In reply to GM8OTI:
I had tried to contact Mike 2E0YYY earlier on 2m FM
but he couldn’t get my call - in spite of the big collinearSorry
Mike, I didn’t hear you calling on 70cm at all.
Hi John,
Sorry about that, it was a really difficult copy. You were about 2/1. I had GM6ODI no copy, in my log.
I’d be interested to know your working conditions?
I was running about 5 Watts from my handy into the collinear. Shame it wasn’t Saturday, we could have worked each other on 1 Watt.
73 Mike
2E0YYY
In reply to 2E0YYY:
I’d be interested to know your working conditions?
I wasn’t really set up for 2m, Mike. Just the handy on 5W into its rubber duck, not even with a counterpoise! You weren’t very strong either - far from fully quieting. If I’m working 2m seriously then I use a proper antenna - beam
Mind you, Andy on Blencathra was a big signal on 2m FM. Line of sight of course, through the gap the M74 runs in. I think our path was a bit harder - some south of Scotland hills are in the way.
73
John GM8OTI
In reply to GM8OTI:
2m: FT817 at 1W on 2m into a 300Ohm ribbon J-pole most of the day apart from the last 20 mins when I got the stokers to put some more coal on the fire. i.e. 5W
70cms: FT817 at 1/2W or 1W into MM 432/30 giving 10 or 15W into a 6 ele yagi.
23cms DJ-G7 at 100mW or 1W into WA5VJB PCB 3 ele Yagi.
Tinto<>Blencathra is true LOS. John was “reet strong” on all bands. Apart from 70cms but that’s 'coz the 817 is deaf as a post there. With the preamp on in the PA John was 59+60 on 817 meter.
The 817 really does need a preamp on 70cms.
Andy
MM0FMF
(passport stamped, gate closed)
In reply to MM0FMF:
The 817 really does need a preamp on 70cms.
Having tried the rig barefoot from GM/SS, I tend to agree Andy. Looks like I will have to add a 70cms linear to my backpack when I next cross the border.
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to G4OIG:
It is a bit deaf, but you can improve it a little using the third menu.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G4OIG:
Agree with Andy that the FT-817 is pretty deaf on 70cm.
I have added a very simple BFG541 preamp (fairly broadband) in the box with my 70cm PA, used for the UKAC nights.
I have found it makes an enormous difference to the FT-817 - I can hear a lot more stations!
73
John GM8OTI
In reply to G4OIG:
My expression on Blencathra when I discovered the PA had a preamp would have been amusing to anyone watching! I bought it at Blackpool 18months back for £30, tested it at home by checking it amplified, 25W out for 2.5W in, job done. Never tried it on RX. It was in circuit but powered off when I was working John. When I was ready to call Brian G4ZRP I knew I’d need some “beef” as we were cross-polarised so I powered up, the RX noise went up then John said something and instead of S2-4 on the meter all the segemnts were lit and that was off the back of the beam!
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
(replying to self… bad form)
I now know why my 20W lightweight PA is hooting. The input is unterminated when the relays drop into RX. I need to pad it with something or add another relay to dump power to the PA when in RX. With the demo of how Mutt the 817 is I’ll drop a preamp in the RX path. I’ve got a CirKit preamp from 1992 kicking about, think it’s a BF981 based thing. Better than nothing!
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to MM0FMF:
Have you tried increasing the RF gain on 70 using the “hidden menu”? On the UHF menu (No 6) I turned it up from 67 to 120 and was then able to hear the noise level increase noticeably when plugging in the antenna. You don’t get something for nothing, of course, my impression is that with the gain boosted it isn’t quite so tolerant of strong signals as it was, but you don’t get many of those around here even during contests! Of course, you can always return it to the original figure when the pre-amp is ready, if you so wish.
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to M0YDH:
Our Saturday walk up the nearest SOTA hill, The Wrekin was delightful. I was on air on time and my CQ on 432.222 ssb was answered straight away by Mike G4VPD. I worked two other stations then silence whilst beaming around the points of the compass. I switched to FM and replied to Walt G3NYY/p for a S2S. After returning to calling frequency I worked 4 other stations. It was a very pleasant hour. The sunshine also lifted the family’s mood and they went off to play games around the summit and left me undisturbed. I closed down as they walked off to the Halfway house for ice cream, ate my lunch, packed up and descended. It was the first hill that I’ve qualified on 70cm band.
73
David M0YDH
In reply to MM0FMF:
Even though I had alerted for 70cm I must apologise for not giving it a proper go Sunday, I got a little distracted.
When I got to the summit of Nine Barrow Down (in good time) the first thing I did was check the alerts and saw there were very few for 70’ and those that were said FM.
Thinking I would start on 2m ssb to see who was around and then hop up to 70cm looked like the best plan.
I usually self spot my frequency before I start on HF and would’ve done on 2m but Helen had pinched my phone to spot herself for 40m so I tried the old way and called CQ.
First reply was a French station who was extremely strong so we QSY-ed. After a nice chat a 2e0 called me. Back to the calling frequency quickly picked up a EA2 followed by a M0. At one point 2m sounded like one of my HF activations with a mini pile up of Spanish stations waiting to work me.
I ended up with 4 French stations and 5 Spanish before propagation started to drop and only 3 from the UK.
I just happened to be in the right spot at the right time.
70cm was very poor with only one contact with Robert (G0PEB) on the Isle of Wight even with a spot and loads of calls.
I have got 23cm ssb capability but wonder if its worth taking when there are so few chasers for that band?
Carolyn
In reply to G6WRW:
I have got 23cm ssb capability but wonder if its worth taking when there are so
few chasers for that band?
To make it worthwhile we need to encourage the 23cms DXers to keep a watching brief on the spots and alerts. A few have a dismissive “pah FM” attitude but in fact they are turning up their noses at working all sorts of squares etc. where they’ll never work a fixed station. Same goes for a few 4m DXers. Just because the activator is using an FM handy. DXers loss.
Andy
MM0FMF
In reply to G6WRW:
Hi Carolyn,
Good to hear you on 70cm, I arrived a bit earlier on SE-008, conditions seemed to be better at approx 0900utc. I managed 11 QSO’s in total, 2 were S2S in UK, M0VCM/P on WB-003 and yourself on SC-013, followed by an EA1 in IN73 and a F1 in IN88. I listened out for GM8OTI but nothing was heard.
73
Robert
G0PEB
In reply to G8ADD:
Have you tried increasing the RF gain on 70 using the “hidden menu”? On the UHF menu (No 6)…
FT-817 Brian? Menu 06 on mine is AM Step… or am I not looking at the correct menu?
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to G4OIG:
No, Gerald, you were looking at the second menu. The third one is a bit difficult to get to if your fingers are thick like mine!
Switch off, press in the A, B and C buttons simultaneously and with the other hand switch on again, the rig warbles at you and you are in to what I have heard described as the engineering menu. Most of these items should be left strictly alone unless you REALLY know what you are doing but the first six control the pre-amp gain. Number 6 is for UHF, make a note of the factory setting in case you want to go back to it, then increase the gain using the tuning knob, you will see the number on the screen increasing and hear the background noise come up rapidly at first, then more slowly. I left mine at the top of the rapid rise at 120. Note that menu five performs the same trick for two metres, I edged mine up to 98 with an increase in background noise showing more gain. Note that this is (mostly) antenna noise, not internal noise. Save changes as you make them by a long press on the F button.
As I said above, the rig is slightly more easy to overload on receive with the higher settings, but I found it worthwhile. There is no benefit on the HF bands but it might possibly be worth a little tweak on 6 metres, I haven’t tried that as my home location is very noisy on that band - though as the older generation of plasma TVs gradually get replaced things are improving slightly!
73
Brian G8ADD
In reply to G8ADD:
Many thanks for the detailed reply Brian. I have tweaked it on 70cms and will see what happens. The level was set at 94 and I will try it at 120. The unit has been at MLS a couple of times, so probably wasn’t set at factory settings. As for 2m, which is set at 90, I will leave well alone as with the MM linear in circuit it can overload. Changing the RF/squelch control to RF certainly helps deal with that, but it is not an absolute cure as the front end in a multiband rig must be a compromise.
73, Gerald G4OIG
In reply to G4OIG:
Likewise, Thanks from me also Brian.
I tried the same with my FT897D during tonight’s 70cms Activity contest & it certainly makes a difference. I think the RX gain may have been deliberately set low as Yaesu must expect most serious VHF/UHF operators to be using an external pre-amp. For those like me who don’t, turning up the internal RX gain does help.
Thanks & 73,
Mark G0VOF
In reply to G4OIG:
I’m glad that you and Mark found it useful. Actually, Gerald, if you use a pre-amp you might improve the overload performance on two by dropping the gain to lower than the factory setting, there should be an optimum to be found by trial and error, and you can always tweak it up in a minute or so if you want to run the rig barefoot.
Dammit, I forgot the contest tonight!
73
Brian G8ADD