to replace the small internal battery before I can store anything in its memory.

I will post a report on my progress right after the first of the year. In the meantime I hope everyone has a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, froeliches Yule or just plain old joyous holiday season however you celebrate it.

73, Jim

W5LOG

(Looney Old Grouch)

Glossary for non-hams

HF                 high frequency

VHF              very high frequency

ssb                 single sideband

cw                 Morse code

PSK31          a narrow bandwidth keyboard to keyboard digital communication mode

RTTY            radio teletype

ARES           Amateur Radio Emergency Service

Emcomms     Emergency communications