Got myself a brand new Icom IC-7600 today. Including SP-23 speaker and SM-50 Desk Mic. Although I am really sort of a Kenwood Guy, I could not find a suitable upgrade to my shack in their catalogue. There is a large gap between very good but compact TS-590 and the outrageously big / heavy / expensive TS-990 . So I went for this nice transceiver from Icom. I dedicate this new radio to the loving memory of my dad whom has passed away last week. My faithful old TS-870S will not be sold, however, and will get a new home at the club station where we can keep enjoying this wonderful transceiver, starting with the upcoming PACC contest next weekend..
DXCC #107: Armenia
QSO with Boris EK3GM on 20m this morning added another DXCC to my list.
DXCC #106: Afghanistan
First new DXCC in the new year by QSO on 10 meters with Shuravi T6T from Kabul, Afghanistan. Happy New Year and good DX everyone!
DXCC #103 UAE, #104 Northern Ireland, #105 Svalbard
Enjoying my day off placing CQ DX calls on 20 & 10 meters. A lot of nice QSO’s passed by, adding 3 new DXCC’s to my list. First Mohammed A61CK from the United Arab Emirates on 10 meters, then I had a nice chat with Robert MI0GDO from Northern Ireland on 20, and Svein JW9JKA from Svalbard also on 20. I got so many 9+ reports today, incredible. In the “very nice QSO” list I would like to add 83 year old Fred OE1SF from Austria. He was a fun guy to talk to, lots of laughs from Vienna. Thanks for pointing out the noisy fan in my power supply, Fred!
Rotor Control, the Easy Way
Today I added a computer interface to my Yaesu G450C rotator. There are several ways to accomplish this but after recommendation by my good friend Rico PA3BVK I went for Easy Rotor Control or ERC made by German company Schmidt Alba. I ordered the kit last week and it arrived only two days later. Anyone with reasonable soldering skills will build this neat little interface in an hour or so. The PCB is small enough to incorporate it in the rotor control box and I decided to put the board just above the main PCB in the G450C box. It’s the board with the 3 orange relays in the above picture. I drilled 4 holes in the back of the box, 2 for the included mounting brackets and 2 larger ones for the power and interface cable jacks. 5 wires needed to be connected to the internal wiring as decribed in the extensive documentation and thats really all there is to it. The controller comes with software for remote control and there’s also a program for guided calibration of the controller. It was a breeze really. The unit talks Yaesu GS232A or GS232B protocol so configuring in Ham Radio Deluxe took about a minute. A great kit, well documented and it comes with everything you need, including power and RS232 or USB cables. Highly recommended for lazy old men that want to point and click their antenna to the correct bearing. Just like me 😉