What a VHF (and 70cm) week.

I have a friend who has a simple approach to amateur radio. He turns on his radio and talks to some people. He isn't really bothered about propagation, he prefers old radios with valves inside and big geared VFO knobs on the outside. Everything is analogue, and he does not have a computer. Obviously, he doesn't have an internet connection either. He knows his stuff, having been involved in the electrical installation industry for many years, but he doesn't do more these days than screw some PL-259s together - infrequently. He never fixed on a compression N-type socket because he uses PL-259s and adapters. Progress is not really what he is about. But he is happy.

I am not really like that. Show me a band full of HF stations ready for a blether and I head for the hills (frequency hills that is, VHF). I do love a bit of white noise to listen to. Now there, for me, is a challenge. I like my weeks of near silence, punctuated by giving away a few points in a contest which I do not enter. It is a thrilling pursuit, or at least for most of the time. Then, to my amazement the bands open and I have to work other stations by the bucket load.

Sure, I love the openings, but there is only so much a man can take. The sound of silence has an allure for me. This week the silence has been shattered.

By the way, this guy (the traditional amateur - I mention) and I have lots to talk about even though we never share the same bands. Let's call him "Gouda" - the cheese making city in The Netherlands. Gouda and I meet often and talk over hot chocolate and filled rolls about the Tour de France, the pathetic collapse of our local amateur radio club, and antenna theory. Antennas are much the same, be they HF or VHF. There is more in common between any two amateurs than what separates them. Sure, we occupy opposite ends of the hobby, but it is the same hobby.

No, Gouda's approach, which gives him great pleasure, is too staid for me. Never mind the ready supply of contacts he has, I love the possibility of what the week ahead might bring. Sure it might be nothing, but sometimes it is lots.


Sometimes I have a week like this past week.

All stations worked on VHF and 70cms during 7 days ended 27 July 2019

Given that we are near the end of the Summer Es season and tropo was not likely to be good due to low barometric pressure, a result like this could not have been predicted.

I prefer my radio unpredicable.

Despite my hopes for Es, this time of the year usually marks a decline, especially on 70MHz. This week, however, there were several good events. In fact each day was good, but I will only list some events and bands.

22 July - 4m

70MHz on 22 July 2019 as seen on dxMaps

There were two classic 70MHz openings that day:-

OIRT broadcast stations on 22 July at 07:34

Lots of broadcast stations, probably from Ukraine and Belarus alerted me to a probable opening to "The East", and my first contact was with SP2MKO (JO93, 1345km) at 07:21. After working OE9KFV on 6m (it is hard to know what to do with strong broadcast competition, and changing to 6m is a good idea unless you then attract Russian TV interference there) I returned to 4m to reach 6xSP, 2xS5, and 9xDL stations plus OK1IN and YL2HA. YL2HA, in KO26 (1671km) being a new square.

That was the end of that opening at 09:22, though the OIRT continued for most of the morning, jumping between stations as ionisation changed.

There was then another opening further to the South starting at 12:38, with S57TW (JN75), and E76C (JN84) worked. Then without much warning, double hop propagation appeared. Single hop is limited to about 2000km, whereas up popped SV2JAO (KN10, 2459km) for a new square on 4m. This is classic Summer Es, and the chances of double hop lasting long are low. SV2JAO was the only double hop of the day, and he faded after the contact and was not heard again. I was still hoping to reach 4X4 on 70MHz, but so far it has eluded me. I suspect it might happen, rather like SV2JAO, briefly and without warning. After HA3GR at 13:23, that was it for 4m on 22 June.

23 QSO (on 4m and 6m), 21 squares, 8 DXCC. Not bad for the end of the season. 

25 July 2m and 70cms
With low barometric pressure predicted, about 1010mb, whereas a good tropo opening takes 1026+, I might have thought that not much would happen. However, the Hepburn map (link on sidebar) had been predicting good propagation for several days around then. This was due to an unusual period of slack air and high relative humidity. Sure enough on 25July it happened.

2m stations worked at GM4FVM on 25 July 2019

38 stations worked in 5 DXCC. Whilst none of it was really remarkable DX, it was a sign of how good 2m can be even on days without very high pressure. Best DX was OZ1CCM (JO55, 823km).

As usual nowadays I turned to 70cms...

70cms contacts at GM4FVM on 25 July 2019.

7 QSOs in 5 squares and 3 DXCC hardly sums it up. It was great to work Dirk, PA3FMP, who has been a target for a contact for some time. This was a new square, JO22, and PA3EAP gave me my first contact into JO32. DL1KAD was best DX at 809km, and JO30 for a new square too.

That is now 37 squares on 70cms, in 12 DXCC entities. Interestingly the 70cms ODX was only 14km shorter than the 2m one. And, I was asked again could I try 23cms.

I won't go on ... (much)

This was a very good week but there is no need to go over every contact. What I am trying to show, once again, is what there is plenty to work without the free standing tower and kilowatt linear which some people feel they need. Sure, other weeks are not so good. Enjoy it while it lasts, I say.

On 24 July Cyprus granted access to local amateurs to use 70MHz on an unlimited basis with a 400W output limit. That same day I heard 5B4AIE operating his club station 5B4AIF. I heard him, and PSK reporter confirms that he heard me, but no QSO resulted. Working Asia still is just  beyond my grasp on 70MHz. Someday it will happen of course, be it 5B4, 4X4 or some Central Asian state, and once I crack that there will be other challenges.

I work on all the VHF bands available to me, plus 70cms and 28MHz. Not only does this give me an insight into propagation, it means that there is rarely a real lull. Those days I describe with just white noise are not so common when I have five bands to choose from. And I can switch between Es, tropo, meteor scatter, aurora and sometimes even "moonbounce". So there is lots to be done, and weeks like last week are not so uncommon as I might try to pretend.

Maybe I am more like "Gouda" after all. I am getting near the point where I can, like him, just turn on and work somebody somewhere. Not quite though. Almost.

Why, when there are only two or three locals left on VHF, do I insist on giving them names which seem to be straight out of a spy novel? Roland and Gouda. What next? Mata Hari (Margreet MacLeod), ZigZag (Eddie Chapman), or Garbo (Juan Pujol) possibly.

And just to prove you don't need a beam on a tower ...

Not in the same week, but here are a couple contacts using the Sandpiper half wave vertical

Transatlantic contacts on 6m at GM4FVM on 16 July 2019

 I have not been giving 6m a lot of attention this year, but I have got across the Atlantic three times so far. Best DX is 5666km (triple hop?), but I prefer to use the highest frequency open so I have not been trying very hard. Still, no beam or mast, just a half wave on top of a length of pipe at about 5 metres above ground.

Don't give up. There is always something to be done even with just a vertical, especially on 4m and 6m.
Actually, there is more than I would have you believe, or even admit to myself.

73
Jim
GM4FVM

IC-9700 first look

EDIT - the fuller review of the IC-9700 is now here.

My recent comments about the IC-9700 were a bit enigmatic - you can find them here ..

http://gm4fvm.blogspot.com/2019/05/icom-ic-9700-ptt-switching-something-i.html

I had noticed that it had an issue with the PTT output which would be a problem for me. Anyway, it put me off buying one, but now I have one so I need to check it out.

Icom IC-9700 at GM4FVM

As with any new rig which had never been out of the box, it needed to be set up. In this case the key element is to update the firmware. So, once it had been connected to a computer by a USB cable it was easy to do the update. In this case it is update Version 11.

Firmware update Version 10 had already added the possibility of using a GPS-locked frequency standard. It surprised me that the 9700 was initially launched with a 10MHz input on the back for use with a GPS or similar frequency standard, it then left the settings so that you had to reset the frequency manually. Version 10 update revealed that Icom could change the firmware to make this correction automatic. With a rig which can operate on 1296MHz I would have expected the automatic correction to be available from the start. This was a surprising marketing mistake by Icom, and when put together with the fact that the radio only has one PTT output for all bands, it suggests that Icom got the launch wrong.

Never mind, the frequency standard problem has been resolved in a firmware. Modern SDRs can be reconfigured in this way. No need for a physical alteration if you can do it over the internet. However, there is no simple resolution for the PTT issue. This limitation will not present a problem for anyone not using linear amplifiers. However, the output devices in the 9700 are working fairly near 100% of their rated output, so linear amplifiers are not a bad idea, even for a limited gain in power. I remember early buyers of the IC-9100 experiencing blown output stages - but then many rigs have that problem.

To make the frequency stability solution work, of course, you need to add an outboard frequency standard. I have one already - my ancient Trimble Thunderbolt. This still works but has several downsides. Being old it is not configured for the latest satellites and it needs a USB connection to a PC. The OCXO on mine is old spec too, though it is possible to fit a better one.

The Trimble Thunderbolt issue is a common problem for me, and no doubt other amateurs. It is a nice piece of equipment, high spec when new and well ahead of its time. Mine was ex-equipment, via eBay and the Far East when few amateurs could afford them new. They cost £1000s new and 6 or 7 years ago I was glad to get an old one for a fraction of that. These days you can get better ones new for less than I paid for mine which was very second hand. So do you sideline your prized chunk of old tech, cut your losses, and buy a vastly better, smaller, more efficient modern off-the-shelf marvel? Or do you stay in the dinosaur world where people lie in wait to entice you back into valves, AR88s and the joys of mechanical teleprinters?

I could use the Thunderbolt for the 9700, or just keep it for another thing it is good for - regulating the PC clock. I guess it would be better to buy a more modern frequency standard, such as a Leo Bodnar one, for the Icom. Not only is it likely to be more accurate with less phase noise, it only needs the PC to set it up - after set up it runs independently.

Apparently the drift problem stems, not from poor ventilation inside the 9700, but too much ventilation. It is supposed to be fine until the fan cuts on, whereupon the airflow cools everything so much it induces drift. So far, with me only drawing a couple of watts from it, the fan has not turned on.

So enough about all this. I recall all the issues with the IC-7100 at the start, and eventually I took some simple action with the main one, ignored the rest, and I am still using it six years later.

It is far too early for me to comment too much on this rig. I hope to do a review later. For now, I do not even have an antenna for 1296 MHz. To put one up I would need some expensive coax, and right now I am holding back on that.

When it comes to reception on 2m it is superb. As you might expect from an SDR the receiver is surprisingly quiet. Sensitivity is good. The comparison I will try to make is between the 9700 and my IC-7300/ME4T transverter combination. Essentially the transverter arrangement is capable of moonbounce though I do not have proper EME antennas to make that much use. Can the 9700 also manage on moonbounce? Perhaps we shall see. In any case, first acquaintance looks promising.

I have also tried it on 70cms, though only on receive. Once again it sounds quiet. I think I can say it is better than the IC-7100, but you might expect that. I missed the chance to try it on the recent 70cms contest, so the jury is still out on that. As I have only used receive the fan never came on and the frequency stability never varied from excellent.

When it came to trying this rig on data modes I had the familiar problem with any new Icom transceiver - the Hamlib library used by WSJT-X has not been updated to include it. I had to trick WSJT-X into thinking it was some other model of Icom rig. This is not a problem with other makes of gear as they use the straight CAT protocol, whereas Icom use a specific CI-V coding for each model. Of course, being a radical new thing, it was rather difficult to find a similar rig to give as a temporary identity to the IC-9700.

Thinking that the IC-9100 might be a good place to start I quickly found that the Icom SDR rigs have a different TX instruction. That meant that pretending to WSJT-X that the 9700 was in fact a 9100 would produce full functionality in my mind. Back in the real world, it didn't work. Strangely the IC-7610 set-up did not work either. So after an awful lot of fiddling, I changed the settings so that WSJT-X thinks that the 9700 is an IC-7300. That way I do not have full functionality but at least it works partially. The software can tell the rig to use 144 or 432 MHz, but it gets confused with 1296 (which is hardly surprising). Never mind, I can now use WSJT-X. Once WSIT-X is updated with the coding for the IC-9700 I can change it back to default.

Another solution to the Hamlib problem would have been to use MSJT software instead of WSJT-X. While I was struggling to get WSJT-X to work I did indeed use MSJT and it works. I find it hard to adjust to MSJT. I cannot fault the functioning, but the user interface just doesn't suit me. There are lots of little things like the fact that WSJT-X continues to finish a TX segment unless you press "Halt TX", whereas MSJT just cuts you off in the middle of a TX period when you ask it to stop a sequence. That sort of thing makes a difference when I am busy. Anyway, MSJT works folks, and it is another work-around.

Very early verdict - I like the IC-9700. I will add some sort of frequency standard at some stage. It has a great receiver. It has lots of TX power but I am not sure it is a good idea to run it flat out, either for the PA devices or for the internal temperatures. Have I understood both manuals yet ?? - NO. Have I tested it fully yet - No, probably about 15% of its capability. But already I like it.

EDIT this next PTT isue has been resolved for me by the DX Shop PTT multiplier - see here.

To return to the PTT thing finally, I wrote about this before and suggested that somebody (me?) could make something to resolve that problem ....
=============================
The CIV box I have in mind has a simple CIV decoder (maybe an Arduino) and 3 relays (or solid state switching). It just reads the CIV and switches between the relays to select the PTT. No need to sense the PTT from the CIV as it comes out on a different pin on the same socket as the CIV does. Three LEDS on the box to show which one is selected and as a fail safe all three work if the box loses the CIV signal.
Timing and sequencing are not an issue as the PTT is still controlled by the DC line coming straight out of the rig. All the relays do is to switch it about.
=============================
I wrote that when this was just a thought. Now I have an IC-9700 maybe I have to get into gear and do something. So I dug out the CI-V protocol and there is plenty to read there. Eventually I have left it for some future date, but such a thing would certainly be useful in other settings.

Hopefully I will form a view on the IC-9700 soon. Right now I seem to have an IC-7300 and a transverter which I don't need.

It is only 5 weeks since I wrote about matching the IC-7300 to the transverter. I did not expect to have an IC-9700 today but I have. I had better get on with it but at first glance the 9700 appears to be excellent.

73

Jim

GM4FVM

Taynuilt, GM4JJJ's legacy plus 2m and 4m Es openings compared.

We have been off on our travels again

Antenna pole on the GM4FVM car at Taynuilt, with Mrs FVM showing an interest(?).

A week's holiday in Taynuilt near Oban provided an opportunity for some GM4FVM/P operation from IO76.

I think IO76 is a rare square because I have never worked it on 6m, only once on 4m and never on 70cms. A dipole, which was all I had for 4m, works quite well during an Es opening - but we didn't get a 4m Es opening. The same dipole, shortened, did good work on 2m tropo, and I did quite well on 6m using a ground plane antenna too. However, even with tropo looking to get better, I decided about half way through that it was supposed to be a holiday and I had better knock off the radio.

The day before setting off for Taynuilt, Sue and I visited David, GM4JJJs, shack and met Pat again. Long before David became Silent Key he had asked me to accept various - specific - items of equipment. He had carefully worked out what I would be likely to need. In fact, he divided up lots of equipment and passed it on to several amateurs.

Peter, GM8GAX, was undertaking the task of sorting everything out, packing it up and clearing David's shack. That is a difficult job, and Peter had plenty of work to do. Eventually we headed back with boxes of gear, all of which will be much appreciated. I have plans for all of it.

It was immensely kind of David to pass on all his equipment to fellow amateurs like that. It is also very kind of Pat to make sure David's wishes were carried out. Peter has done a lot of work to make it happen. I hope to be writing about various bits and pieces as I use them. I was using the excellent YouKits antenna analyser to set up the dipole in Taynuilt.

This exercise has been a shock for me, even though David had told me a long time ago that it would happen. Indeed, he wanted to be sure that everything found a good home. I agreed to be part of it all, but that doesn't mean that I am without doubts. I just wish it hadn't been necessary. I wish David had more chance to put it all to use. It is hugely generous of him, but it is also a sad day for me to accept all of his generosity.

I know that David would want me put this gear to use and that is what I intend to do. I do feel sorrow about the way I have come by it, but I will certainly follow David's wishes. I considered David a friend and he obviously felt the same.

How different all this has been than the other SK's distress sale ("Roland") I have been posting about.

I was never short of gear, and I certainly have plenty now.

The circumstances could have been better though.

My feelings about all this are troubling me, but maybe we will stop dwelling on them here on this blog.

Peter also passed on to me this QSL card which he found when clearing the shack. It is for a contact with David (who was then GM8HEY) in 1977 ...

There was a nice 2m Sporadic E opening on 2m on 2 July. This being the first Tuesday in the month, it was RSGB Contest evening. Never having entered a contest, I still feel that it is helpful if I turn up occasionally and give away some points. There have been times recently when IO85 was a rare square ...

I decided to spend 55 minutes on the "144 MHz MGMAC", a short contest mostly involving FT8. During the second half of the event I heard several stations in mainland Italy and Sicily but no contact resulted. Then, between 18:51 and 19:13 I worked five Italian stations, best DX being IT9PQO in Sicily (JM78, 2328km). As well as JM78, I also worked two stations in JN61 and one in JN52, bagging two new squares. It surprised me a bit that working IZ5IOR in JN53 did not bring a new square. The key to this is that JN53 is only 1618km away, and close enough to have worked on 2m meteor scatter.

Looking at this more carefully, I was surprised to find that I have worked Italy 16 times from here on 2m, but only 10 are on Es (and only 5 before this week). The other 5 are on meteor scatter with just one on Earth- Moon- Earth.

Italy is an elongated land mass along a series of fault lines in the Earth's crust. The operative word here is "line", as the geology has created a long line of mountains down the "spine" of Italy and by some fluke this is aligned almost perfectly in line with the path from the UK. Thus with Italian stations being organised along this line, from 1400 to 2400km, there is often a chance to work them. Put simply, Italian stations are where Italy is, and Italy spans a huge number of possible paths due to the alignment of its landmass.

The famous "Italian wall", which some amateur complain about, is not due to some strange propensity of Italian stations to operate all the time, but rather due to the peculiar geography. There is often propagation to some part of Italy because of the large range of distances from the UK. To pick a fairly random comparison, Austria is also elongated, but more at right angles to the UK. Thus Austrian stations don't all seem to line up along the same beam heading, and so you don't hear so many of them at once. Denmark is almost perfectly on a right angle from here and I do not often get several stations at once from there, and much the same goes for Finland. Luckily I do not often need a beam heading for New Zealand as they are in just about every direction you could imagine (maybe that is why I have never worked ZL, unlike Italy. Could the distance be a factor too?)

The UK must seem similar from the Italian perspective, but not quite so long or so nearly in a single direct line. In addition, the distant parts of the UK are different DXCCs. Being able to hear G, GD, GM, GI, and GW in one opening would be quite good fun. In Italy's case, only Sardinia is a separate radio entity.

Viewing the day's 2m activity on a map it looks quite clear ...

2m contacts at GM4FVM on 2 July 2019, including both the MGMAC contest and the Es opening

We can see clearly in this image the basic characteristics of a 2m Es opening. The distinction between the "flat band" tropo activity - best DX G3YDY, JO01, 493km (nice contact for tropo) - and the Es into Italy is easy to see. The Italian stations are arranged in a line from my perspective. The Es opening only lasted for 22 minutes so there was no time for the Es to shift. 2m Es openings are rare and short. The distances were, in order of contact ...,
at 18:51 2328 km,
at 18:54 1886 km,
at 19:02 1736 km,
at 19:03 1877 km, and finally
at 19:13 1618 km
The tendency this time was for the DX to shorten over time, which suggests that the ionisation was increasing. This of course relates to a tiny part of the ionosphere over those 22 minutes - other parts might be behaving differently.

There might, of course, have been other areas of ionisation nearby. When you look at the map, just a tiny bit West and the opening would be into open sea. If the path opens into areas such as the Alps, the Atlas mountains or the Adriatic Sea then there isn't much to work.

You have to rely on an amateur being active in a small area of land (hopefully not sea) - an area which is rapidly moving North in this case - on your frequency and mode, and at the time the opening occurs. Each station was only heard here for a couple of minutes. It is surprising 2m Es openings happen at all. You do rarely get long-lasting ones, but they are unusual.

Just for comparison, the 4m and 6m Es opening of the following day was a more leisurely event. Or perhaps I should say "events" as they took 8 hours and 3 minutes to complete. During this time various paths opened up and closed again. For this purpose I will look only at the 4m ones, though the 6m ones lasted even longer and featured multi-hop openings which I did not try to join.

4m contacts at GM4FVM on 3 July 2019

The contrast in directions worked is considerable. I first worked 9A2ZM at 13:29 during an opening to the Adriatic which lasted 9 minutes and was a bit like the previous day's 2m opening. The difference is that at 4m I could reasonably expect more openings later that day. On 2m the next Es opening could well be next year.

There wasn't long to wait, as I then worked EA2XR at 14:22. That sort of thing is fairly common on 4m, whereas having a second opening in a different direction would be unusual on 2m. It was not until 19:29 that 4m opened again - or maybe I was just not the shack. Life comes before radio and I cannot sit about listening all day. That opening lasted about an hour and I worked three stations - there are not may folk about on 4m. I hung around on a hunch and ten minutes later EA8DBM in IL18 (3278 km) appeared to round off the day. Almost as far was EA6SX in the Balearic Islands, but that proved to be a rather scrappy contact. I was finished at 21:32.

So how do we compare a few minutes on 2m to work one country and 4 squares, with half a day on 4m to work 5 countries and 8 squares? Well, 2m Es openings are vanishingly rare here. Those stations further South than me generally do better. But I like the steady progress on 4m, with each phase of the opening having its own character - EA1VM was a new square (IN72) and 4O6AH was both a new country (Montenegro) and a new square (JN92).

You could build up your totals more quickly on 6m where the openings are even longer and more common, but let us not go too far down that road. Down there lies 10m, where the openings are even more common, and eventually you reach 20m and the oblivion of HF operation on almost-always open bands.

Nope, it is not really the "goodness" of an opening I like. I do not care much for the comparison between them. It is all good. I love the uncertainty. The periods of listening to white noise before the band opens. You have to work quickly as you might only have minutes. Which way to beam? Can I go up a band - if it affects 6m, is it present on 4m, or even 2m? Is my antenna as good as it could be? And, of course, the glory of watching the ionosphere doing its thing.

And then the opening gets "better". Further. More stations. And then ... it is over. Gone for another year/ week/ day. They always get better just before they stop. No point calling CQ now Jim, you've missed the best bit. The fish that got away. Like hearing San Marino (actually "The Most Serene Republic of San Marino"), not calling them, and then never hearing them again. Not very serene after that one. Add Egypt and Lebanon on 6m to the list of giant fish that got away.

Ah, the joy and the pain (Frankie Beverly and Maze again). It's Rainin' Through My Sunshine (wasn't that the Real Thing? I went to see them at Ballymena County Hall in 1981 but I cannot remember them singing that).

Nobody said radio should be easy. It is the random nature of it that makes it interesting. It's great and then it is over. I love it, both when it happens and when it does not.

Treasure the good radio days, and treasure your radio friends too. We are all sporadic, over before we are ready to stop.

To finish, here is the view at Oban, where we went in the train from Taynuilt. I bet that Sun is doing some ionising.

As usual, you can click to enlarge any of the images if you want to.

73

Jim

GM4FVM

IC-7300, split IF, RF attenuator, transverter and ALC power spike

Now there is a complex title, designed to pick up every internet search ever invented.

Usual warning. This is a modification to a commercial radio, the Icom IC-7300. This may invalidate any warranty, so do not do it unless you appreciate the risks.

Usual assessment. The level of technical difficulty of this modification is, even by my standard, " very low".

The Problem
When I bought my ME2HT-Pro 2 metre band transverter I could see that I had found a superb performer. The thinking went that a device designed to work at maximum performance on a single band should be better than a multi-band rig. And so it proved. It really is superb. The only doubt I have surrounds its frequency stability while subjected to temperature changes generated on transmit. This issue needs to be resolved as I bought the high-stability version to avoid any trouble. It could be one of those snags which only exists in my head and not in reality.

I ran it initially with my Kenwood TS-590SG, but later I got an Icom IC-7300 which looked like a great combination. Gabi, who makes the transverter, suggests it as a option. Then a real-world problem arose because the IC-7300 puts out an RF power spike when going to transmit. This is common to many rigs as almost all use the ALC circuit to reduce the power. In the moment the radio goes to tx there is no modulation and the ALC is not active, leading to a momentary spike. Potentially this could be full power, which for the IC-7300 on 14MHz would be 100W, but in reality is lower than this. Another problem is that the spike is of very short duration, so it is very difficult to measure or even notice that it is there.

Anyway, undaunted, I connected the IC-7300 up to the transverter. I screwed the RF power output down to 1%. Every time I went to tx the output power LEDs on the transverter went full scale. Clearly these LEDs react to a short spike when my other meters don't. With the transverter producing 25W as shown on the LEDs (it is capable of 50W), the spike was lighting up the whole scale up to the 60W red one at the end of the scale. Scary.

With the transverter configured to 5 watt maximum input but adjusted to run to about 50% power on around 1 watt, this means that the spike must be more than 2 watts and quite possibly more than 5 watts. It proved too short to show up on conventional meters. I could only assume that it was in the 5 watt region or more. Recently I read a suggestion that it peaks at 25W.

This just compounded my often-stated reluctance to operate anything like a transverter on a single IF lead. All that has to happen is for the PTT line to fail, perhaps through tarnish on the plugs, and the TX transmits into the sensitive and expensive receive input section. Result: I would blow the whole thing up. Not that in 40 years of using transverters I have ever blown one up, but Mr Murphy would ensure that if I ever did it would be my best and most expensive one that went arrrggghhh.

The solution
Finding a solution to this problem involved a lot of debate with David, GM4JJJ, in the months before he sadly became silent key. The various ideas always involved splitting the rx line off from the tx line inside the IC-7300 (relays are too slow), ideally in a reversible operation. Then some way needed to be found to reduce the output power of the IC-7300. These two elements, tx and rx, would then be connected separately to the transverter in the same fashion as the TS590 used to be. But how to reduce the output power?

Well, those nice people at Kuhne Electronics make a board but I was disinclined to use it. There have been reported cases of PA instability and self-oscillation. I am sure that in most cases it works fine, but I also thought that the power handling of the resistor looked low and the soldering looked fiddly plus I don't like phono plugs for RF and then you have to take the board out to return the rig to normal use and ... I just don't like it. DB6NT's products from Kuhne are no doubt superb, but once again I am looking elsewhere.

INRAD make a simple kit for the IC-7300 to split the rx from the tx. It also uses phono sockets and costs £50 plus postage from major UK amateur stores. A bit more searching revealed a better one on eBay with SMA sockets and at a price which worked out at £22 with free postage. Not a difficult decision to make.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/283438884977
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{EDIT} I hear in May 2020 that the eBay link above may no longer be available. Not sure if the product still is, but the INRAD one is currently still availble in the UK from Nevada and possibly other sources.
===========================
I thought about various ways to reduce the IC-7300s output power by isolating the PA. David doubted that this was practical, and eventually I realised he was right. He usually was.

I have finally decided that the simple thing to do is to reduce the output power with an attenuator. I did not go for that immediately as I associated RF attenuators with calibrated products which come at enormous prices. This is true - my first checks revealed that a 20dB 100W attenuator costs about £500, putting the whole project beyond economic viability.  Also, the range of power and attenuation is rather limited.

However, I then checked Amazon and found a shed-load of lower spec attenuators for £30 or less. There were cheap ones with few details, but also a mid-priced one direct from the manufacturer. Tracing back from the Amazon photo, I found the manufacturers website and even found something approximating to a data sheet. Suddenly, thanks to Amazon, there was lots of choice, no need to settle for a limited range of values available in the calibrated ones.

I did some calculations based on my assumptions about the power spike and the attenuator network in the transverter, and this came up with 10W for the spike which would need a 10dB attenuation to render it insignificant. I decided to go for a 25W 10dB attenuator. I doubt if the spike is 25W, but that seemed the best power/price option with a safety allowance for my guesses.

Installing the components
It wasn't difficult. The "RX Adapter" from eBay arrived from France quickly. I needed some support from the seller Daniel who could not have been nicer or more helpful.

IC-7300 RX Adapter from "hifi1200" eBay

There were no instructions but it is pretty easy to install. Just to be on the safe side I downloaded and checked the INRAD instructions - I'm not proud. All you do is to take the top covers off the rig (14 screws, including the ones round the speaker), pull the ATU socket out and turn it safely back inside the rig, replacing it with the adapter board. Then pull out the RX plug from the rig and connect it into the back of the adapter and then plug the adapter's plug into the empty socket. Clip on the filter. Then put the covers back on and test.

Adapter installed with the ATU socket twisted back out of harm's way.

The kit includes an SMA to SMA patch lead which returns the IC-7300 to normal operation. This makes it an easily reversible modification. After checking that this lead worked (it did) I took the patch lead off again and connected the rx feed from the transverter and the IC-7300 was working perfectly on 2m. The only slight snag is that the SMA sockets are a bit wider than the ATU socket was so the top cover of the IC-7300 shows a very slight bulge over the sockets. Not a problem for me as I don't look at the back of it much.

The neat board showing that the nuts round the SMA sockets are wide. They slightly bend the covers when fitted.

Moving on to the transmit side, the "RX Adapter" modification changes nothing. Thus the full power still comes out of the SO-239 socket on the back of the rig. The attenuator was being sent from China and took a while to arrive. Actually, it was just over a week! During that time the RSGB "Rad Com" arrived and in it was an article for a satellite transverter-type thing which also used a similar attenuator. In the article the author, Giles Read warned against connecting these devices up "back-to-front" as they have much lower power handling that way round (I wonder why). He said that they had an N-type plug which could be connected to the rig at the input end. I checked all this out with Giles who was very helpful. I think I have it the right way round.

RF attenuator from Amazon.

The device duly arrived with no instructions so the RadCom article had informed me as to which way round it should go and the danger of getting it wrong. I am never keen on screwing anything heavy like an attenuator directly into the SO-239 socket on the back of the radio. The weight will tend to distort the socket. Anyway, it would need an adapter or for me to shell out money to convert to an N-type socket on the IC-7300, only to hang a heavy weight on the end of it.

So guided by the Rad Com article I spent the time waiting for the packet to arrive from China by making up an unusual lead - PL259 plug at one end and an N-type in-line socket at the other. Surprisingly, I did not have one of those leads in my spares box. I hate plug sense RF adapters anyway.

PL-259 plug to N-type socket lead - you know you want one - and the attenuator.

By making the lead I did the only soldering required for this modification.

When eventually set-up with all the leads and the separate rx and tx, the transverter was still set to 5W from previous use with the IC-7300 in unmodified form. So I decided to try this and adjust the sensitivity using the two pots in the transverter.

The present order of things is that the IC-7300 RF output is set to 25%, notionally 25W. Very little output power is showing on the IC-7300 PO meter because output is limited by the mic gain for SSB or PC drive for data. This produces around 9W out of the IC-7300 on 14MHz.

The spike power is not adjusted by the power output control on the rig, so the object of the exercise is to reduce whatever it is by the same amount as the wanted signal which is influenced by the output control, and then re-balance them.

Trying to measure the attenuation accurately is beyond me. I do not have calibrated meters. The figures suggest that it is around 6dB but it could be more. Given the limitations of the meters I have then it could well be 10dB, but I wouldn't buy one from Amazon expecting to use it for measurement purposes. Spend £500 on a proper one if you want to do that.

Result
The RX Adapter has split the rx and tx leads meaning the risk of blowing up the transverter receiver has gone. The attenuator has reduced the power into the transverter to around 2.5W. The spike is no longer visible in the transverter output LEDs.

The introduction of the attenuator is to reduce both the spike and the wanted signal by a fixed amount. So, assuming that before the mod the spike was 10W relative to an maximum input signal for the transverter of 5W. After the mod the spike should now be reduced by the attenuator to about 1 - 2W (depending on whether it is fully 10dB or the 6dB I think it might be), well below the maximum input power. I have adjusted the wanted output from the rig upwards to show 2.5W at the transverter. So the wanted signal should now be more than the spike, which the LEDs seem to show.

In reality I don't know what the power of the spike is, but I used to be able to see it higher than the wanted signal in the LED meter, and now I cannot see it at all.

There is no sign of the attenuator getting hot, but let us wait for an opening or a long Earth-Moon-Earth session to establish that for sure. I am pretty sure that the spike is so short that there won't be much heat in it, just enough voltage to do damage with the old set-up.

So far so good. Time will tell how it is judged in the long run.

I really like the IC-7300. It is not designed to work with a transverter, hence the modications. It does not feature to alter the readout for a transverter, which the TS-590 had. However, the TS-590 one didn't work very well anyway so I had it set to the IF frequency in any case. So either way it says 14.174 rather than 144.174. I can live with that.

IC-7300 on 2 metres, with 110hz correction checked against a GPS locked beacon. Not much happening.

Other thoughts.
This plan was hatched before the appearance of the IC-9700. I suspect it is a match for the transverter on 2m. It would make a great 2m radio for me. However, I have the IC-7300 and the transverter, so I should use them. Do not rule out the possibility that I might change to a VHF rig eventually, if only to get rid of the rats nest of wires.

It was also hatched before I suddenly became the owner of a second IC-7100, acquired in the SK sale. I didn't really need it. It works well enough on 2m, but not as well as the 7300+transverter combination. Still really good for 70cms where I have nothing to compare it with.

You should hear it. Relays in the rig (now not switching the RF), the transverter, and two in the linear, all sequenced and clicking in order one after the other, and then in reverse after tx, plus three fans independently doing their thing. Bang, crash, tinkle every 15 seconds. It sounds like it used to do in Knockmore Junction Signal Cabin when we signalled the Derry Fitted Goods off the Antrim Branch. That was what railways in 1967 were like, but not any more.

I hope that David, GM4JJJ, would have approved.

73

Jim

GM4FVM

Biggest isn't necessarily best.

As usual, I have to say that just because I do not do some aspect of amateur radio, I am not suggesting that there is anything wrong with it. I do not do much with Summits on the Air, LF, home brew, contests, CW, Club Nets (any nets really), vintage equipment, direction finding contests, SHF ... probably means that I do not have the time. If you do them, well done. I admire the efforts of others in these fields, I am interested in hearing about them and reading articles, but I simply cannot spread myself thin enough to cover them all.

VHF operation and the associated antennas, and especially propagation are what interests me.

I have written before in this blog about where I think I fit into the broad spread of amateurs. Here is some of it ...

It seems to me that the amateur radio world is divided into three camps. Category A has those who have a simple set-up, a wire antenna with a "VHF co-linear" vertical and who shun any further development or learning. At the other end of the scale, Category C pursue their hobby with deep pockets, obsession and determination to out-punch the ionosphere and out-buy anyone who dares to challenge them. And in between is Category B, who are the ones who want to learn and progress beyond the simple, but who stop short of relentless pursuit endless contacts.
I know that I am in Category B, but I only know of two other amateurs in the world who think the way I do. So there are only three of us. Only three of us who cannot stick the mundane boring nature of aimless CQs by the unknowing Category As. And the same three of us have no need of "premium brand" radios, huge linears and towers turned from the bottom which the Category C folks think are essential. We just want to learn from our hobby. All three of us.

That comes from here http://gm4fvm.blogspot.com/2017/06/out-of-rat-race-bikes-and-update.html

Maybe there are more than 3 of us now.

I say again, it is not that I am against the way others get their radio thrills, I just prefer to do it differently.

I am driven back to thinking about this by the discussion recently about planning permission. Do I want/ need a better/ bigger/ higher antenna?

Does anyone? (Erm, that is for them to decide Jim).

Take the past two days on 4m.

70MHz stations worked at GM4FVM on 24 and 25 May 2019

This, by any standard, is pretty good. By the standard of my performance on the 4 metre band of 5 or 10 years ago it is fantastic. I saw several familiar callsigns being worked so I know several readers of this blog were in on the action too.

Was I happy? No. I couldn't work SV2DCD. I heard him, and checking with PSK reporter I could see that he heard me. We never heard each other's CQ, so no contact resulted.

WHY CAN I NOT WORK GREECE ON 4M WHEN I CAN ALMOST REACH IT?

70MHz band as shown on PSK reporter on 25 May 2019

I could see everybody doing remarkably well, but why couldn't I work SV2DCD? It must be that dual band antenna. I need a bigger/ higher antenna.

If I hadn't compromised by pairing up the 4m and 6m antennas for some test, I could have done it. I could have been a contender.

Those last two paragraphs are nonsense. This had nothing to do with my antenna and everything to do with my over enthusiasm (Don't you mean everything to do with your ego, Jim?).

I have done the sums and I know that I have as good a station as I can have. Sure I keep swapping about the antennas, but then that is what keeps me interested.

Here are the conclusions I came to ages ago...

1) Output power
As readability increases as a logarithm of power and not proportionately, there comes a point where adding more power becomes financially pointless. So many radios come with 100Watts, the legal UK limit is 400W, and 200W is a handy stopping point. 100W is fine, 200W is moderately affordable and has twice the result, but 400W costs rather a lot to do. The first 100W added to the rig adds double the result, but to double it again needs another 200W, and that is too far for me. Anyway, on 70MHz the power limit is 160W.

If you end up with lots more power than the weak DX station you are trying to work you will fail anyway - you won't be able to hear them.

2) Antenna size
This is not quite so simple, but nevertheless doubling the length of the antenna might bring about 3dB gain. The complication is the number of elements, which alter things in a complex way. It does not help that some manufacturers quote silly gain figures. Changing from the 3m boom 70MHz beam to the 2m boom 50/70MHz dual band beams might have lost me about 1dB on 70MHz. I don't really believe that 1dB was stopping me working SV2DCD.

I have done the sums.  A maximum 3m boom length is the best practical length for me - it fits my masts, it gives a good compromise of gain versus length and it does not look too dominating on the skyline.  I could still do a lot with 2m booms if I had to, and the difference would not be that great. I will probably go back to a 3m boom on 70MHz because I have one stored away, but a bigger antenna than that is just not worth it.

3) Antenna Height
I have a copy of the RSGB VHF/UHF Handbook which has a height gain chart. It shows "typical mast heights" between 25 and 50 feet and suggests that doubling antenna height between these limits will mean about difference of about 6dB gain. That certainly has not been my experience, and to be fair the book does say that a lot of different factor are at play.

My Tennamast, with the maximum height of just short of 8m and with mast and rotator above that, provides a top height of about 10m, where the 2m antenna is usually placed. I can raise it from about 6.5m up to 10m. The main factor I have found is that when it is lowered it is below the roof ridge line to the South, but raising by a metre or so clears this. At 10m it is above next door's roof line to the East. In the other directions there is no roof to clear. So far, clearing the roof line has been the only thing to produce a significant effect. Generally speaking I want it as high as I can when working DX, but it doesn't make much difference how much higher once the obstructions have been cleared.

My MM0CUG mast raises to about 12m at the antenna but as it is above the roof line at all times I never found much need to raise it. I have tried, but despite the figures in the book it makes little difference.

So my simple rule of thumb here is that I need to clear the obstructions, after that more height matters but not much. Sure, if I could go to double next door's roof line - 20m - I might get another 6dB as the book promises, but I would need a new mast, which would need to be much heavier and free standing, new planning permission, more money ... and it isn't worth it to me.

So why am I finding that more power, bigger and higher antennas don't matter to me?
This seems to run counter to logic. Surely a better antenna is always a better antenna? Isn't more power always better - didn't I read an article suggesting that every UK amateur has a duty to run 400W so that they do not take that away from us?

Erm ... no Sir, not for me. Of course better is better by definition, but then what about the cost? Am I really losing much by having what I have? I cannot see that I am. I cannot say what I am missing because I cannot hear them, but when I look at what others do with their better (more expensive) set-ups I think I can do without it.

Maybe I am trying to justify my own choice of mediocre performance but frankly bigger linears, bigger antennas and higher masts make no sense to me. I think this is because of the propagation types I work.

You only need to take a look at the maps of 4m activity over the last two days which are posted above. I could probably have done all that on a dipole. Years ago I used a dipole before graduating to an HB9CV which could do almost everything I needed. Sporadic E is generally high signal strength, you don't need a beam or a high antenna.

You could make a case for most of the propagation methods I use - Tropo Ducting, Sporadic E (single hop anyway), Aurora, Meteor Scatter and EME - have been perfectly successful from here without exceeding my self-imposed power, boom and height limits. In fact you could make a case that in many situations smaller, lower antennas are more successful for these modes. Smaller antennas have wider beam width, and lower antennas bring ground gain and may connect into ducts which higher antennas or sites might not.

The only exception to this general rule for Es is "multi-hop Sporadic E" where 1dB might make the difference (to SV2DVD?). There is still plenty of fun to have without those extra dB though - I worked Canada on 50MHz with 50W SSB and an HB9CV boom length 0.8m at a height of 7 metres. Maybe I would not have worked Brazil with that, but when I did I was still using the 200W/3m boom rule with 7m height in that case.


And that just leaves plain and simple tropo. "Inter G" working. For that task a bigger, higher antenna fed with more power would help. Great ... spend lots more money and in some situation I might be able to work the next county. I might be competitive in a contest. Sorry, not interested, give me propagation science any day.
===========================================
For the type of operation I do, I can see no point in going for the full power, max height big antenna set up. I know somebody with a high power super-station. On 144MHz he has a 4 yagi array with 7 elements each. I reckon he has 6dB more gain than I have, plus he lives on top of a hill. He is a nice guy and I admire what he does but that is not for me. He might be able to win contests and work more EME than me, but I reckon the price is too high. Not just the financial price, but also the planning issues, the neighbour relations and all the other aspects.

I am well aware that if it was not for super-stations with stacked arrays I might have very little DX to work. Their antennas do all the work for me. Yet I also do something for them. I am here to work them too. If it wasn't for my middle-ranking station they might have nobody to work. If we all waited until we could afford to set up a super-station there wouldn't be much activity.

So where does this leave me with SV2DCD?

I have already worked him on 4m. We had a contact on 18 June 2016 and exchanged QSL cards.

I think for a moment I got caught up in the frustration of it all. Who to blame? Must be the antenna, linear or mast. In reality, the propagation was probably against us. I have already worked out that bigger antennas are not for me.

Earlier that day I worked  E76C for a new country on 70MHz (we worked last year on 50MHz). So that was country number 41 on 4m. That means more than anything else that day, and I did it with my modest set-up.

There are still lots of things to do. I could probably do most of them with my old HB9CVs. Wimo sell a dual 4m/6m band Moxon, there are multi-band log periodics, 2m/70cms yagis, verticals and all sorts of other good small antennas. I believe that nobody should be put off by pictures in books and catalogues of vast towers and antennas which few UK councils would tolerate under the planning rules. I would suggest instead get something simple up to start with. Even a 1/4 wave vertical has infinitely more gain than if having no antenna at all is keeping you QRT.

Over 40+ years I have built up a few better-than-simple antennas and bits of gear. That should be fine for me. The cold-headed me is happy with it, but the hot-headed me gets frustrated and wants to fall for the myth peddled by the VHF books - that huge towers and antennas are necessary.

I am not in this hobby to bulldoze my way through. My joyous radio memories stem from surprising contacts made with less power and with smaller antennas than you might expect. I might lose sight of that and need to prove it all to myself over again (see above), but I count myself lucky to do as well as I do.

Now, if I change the dual band 4m/6m yagi for a 4m stored one in the garage, and divide the 2m/70cm dual beam into two antennas, then ....

Rest assured, I will jiggle it all, about but "200W max/3m boom max/10m height max" is still the rule.

73 

Jim
EDIT BELOW

2 minutes after I posted that ---

First SV on 4m this year, plus a new square ... and without changing anything.

Patience dear boy.

73 Jim

Icom IC-9700 PTT switching - something I do not understand.

EDIT - now that I have an IC-9700, here is my first view of it ..
 http://gm4fvm.blogspot.com/2019/07/ic-9700-first-look.html
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EDIT - This posting has now been made redundant after 2 years waiting by the DX Shop PTT multiplier - see here.
========================================================

I have, of course, been watching developments on the IC9700 front for some time. It looks like and interesting radio for those of us who work on both 144MHz and 430MHz, and adds 1296MHz for good measure.

Maybe I have got this wrong, but it appears to me that the 9700 cannot switch different linear amplifiers on its different bands.

This is not such a hard thing to do. My IC7100 can do it. You can switch the two pins on the 13-pin socket between either working HF and VHF separately, or 2m/70cms separately. This is something I do. The IC-7100 has a "standard" 13 pin Icom output socket. However, the IC9700 seems only to have the other "standard" 7-pin socket. This has many things which I don't need, like RTTY switching, but it only has one PTT output pin.

Here is how the IC-7100 does it (one output is called HSEND, and the other VSEND) ...

IC-7100 manual showing clearly how to set the two separate PTT outputs.

As usual, click the images to enlarge if necessary.

You select what you want in the settings ...

IC-7100 manual showing how to select the automatic PTT band switching.

I do not own an IC-9700 and I have to rely on the "basic" version of the manual published by Icom UK. This does not show almost all of section 2 which would reveal the details. However that manual does show an explanation of the pin outs for the accessory plug ...

IC-9700 "basic" manual showing just one PTT output.

Now, as I say, I don't have an IC-9700 so I cannot verify if they are indeed being supplied with the 7 pin socket. However, elsewhere in the manual there is an explanation of how to set the single PTT output to work on specific bands

IC-9700 "basic" manual showing how to set the single PTT output.

This is, of course, consistent with the wiring details shown in the other part of the basic manual. It appears from this that you can set the single PTT output to on or off on any specific band, any combination of bands, or none.

It seems strange to me that a rig with three RF outputs only has one output for switching linear amplifiers. With the IC-7100, for instance, I can set it up with my 2m amplifier on one RF socket, and my 4m amp on the other socket, and it decides which amp to key. The same goes for 2m and 6m, and I have had it set that way too. You could also do this in the IC-7100 for 2m and 70cms, using a diplexer, but I have never tried that. I would have thought that this would have been a pretty obvious arrangement for the 9700 too.

I do wonder why the 9700, a radio with three RF outputs on the back, has only one PTT output, whereas the IC-7100 has two RF outputs and has full flexibility as to which PTT works with which. Why does the 9700 have the 7 pin plug when even the IC-7300, which has only one RF plug on the back, has the 13 pin plug. The IC-9700 seems to have taken a step backwards here.

From what I can see, the IC-9100 also had the 13-pin socket and the two PTT output, so if I was was replacing an IC-9100 with a IC-9700 I would be pretty miffed about this. It was a development of the 7100 system, allowing some limited choice between some of the bands. Shown below, from the 9100 manual, is the paragraph I would have wanted to see in the 9700s manual ...

The IC-9100 manual showing how it should be done.

OK, I have not seen a UK version 9700, nor even a full manual. Hopefully some 9700 owner can come on and tell me that the rig did, eventually, sell with the 13 pin plug and even the basic connectivity of the 7100 or 9100. If so, I can happily delete this post.

Is this a deal breaker for me? Probably in the sense that an IC-9700 would be a very good single band rig for me, but I could not use its multi-band capability. Sure I could rig up a switch to turn the PTT between the amplifiers, but I would only need to make one mistake with that to blow up my mast head pre-amps. I did not go to all the trouble of sequencing them to risk sending RF up to them with no PTT active.

I do not rule out getting an IC--9700, but it would be limited by this issue. I cannot see myself going into the menu to change the PTT settings every time I change bands, and the consequences of forgetting or getting it wrong are too expensive to contemplate. And anyway, isn't this what a multi-band radio is supposed to avoid? If the feature was worth putting in the 7100 and 9100, why leave it out of the 9700?

I have thought up a circuit which would RF sense the outputs and turn the PTT in line with that. This would mean that only the first transmission would go without the matching PTT - thereafter it would stay switched until I changed band again. But how often would I need to do that before the pre-amps died?

If you do not use amplifers and pre-amps this does not matter to you. Until you come to sell it of course, when such things make or break second hand sales.

It seems to me that it would have been sensible for Icom to have carried over the socket, the circuity and the software from the IC-9100 to the IC-9700 so that the very many VHF-ers who have multiple linear amplifiers could use them. After all, Icom had already figured out how to do it more than five years ago on the IC-7100.

But then again, are the production models supplied as the manual I have seen suggests? I hope not.

73

Jim

GM4FVM (EDIT - not just linears, but SHF transverter control is affect by this issue too)

The equipment sale of a silent key amateur caused me doubts

Four or five months ago a local amateur became silent key. I shall not mention his callsign and I shall call him "Roland" here. I do not want to cause any distress.

Roland lived about 20 miles from me in the Tweed Valley. I encountered him 5 or 6 years ago when he came over the GM4FVM a couple of times to see my set-up. He wanted to create something similar as his interest was in VHF, and there are not many others round here doing that. So he phoned me a few times and then came and looked, and later built something similar.

When Roland passed away a fairly common situation arose. Basically his equipment was to be disposed of very quickly by people who did not really know what it was. At this stage I was contacted by his brother in law, also an amateur, to see if I could help. The initial questions surrounded Roland's IC-7100, the purpose of which was unknown to anyone. I went over and explained to his brother in law how it worked.

The next thing which emerged was that everything was to go, and as soon as possible. Roland's 10m Tennamast, 2m, 4m and 6m antennas, rotator and all associated metalwork was taken down and left on his front drive. I was asked about it and I quickly offered the Tennamast to another amateur in the area who I knew was interested in one. However, he only needed a 7m Tenna, so there were no takers. The antennas and the Tennamast were quickly scrapped.

This was a bit of a wake-up call. Coax and rotator cables had been chopped up to get them out of position. The cables for the IC-7100 could not be found, neither could the associated CD, nor various similar items. Large quantities of magazines and paperwork went to the local dump, so different items were being separated from their manuals. I was told that the rotator was headed for the dump.

Faced with this, I was unsure how to act. I did not want to see valuable items being dumped. Roland's widow deserved to get some value for them. The Tennamast had already been assigned for scrap. So I stepped in and bought the rotator, the IC-7100 and an old low-spec oscilloscope. I really had no need for any of these items, but I did not want to see them dumped. I then had to scrabble together a large sum in cash and hand it over, something we don't do much in these days of plastic money.

I had to deal with the issue of how much to pay for some things I didn't really want and I was not even very sure about their history. I had never heard Roland on the air - if he ever transmitted I never heard him, nor had I met anyone who had worked him. Had I not heard him because nothing worked? The amount had to be high enough to make Roland's widow better off than scrapping them or other disposal. I did not want to hear later that these items were sold off too cheaply. The scrap value for the Tenna mast might not have been zero but was certainly very low compared to its true value as a mast. The other items were headed for the dump.

I had to make it very clear that if these items were carefully marketed on eBay they might fetch more, and if they were offered for a straight sale to a dealer they might fetch less than that but more than I might pay. Either way was an option for the estate. In the end, as I say, I bought three items. Some other things found good homes, in particular a rather nice ATU. A couple of small high value items were rescued and remain to be sold, including a DMR handheld and an MFJ antenna analyser, but everything else was thrown away.

I apologise if I have got some details of this wrong, but it all happened very quickly, and a lot of it occurred outside my knowledge. I was not directly involved in most of it. However, it is clear to me that there was no plan as to what to do, and the need to do it quickly probably resulted in high value items being scrapped or thrown away.

Still, some good came of it.

Roland's Yaesu G-450 rotator had to be hastily pressed into service yesterday when the azimuth sensing potentiometer in my G-450 failed. OK, it had sat in my garage for 4 months while I wondered what to do with it, but it came good in the end.

You may notice that my 6 metre antenna has changed again, it is now my old 4m/6m Vine dual band antenna resurrected. Why do I need 2 antennas on 4m? More on that later.

My original 450's pot should be easy to fix but it was very handy having a spare rotator to change over. The job only took just over an hour to do.

If I had any idea what to do with Roland's rotator it was to use the control box as the basis for a plan to use my EA4TX controller to run the G-450. I was working on that when the rotator pot failed. The controller plan wasn't going well by the way, as the voltage on the G-450 azimuth sensing line was very low and too low for the EA4TX unit to reliably measure. Never mind that for now.

And Roland's old IC-7100 is also in use. I did not need another radio. I still don't. The arrival of the IC-7100 might have seen it sit idle like the rotator. As it turns out, the IC-7100 is just what I needed for 70cms, and the rig sitting idle is my IC-7300. Who would ever have thought I would end up with a radio as good as an IC-7300 sitting here doing nothing?  It just proves that I did not need another rig.

The moral of this story? Well, Yaesu rotators break down --- NO --- the moral is that we do need to think about what would happen if we end up going silent key. It is the necessary result of being alive that at some stage life will leave us. Is it fair to abandon our nearest and dearest to sort out what we leave behind? Is a mountain of old gear easily sold off by grieving relatives? Can we provide for this in some better way?

I read an article on this subject a year or so back in QRZ.com. Somebody who had acted for two widows in selling off SK gear had written to say that we should be better prepared. He acted in good faith, and one widow left him to it, the other demanded cash receipts and detailed accounts and justifications for each sale. In an slightly older local case, a couple of amateurs who acted in good faith were later accused of feathering their own nests. I certainly thought they paid fair prices for piles of old and uncertain gear, but the widow later accosted one of them in the street and accused him of under paying. It left everyone feeling uncomfortable.

So I ask this general question - if you were to die tomorrow, would anyone know what to do with your gear? Would they even know what it is? Shouldn't you write down what it is and what to do with it? Should it go on eBay? Should it go to a dealer? Is any one person to be trusted to sell it off? And what if the trusted seller want to buy some themselves? What price is fair then?

I fell sad about the way that Roland left this world. His carefully assembled radio shack was never used for what it was designed for. What did he do in his shack for all those years? His expensive cables were cut up. Some of his gear could not even be identified by the people sent to remove it.

Perhaps it was inevitable that a lifetime's collection of Rad Coms went straight to the paper recycling section of the local dump. But some things that others could have re-used were scrapped. If more had been known, and more time spent on it, I believe that more money could have been recovered. But perhaps more importantly, some gear could still be being used.

I hope that Roland takes a break from operating in that great shack in the air sometimes to look down and see his rotator turning my beam.

73

Jim

GM4FVM