Just to inform SOTA ops that I am testing out my /P QRP kit today from the POTA G-0224 Howardian Hills National Landscape Area - so if you have worked me as a Chaser today I am not in a SOTA. I will be operating CW, FT8 and SSB
I am evaluating a Yaesu FT-710 for a future QRO FT8/CW/SSB activation of G/TW-004 and G/TW-005 soon.
73 de Phil G4OBK/P (POTA GB-0224 until around 1600z 29/03/2024)
Phil,
Thanks for the contact earlier. Not sure if you’ve tried FT4 for portable; approx 4.5s each over for FT4 vs approx 12.5s for FT8 which could save a bit on the battery.
Adjusting your CQ call to: ‘CQ POTA G4OBK/P IO94’ could pull in a few more POTA chasers.
Good luck!
73, Robert
M0RWX
I’m considering the FT-710 for /P work too, so would be interested in your findings.
Ian
I hope you had a good trial but the POTA reference won’t be G-0224 following the recent and still ongoing change of reference numbers. It may now be GB-0224 but to be sure you need to check on the POTA map where you might find any previous activations you may have are not recorded. They say it will all get sorted. 
Hi Phil, I’ve always been a fan of Yaesu radios but hadn’t heard of the FT710 until I read this. Reading the spec, it’s obviously a sophisticated modern radio but looking at its size and weight, it doesn’t strike me as an obvious choice for SOTA activating. So, I was wondering why you chose this model for evaluation.
I added it to my inventory for portable operation, not for carrying up to a summit Andy, it is too heavy and cumbersome for that for a man of 71 years to carry. Albeit, it will fit snugly in its rucksack but without batteries or antenna etc. I bought the FT-710 last year to take on holidays where I travel by car or for NFD, POTA, BOTA or for use on a drive on summit on a camping table (which is why I mentioned G/TW-004 and G/TW-005). I use a KX3 or a youkits HB-1B for the HF SOTA activations I do now.
73 Phil
Yes John, it was just convenient for me to activate the POTA today on public land, which is adjacent to a family relatives home. I wasn’t aware of any ongoing change of reference numbers within POTA until I went on to the website to check references. I hadn’t activated a POTA area before, that wasn’t actually a SOTA summit, until today. I found when I checked, that the POTA MT have renamed the AONBs in Great Britain on their website as National Landscapes after the rebrand which took place in November. The rebranding name change in fact, cost the HHNL area £3000. I’m honoured to sit on the Joint Advisory Committee of the area that I activated today, which is The Howardian Hills National Landscape, a beautiful part of North Yorkshire, adjacent to a section of the North York Moors National Park, that is home to G/TW-001, G/TW-002 and G/TW-003.
73 Phil G4OBK
HI Robert
Glad I worked you and a few more active SOTA Chasers/Activators on the POTA I did today. Only 9 FT8 QSOsm th eother 30 were CW/SSB. I would have liked to have used that more definitive CQ call in FT8 but I couldn’t - 20 characters in total if you include word spaces. I believe the number of characters allowed in one 15 second transmission over of FT4/8 is 13. I use JTDX for these modes and the software will not allow me to send anything out of the ordinary, apart from in TX5 if you are quick enough to edit the string whilst receiving. I wonder if the SOTA activators who use FT4/8 can enlighten me how this is achieved? The software does not seem to like operators sending a /P after the call either. I’m not sure if that is because of the number of characters or it just displies the slash.
73 Phil G4OBK
It’s a good radio for the money Ian, very good filtering as it is an SDR radio with controls, some switches and knobs and touch screen control as well. It is an especially good radio for dealing with adjacent QRM on CW due to the filtering that can be made really tight when needed. The internal tuner is better than most including the tuner in the FTDX101MP - it will tune my portable home brew OCFD antenna down to 1:1 on every band from 80m through to 10m including 60m. To get the best out of the rig you need to use it regularly though, which I don’t. I did program the CW message keys today with a CW POTA call and a TU de G4OBK/P after downloading the manual on my laptop. I coudn’t puzzle out how to do this without studying the manual - like I could on older radios!
If I was on a tight budget and had very little room in my shack with a mediocre antenna, it would be my choice of radio for sure, and in daily use I would get a lot more out of the FT-710 than I would using it a few times a year like I do. I’m a fan of Yaesu, so perhaps I am a little biased, but I have bought, used and sold on Kenwoods, Icoms and Ten Tec HF sets over the years as well. The Yaesu brand I have always found to be the most reliable over time, despite heavy usage.
73 Phil
Hi Phil,
I am not familiar with JTDX but use WSJT-X, which allows for a customised a free text fields.
The standard CQ is defined in the settings (a combination of callsign and Grid Square), but the free text field allows for more characters.
When I took the screenshot for the quick test, someone was calling CQ IOTA.
73, Robert
Thankyou Phil for the update,
I’m still on the fence. Like yourself I am a fan of Yaesu, and wondered if the 710 would be a significant enough upgrade to the FT-891 for those summits where weight and bulk were not an issue (and for non sota car-based ops). I wouldn’t replace the FT-DX3000 in the shack thought, so at the moment a 710 wouldn’t see enough use to justify it.
I also have the issue of wanting to enhance my VHF/UHF setup with a IC-9700 to replace the FT-736 (which is showing its age) and for reasons of keeping a happy household, I’m only allowed to pick one
I’ll probably wait a little longer and then pontificate some more since someone will bring out something new that will get thrown into the mix (like the IC-905 which turned out to be a no go since the lack of full duplex),
Thanks again
Ian
My opinion having used FT-736s since the mid 90s on contests (other peoples rigs, I don’t own one) and an IC-9700 on a contest is the 9700 wins hands down. Simply because you can listen to it for much longer than the 736 without needing a break to let your mind recover from the incessant noise the 736 has. The 9700 is significantly better in that regard and the 736 is reminiscent of special forces white noise torture. Of course little matches the listening pleasure of a Khune transverter and K3 but how much is a 9700 and how much is a well loaded K3 and Khune? The 9700 is about £3500 cheaper and does more than just 2m. (OK the K3 does HF but…)
Not a surprise considering one is a rig from 1987 and the other from 2019, I would expect some improvements. The 9700 is also more portable (to a point), easier PC control, has higher power and is not that much more money brand new than fully loaded 736 second hand. I only have one since they came out the year I was first licensed and always wanted one. Managed to bag mine a couple of years ago with only the 2m and 70cm for £250 which was good price. Its an excellent rig, but even when I join in on some of the VHF contests on sunny days in the garden I take the 817 out rather than the 736.
The noise issue can be offset with some kind of noise cancelling from the likes of bhi but its not pleasant to listen to it raw for a long period (although the pitch shift can help too).
Ian
I guess it seemed like a good idea to somebody, but it doesn’t seem to have been that well publicised. The back of my garden lies up against the boundary of one of the AONBs so renamed, but I’d not heard about the name change before. (I had heard about POTA’s grand reference reorganisation, though…)
I think that’s an exceptional price even for a basic set. I could almost live with the noisiness for that kind of money
Hence why i bought it. It was advertised with an issue on 70cm whcih on googling was easy to fix with cotton buds and surgical spirit. Probably in need of a overhaul and re-cap which i keep meaning to arrange but always something else comes up. I just like the way it sits and my desk and makes it sag in the middle 
I didn’t have that problem as my operating bench was made of kitchen worktop. 
My 736 was fully loaded - 6m to 23cm. Worst thing I did was p-ex it for a FT-857D for SOTA to get more power wirh the convenience of a single box. For me it would have been better to stick with my FT-817 and bought a linear amp… which is what I ended up doing. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Phil,
Thanks for chasing trans-Atlantic yesterday on 10M CW. My summit was inside the boundary of POTA US-8070 so I submitted a POTA log for our p2p credits. Hihi.
Stay well & 73!
Mike, WB2FUV
Cheers Mike - POTA is a bit of fun and can be convenient, SOTA is more serious though, for me at least! really pleased to get that QSO with you yesterday for the SOTA 10m Chaser section of the Challenge, and for POTA, 18 miles away from my home station…
73 Phil G4OBK
