2009 News Page

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17-08-2009 New ham. Junksale. Not missing the radio, yet.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome Lucy to the ranks of amateur radio. Lucy is the daughter of my long time friend Adrian (M1BOC) and suffers from autism. This is a fantastic accomplishment for her and my thanks go to the Bishop Auckland amateur radio club for getting her through the foundation course. Lucy's call is M6LCY, listen out for her on the air.

Junksale, why oh why has this site been turned into the farce that it is today? If you post a comment in the forum that doesn't agree with what the admin say then they delete the full thread. It's pathetic and as a result I no longer want to be a part of a site or indeed the establishment that is LAM Communications. Why they are not allowing people to express themselves in a non insulting manner is beyond me. Thankfully the admin of Junksale and LAM Communications cannot do any thing about what I post on my own site. I have taken steps to have my Junksale account removed. I have also removed links to Lam Communication and Junksale from my site.

Finally, I have had chance to play radio on the loaned 990 I have. Had a few contacts on 40 and 20. I have mainly spoke to lighthouse stations and have enjoyed my self so much that I may purchase another HF set for the coming winter months. Then again I may not. The only reason I was on the 990 was due to having some spare time at last. I have been off for the past fortnight and the XYL and the kids are away on holiday. As a result boredom set in and I decided to play radio. When they are back I doubt I will have any spare time again.

I still as of yet have not had time to set up the Lambretta restoration page. This I will do ASAP. I am no longer at university 1 day week so should have some time to get the Lambretta page up and running.

12-07-2009 Almost QRT, new hobby, university and junksale.

Well I decided to sell my Yaesu FT-950 HF radio and soon the rest will follow. I had hardly bothered with the hobby for quite some time so I decided the dead money in my shack could be put to better use.

I am going to use my spare time (what little I will have) to restore old motorbikes and scooters. I am currently working on a 1977 Honda CB550K motorbike and will soon be getting a Lambretta GP150 to restore. I am unsure of the year of the Lambretta as it's an import. Age of the Lammy will be verified by the Lambretta Club of Great Britain. I will be starting a web page regarding the restoration of the motorbike and scooter.

I will be starting an engineering degree at the University of Teesside in October. I have been offered a place as long as I pass two summer courses of maths and physics. The two courses are for 6 weeks each. Well the maths course finished on Wednesday 08-07-09. I had to sit 2 exams on the maths course. I passed the first one with a mark of 82%, the 2nd I passed with a mark of 94%. I have 5 more weeks of the physics course so, wish me luck. At the moment it's a struggle because I cannot remember any thing about physics from school however, I am getting on top of it.

Lastly, junksale. This site used to be the best ham site going. Unfortunately it has gone through a lot of changes that have really spoilt the site. The classified section is now a pain to browse through and to post an advert on. The people who have been requested to moderate are having one to many power trips and the discussion forum is almost dead. So it's goodbye junksale, it was great while it lasted. I have gave it a while to get the bugs ironed out and to get used to the new layout but, after a couple of months I  find it very poor. Another issue I have is that the site still has it's favoured members. Some people can post any thing and get away with it while others feel the wrath of the moderators. I no longer have any time for the site.

So this could be the last update by me on the ham radio page. I may even take it offline. I do still have a FT-990 in the shack which is on loan from 2E0OCE as he doesn't have the room for it at the moment so, you may hear me on HF now and again. I did turn the 990 on today and all I heard was CQ contest so, the 990 was turned straight back off and my decision of selling the FT-950 was confirmed as the correct one. I only used to get 1 day to use the HF set and 90% of the time a contest spoilt that 1 day.

I have no doubt I will be back in a couple of years, ready for the peak of cycle 24 but until then, all the best.

20-06-2009 Sad news.

This evening I received the sad news that Tony, M0DNN had passed away.

Tony was a credit to amateur radio and will be missed  especially by the regulars on 145.375.

My condolences go out to his family and friends.

30-04-2009 Update and WSPR

Thought it was high time I updated the site. I have been busy updating the main page and uploading my Belgium photo's to it.

Radio wise I have had a good play around with a program called WSPR (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter) and have enjoyed some success. On 16-04-2009 my 40mtr, 5 watt signal was heard in South Western Australia by VK6ZRY. Shame this can't be counted as a contact. I did not hear the VK as he was RX only but I have heard Brazil and Afghanistan both transmitting less than 1 watt.

I have spent most of April with a camera in my hands and not a microphone. I am really starting to get well in to photography and the radio has taken a back seat.

The few contacts I have had in April are as follows;

OZ0MJ (40mtrs), ON7TQ (80mtrs), R3K (20mtrs), OZ1LCG (40mtrs) and LZ09BR (40mtrs).

02-04-2009 Belgium and an update.

It's been almost 1 month since my last update. I have not done to much radio wise due to preparing for my Belgium trip. I have however had a few contacts on the MV-10 which has impressed me for it's size especially, on 40 mtrs. The MV-10 still needs fine tuning but I have a long term loan of a K.W. (E-ZEE) Match tuner from Keith. So until I get an antenna analyzer I will just use the manual ATU.

I have finally got round to fixing the DX Spot page. You can now finally see the DX Spots again. I also had some audio kit back in the shack but have decided against it. I am going to wait till I get the equipment I want before going back to ESSB and I think I would prefer another TS-870 for ESSB work as the FT-950 just isn't right for it. Don't get me wrong the audio from the 950 using the audio rack is nice but not as good as the 870 due to the limitations of the TX bandwidth.

Last week  I went to Belgium for a few days. The sole object of this visit was to see the area near Bastogne where the Battle of the Bulge took place. The weather was great, lots of wind and snow. I will be adding a Belgium Page to my home page ASAP.

Back to radio, contacts I have had since my last update have been the following;

N3RS, W1FJ, W3LPL, (All 40mtrs), ON7SA (80mtrs), ON7TQ (40mtrs), YO9HP, LZ131GO, UR7GW, W1AW, W1/GI0MPT (all 20mtrs), G0EWN/P (2mtr SOTA), HG3A, OE3HLM, CN2R (all 80mtrs), VE3RM, KI1G (both 20mtrs).

So as you can see the MV10 is performing ok.

05-03-2009 New Antenna.

I have finally taken the plunge and got a new antenna that, is not wire. After many years using a 20mtr Delta Loop antenna, I am now, the owner of a Sandpiper MV10 vertical. I got this antenna from Keith (2E0JKD) who has sadly decided to go QRT. Keith sold his radio to a new ham called Dave (M6DMH, welcome to the ranks) a couple of weeks ago and I decided I would give the antenna a go.

The MV10 is very small at under 14 feet with radials that allow this antenna to cover bands from 160mtrs right through to 6mtrs. I have not had a real chance to use the antenna yet but, I will put it through its paces on Sunday. 1st impressions are very good. The MV10 needs some tuning, at the moment I cannot use 160mtrs and 30mtrs. I am not to bothered about top band but, I am bothered about 30mtrs. This antenna finally allows me to use 40mtrs. I have not operated on 40mtrs for a while now and I have been itching to get back on 40. So far I have found the RX to be a little down on what the 20mtr Delta Loop gave but, as I was unable to do a A vs B comparison it may just have been the band conditions worsening during the time it took me to erect the MV10.

I have added a photo of the antenna to the my Equipment page.

15-02-2009 Yet another 950 update. Contacts at last and new vids on Youtube.

Yaesu have yet again issued another update for the FT-950. This is a DSP only update and takes the DSP to version 11.50. Update features are as follows:

• Corrects a low audio problem found in Ver. 11.45

• Corrects the CW-DET indication problem found in Ver. 11.45

I have been very active on the radio the past few days. I have had 4 QSO's which is active for me. On the 12th Feb 2009 I had a contact with LZ17ARDF and today I have had 3 contacts with ES7GM, 9A9SF and IU2ANT all 20mtrs SSB. These are the first contacts I have had this year and the first since 31st Nov 2008. Now you know why I said I had been very active Hi Hi. I have added video's below of the contacts from today.

01-02-2009 Yet another official FT-950 update. Junksale getting boring.

Well after the 950 had a year and a half of no updates from Yaesu, it has had 3 updates during the month of January 2009.

The 950 has gone from it's original 10.291.04 firmware to, 11.291.05, then to, 11.391.05 and now the latest update is, 11.451.06.

• Added values are now indicated on the VFD display for MIC (Press the [ENT] key to set the command to “Enable” or “Disable” MENU #015 LVL IND).

• Changed the position and the set point of the PROC Menu.

•The characteristic of the CONT LEVEL is changed.

• The characteristic of the MIC and PROC LEVEL is changed.

• Detection frequency precision of CW-DET.

This latest update has made a few enhancements to the DSP and has added a couple of extra features. With every update the FT-950 has seen some great improvements, now with all these updates this rig is hard to beat, especially for the price.

Well it seems I may have upset the moderators on Junksale. I added a thread entitled "Junksale Getting Boring." This thread was about the increase of none radio related posts and about posts in the incorrect sections also being on the increase. After just over 1 hour the thread was deleted while, threads that are not radio related or in the incorrect sections are left alone.

It seems that if you speak out in any sort of negative manner about Junksale that you're posts are deleted. My post was not offensive, it was not to cause an argument and I did not have a go at any one. I was just making a point. It looks to me as though the moderators on Junksale are a little like communists. If you dare speak out of turn about the regime, they take you away for re-education. Hi Hi. Well at least they cannot delete this from my website. I have asked for an explanation of why my thread was deleted but, as yet, I have not had any form of response. I am now not going to make any contributions to the forums on Junksale until I get an explanation. The reason for this is, if a thread I considered harmless was deleted, then I would like clarification of what I can post so I do not repeat the process again.

20-01-2009 Official FT-950 update. FT-950 eHam review.

Well Yaesu came good and released the official firmware update for the FT-950.  I got home after work on Saturday, 17-01-09. and after having my tea and doing a few jobs I checked the FT-950 Yahoo group out for the latest messages. Well I immediately noticed lots of messages regarding PEP-950 upgrade. So I browsed a few and the information within them was all about the official FT-950 update called PEP-950.

Straight away I was on the Yaesu site and on to the files section of the FT-950 page. I downloaded the update and got to work on installing. This update was in 2 parts, the first part was the actual radio update which updated the radio from 1.04 to 1.05. The second part was the DSP update which I already had by using the FT-2000 version but, I installed the official one any way.

Well the update process took about 10-15 minutes in all. The DSP version 11.39 was as described below. The radio update to Version 1.05 added some extra features that are very useful. The radio will now display the frequency of the contour and the notch as well as the keyer speed when the appropriate control's are used. This update is fantastic. I have finally wrote a review, al be it a small review regarding the PEP-950 update on the eHam, which can be seen below.

I have wanted to write a review on the FT-950 since I purchased one almost 1 year ago.  I held off though because, I thought I would wait for the 1^st firmware update to see what improvements were made, if any.

 Review on eHam.

The 950 before the update, was a very capable radio but, had a few flaws.  AGC pumping, especially when a room light was switched on.  Awful RX audio when the DNR was engaged.  Over aggressive DNR.  DNR was also difficult to set because, it was not on a scale of 1-15 but, 1 would reduce one type of noise, 2 another 3 another etc.  Distorted RX audio when notch engaged.  The mic processor was awful to set up correctly with out distortion.

Now the update has come and I have installed it, WOW. I have a totally new rig and I have fallen in love with it all over again. AGC pumping has gone. DNR works fantastically well with and makes the RX almost silent, other than the RX station which can be heard with no problems and the DNR is no longer over aggressive. The DNR also has a level of 1 to 15 now so, 0 is off, 1 is minimal DNR to 15 highest DNR. Notch filter now has no distortion when used and notches beat tones with ease. Default mic EQ settings are a lot better and the processor allows a lot more forgiveness before it starts to distort.

So that’s some of the DSP improvements, now for the radio improvements. The update saw a few added features. Auto contour when, in CW mode is a great touch. When adjusting the contour the contour frequency is displayed momentarily on the frequency display. The same frequency display applies to Manual Notch. Also when in CW, if you use the built in keyer and adjust the send speed, that send speed is displayed in the same way as the notch and contour frequency.

 Before Yaesu released this update I was thinking of selling the radio and going back to Icom. The DSP performance was well below my expectation and no where near as good as the Icom IC-7000. Now the update has come and fixed the issues, this rig is going no where. The DSP is now better the IC-7000 and from my experience of using a pro III, it is also better than that.

My 950 is staying in this shack for a long time now and I will now probably invest in a DMU for it. To go into all the features I like about this radio would take a long long time.  I now only have one gripe about the updated 950. I DO NOT WANT TO TURN IT OFF.

 Well done Yaesu on a fantastic update which made a good rig a truly awesome rig.

14-01-2009 My contribution to radio hams world wide.

Well the Christmas and New Year is now well and truly out of the way, I can finally get down to the first update of the 2009.

Radio, up to Sunday 11-01-2009 had not been turned on to much, apart from the odd five minutes here and there. Since then it has rarely been off when I have been in the shack. The Reason is as follows.

I woke up Sunday I did my usual routine. After that I sat at the PC and caught up with the news and a few other things including, going to the FT-950 Yahoo group and having a read of a few post's. On their people where talking about the latest FT-2000 update and whether it would work on the FT-950. Well I have experience of the DSP update process so I had a look at the latest update for the FT-2000 on the Yaesu site. The new update consisted of a radio update and a DSP update to version 11.29 of the DSP firmware. I read all the information and realised that this should work on the 950 so, I took the plunge and downloaded the DSP update.

WOW THE DIFFERENCE IS AMAZING.

This update made a good rig with a few issues into a near perfect rig. The DSP is a dream to use now. Gone is the awful distortion when using Digital Noise Reduction and/or Auto Notch. Gone has the distortion in Audio when using the processor. RX is now the quietest I have ever had the privilege of hearing.

Well I was that excited by how this performed I got on the 950 group to tell them my findings. I have never been off the group since. I was inundated by emails with questions of how to do the upgrade on that Sunday. I had so many emails that I wrote a guide on how to upgrade the DSP and uploaded the DSP software. I am now being inundated with thanks and praise from around the world. I did a search regarding the issue and my findings where copied and pasted on user forums throughout the world, Europe, The America's, Asia, Russia to name a few.

So I have at last made a contribution to radio amateurs world wide. I have had so much from this hobby I am finally glad I can say I have gave something back. It may not be to you all but, it's a good start. I am now being inundated with praise and thanks for doing what I have done and sharing the information. Below is an image of the rig showing the new firmware, in fact it is old, because it is now on DSP version 11.39. Listen to the audio files to hear the difference the update makes.

This is the old  FT-950 DSP 10.29 Audio. And now hear the massive improvement with, FT-950 DSP 11.29.