I have been using my K2 Station remotely, via Internet, for several months now. It works great but I really want to be able to use my keyer instead of a keyboard for CW. I have seen several people talk about doing this, but have not yet seen anyone actually do it. I know some... Continue Reading →
IC-7600 After a few months
I have now been using the IC-7600 for about 5 months. It has not been used heavily the entire time, but I have used it hard during several contests. Overall I am very impressed. The menus are very intuitive, rarely causing me to "RTFM." The display is as good as any I have ever seen... Continue Reading →
VA QSO Party 2012
Had a great time working the annual VA QSO party. This year I spent half my time from my fixed location in Lancaster county (LAN). Then I went mobile to attempt to provide contacts from several hard-to-find Counties in the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula regions of Virginia. The mobile operation included about 10 Counties... Continue Reading →
ICOM IC-7000 CI-V with WINDOWS 7
Had real trouble installing the USB CI-V interface for my IC-7000 on a WINDOWS 7 machine. Internet tells me everyone has this problem. The driver that Prolific makes available simply does not work. I tried the usual WINDOWS driver install process (install, uninstall, reinstall, uninstall, try various "compatability" settings which nobody understands), but no luck.... Continue Reading →
Remote Rig Access Latency Greatly Improved
I was operating my remote-access Elecraft K2 last week in a short Contest. In the past, I had to wait as much as 1-3 seconds for a single up/down change in operating frequency on Ham Radio Deluxe. This night, it suddenly became very responsive. I no longer wait, in fact I can now make very quick... Continue Reading →
K2 PTT-line is Tied to Key Line – AGAIN!
As I found out before, the Elecraft K2 uses the same signal line for PTT input and for one of the Key lines (dit I think). This is a royal pain when integrating into a more complex arrangement such as a computer controlled station, or an SO2R contest station. In these configurations, you are likely... Continue Reading →
Finally on-the-air with Remote Station
After working on configuring my Elecraft K2 for remote operation. I am finally on-the-air. I had been using it in receive-only mode while I completed a "dead-man" timer, that would shutdown the transmitter if I ever lose my Internet connection while in transmit mode. This is required by the FCC. It turns out, that remote... Continue Reading →
IC-7600 Antenna Tuner Testing
I did a bit of testing with 2 wire antennas this weekend. Here is a summary of the results, which I also posted to the IC-7600 e-mail reflector: The antennas: 1 - A "long" 80m Dipole, ladder line, 4:1 balun, then a long coax run to the rig 2 - A fan dipole with 80/40/20... Continue Reading →
Icom IC-7600 Added to the Shack
I have been looking to purchase a new rig for some time and finally decided to go with the Icom IC-7600. I was torn between this rig, the Elecraft K3, and the Yaesu FT-2000 (because I can not afford the FTDX-5000). For my needs, this is the best of the three. and I will maintain... Continue Reading →
Remote K2 Power Timeout
Finally completed the power watchdog timer for the K2. This allows me to operate the K2 remotely within compliance of the requirement to have an automated means of shutting down a transmitter if it exceeds 3 minutes on the air. This is an FCC requirement, and you definitely need to be concerned about the possibility... Continue Reading →
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