Following is a story of how I found a solution to make my very old Yaesu FT-817 work on 60 meters. If you have the Yaesu FT-817ND there is no need to modify the radio as it is designed to include 60 meters! This process of modifying the older Yaesu FT-817 is quite difficult. I do NOT recommend you attempting this for a few really good reasons. I was told by a former Yaesu repair person that this radio has…
I was given a Toyota 2009 RAV4 from my sister who can no longer drive. I decided to install an old Kenwood radio that I had purchased years ago into that vehicle. The Kenwood TM-D710A radio is a dual display radio because two channels can be received. MSRP for the TM-D710A when it was sold $600. I have this model. E-Ham Score for TM-D710A: Average rating: 4.2/5 TM-D710A is no longer made. Current, in production, model is TM-D710 GA, ($530…
I really recommend the Comet SBB5. This is a 2 meter and 440 antenna. It does not require a ground plane. It is almost double the length of the SBB2 which is an awful antenna. My SWR analyzer showed a near perfect SWR for 2 meters using the SBB5. Typically this antenna is attached to a vehicle. I volunteered to provide communications for a walk and run event at a local university. From past experience working this event, I…
It all started when I noticed on the shelf of Home Depot a plastic ammo can. Immediately I thought it would work to hold my 12 volt gel cells that I use for emergency communications.
I love Kenwood Ham Radios because their radios are easy to use without a manual but the TH-D72 was driving me crazy. As is typical with a lot of technology items, the user manual was nice but totally lacking in a couple of places. If you want to use the APRS function, you must type in your call sign. I tried this so many times and failed that I figured that the radio was defective. I figured that there had…
My wife and I were in San Luis Obispo June 23 on vacation. That evening our room lights dimmed, a brown out. A while later we lost power. My wife looked out the window and reported not seeing any lights. After finding two LED flashlights I pulled out my hand held ham radio and turned to one of the local repeaters. (146.670 MHz). It took a while but within, I would guess fifteen minutes, we got a pretty clear picture…
Ham Radio Station In A Go Box I had heard a story of a long time ago where a police department somewhere in the United States needed ham radio operator help for some emergency. I believe it was a RACES group. The police needed to coordinate their efforts with the ham radio volunteers. Within a very short time a ham radio operator showed up at the police station with a radio in a box solution. He was told where to…
One day while wearing my Kenwood TH-F6 on my belt I backed up to a wall for some reason and the radio fell off my belt and the clip on battery separated, both falling to the floor. The radio was ok but the battery lock mechanism was broken. The battery is rather expensive so I determined to figure out how to protect any HT radio. It took a while but here is my solution: T-Reign 24 inch 4 oz small…
I really recommend that if you are a ham radio operator staying at Walt Disney World, Orlando, that you check out Disney Emergency Amateur Radio Service or D.E.A.R.S. Here is the web site for that club: http://www.wd4wdw.org/. The web site shows the following information: 147.300 +.600 PL tone 103.5? and ?D-Star 442.000 +5.000 WD4WDW B Gateway Enabled After I arrived at the Saratoga Springs Resort, I broke out my ARRL Repeater Directory for 2011-2012 and input all the frequencies for…
I had an interesting conversation with a salesman at Ham Radio Outlet about putting up an antenna inside a house. He told me that house appliances, florescent figures and many other devices would interfere with an indoor antenna. That evening I connected my Yaesu FT-817 inside my home office to function as a short wave receiver. I hooked it up to my Spider antenna with a 20 Mhz coil. I put the radio into scan and got nothing but a…