JT what - Ah, JT9!

Well,

A while ago I had a play with JT9 - its a cousin of the popular JT65. JT65 was designed for V/UHF comms and JT9 was designed for L/MF. Now JT65 has proved popular on the HF bands generally, and , for example on 20M, you would find JT65 with a dial frequency on USB of 14.076. Now, JT9 is typically found 2KHz above this, so on 20M this would need a dial frequency of 14.078.

The latest and greatest piece of software from the gang that develop the WSJT software, more specifically WSJT-X, have now included a bi-lingual feature! The software can receive both JT65 and JT9 at the same time!

To do this you need a radio capable of a wide RX - 4KHz required here for the full spectrum of both types of transmission. I have completely failed to find  way to do this with my FT-DX-3000, but have managed to get the FT-DX-5000 configured to do this.

I hoped to do this in PKT mode, but the width is fixed at a maximum of 2.4KHz in this mode, but in USB you can set the bandwidth to 4KHz (I struggled to see this full bandwidth in the waterfall until I remembered that I had a 3KHz roofing filter in line - doh!).

So, here is a screen shot from the latest WSJT-X:

including my first JT9 QSO with CT1FBK - thanks Miguel! The JT9 signals are to the right of the blue line at 2500Hz in the smaller window with the JT65 signals to the left.

Now, most (if not all) commercial SSB transceivers include an audio filter in the TX path, this means that the radio cannot generate the tones over the necessary spectrum for both JT65 and JT9 with a single dial frequency. To get round this the software includes CAT interfacing and you run the radio in split mode, using VFO A for RX and VFO B for TX. When you TX in JT9 the dial frequency on the TX VFO is altered and the appropriate tones generated.

Simply genius!

WPX? Ah, Worked All Prefixes!

Well,

Been playing in the CQ-WPX RTTY contest this weekend, managed 512 QSOs for 1446 points and 352 unique prefixes in 61 DXCC entities.

As is becoming the norm, here's a map of the logbook:

Very pleased to manage to get some RF all the way to New Zealand; but who wouldn't be?

Fun, egh?

FT-5000 AFSK

Well,

Over the past few weeks I've been trying to get my FT-5000 to function in AFSK based modes; the radio is setup with the audio from my digibox (the one that feeds all the other radios) into the packet connector on the back. I've been seeing some very strange behaviour which I've captured in a short video:

Any thoughts on what's going on here would be very much appreciated!

** UPDATE **

I've discovered (more by luck than any judgement) that this problem goes away when I enable the RX audio filter for Packet mode. I had set menu item 083 and 085 both to OFF; if I change 083 to 100Hz (or any other value) then the problem disappears.

I don't begin to understand this as I though the filter set by menu item 083 and 085 were RX audio only....

Maybe someone can explain?

Weird, egh?

Where do the knots come from?

Well,

I've been checking some wiring today; there's a great deal of it in my shack and it's always in a spectacular knot!

I saw some SWR movement during the XE contest at the weekend and thought it was worth investigating... as normal I have found a PL-259 connector soldered in the most appalling way possible - I suspect this may be the culprit so it has been duly replaced.

Whilst I was doing this I decided to draw a diagram of what is connected to what -  was getting in a bit of a muddle, so here it is:

So at least I have a known reference point to look back at now.

Not very exiting, is it?

XE test? Ah, Mexico!

Well,

Been dabbling in the Mexico International RTTY contest this weekend:

http://www.fmre.org.mx/concursos/2013/rtty/rules-rtty-2013-english.pdf

Running pretty much maximum allowable bananas for my full UK license and trying to get as many Mexican states as possible (these count as multipliers to your total score). Mexico is a fair distance from the UK (like 5,300 miles) and conditions didn't seem that good. So given that most of my late afternoon CQing was with the antenna pointed at the appropriate part of the world, my sum total of 3 Mexican stations is rather pants.

Anyway, I'll be entering my log for a laugh, but here is the (now traditional) map of my contacts:

The maps I create of my logs are done here:

http://www.adventureradio.de/analyzer/

Odd isn't it, how I find myself beaming to the north west (300 ish degrees), working mainly stations in Europe and then suddenly work a VK4 in NE Australia.

Cat was trying to help keep log:

Fun though, egh?

JARTS - You What? Oh, JARTS

Well,

Had a little dabble in the JARTS RTTY contest today and yesterday, conditions seemed to be really good, but there wasn't as much activity as I had hoped for. Here's my log from the contest in map format:

There were a few new countries for me, but NOTHING in Africa at all! And also no VK (Australia) or ZL (New Zealand) but hey, ho, it was fun all the same!
Still, rather impressive, egh?


 

How Much Power?

Well,

Myself and my chum Vince, G0ORC headed off to the National Hamfest last Friday, following a lot of consideration I was thinking of changing the Linear Amplifier that I have here for HF work. I have been using a Ameritron 600 watt Mosfet linear, with great success, however I was wanting to be able to run UK legal limit RTTY without pushing things to far.

ML&S had a very intersting linear amplifier at the show which just took my fancy, another great re-shuffle in the shack and it's in:

The linear is manufactured by a company called ALPIN:

http://www.alpinamplifier.com

And contains a single 4CX800A tube capable of 1300W SSB and 1000W continuous CW or RTTY work. The amplifier looks (both inside and out) to be a close copy of the ACOM 1000:

http://www.hfpower.com/

I am told that Alpin are ex-employees of ACOM or something like that (I don't actually believe a word of this).

Anyhow, the amp certainly looks the business:

and it's very easy to tune, I have created a chart of the "starter" settings for my setup and you simply rotate the "load" control as instructed on the LCD display and then peak the "tune" control for maximum smoke (RF out).

There is a good review of the amplifier here from RadCom:

http://www.alpinamplifier.com/images/RadCom%20Review.pdf

The review seemed to say the right kind of things....

I've had a dabble in the CQ WW RTTY contest this weekend and have been delighted with my station performance. This is a map output from my log from this weekend, most of the contacts have been on 10M:

you can see that I have worked far and wide and the RTTY station here at G0MGX is clearly working well!

Cat's not been helping much as normal:

Good though, egh?

Changes at the Top!

Well,

I've not been overly happy with the arrangement to adapt from the top section of my new mast (which is 2" OD box section aluminium) to the 2" OD pole that holds the rotator. This was originally a aluminium plate that had "U" bolts for the pole and some nuts and bolts that fitted through the plate and then through one wall of the top mast section. When the wind picked up there was the risk of:

1. The whole thing folding back on itself;
2. The plate twisting.

You can see the original plate in this picture here:

Now, as I was concerned about this before the changes today, I had actually inserted a smaller diameter pole inside the rotator pole which was secured by a bolt that passes right through the rotator clamp. This smaller pole extends through the top rotator stub mast down into the top section box part of the mast itself. This (I was certain) would ensure that the plate didn't fold back on itself in high winds.

So, what I have done today is use a piece of 3" OD aluminium box section to create a kind of sleeve that sits over the rotator stub mast and the top section of the mast itself, this sketch kind of explains what I've made:

And it looks like this in reality:

And this is a close up of the top section of the mast itself where it enters the new sleeve:

And here you can see how I have made larger (looks like using my teeth) holes in one of the walls of the sleeve to access the bolt heads to ensure the pole and the mast top are hard and fast against the side wall:

and this is the underside of the same bolt:

So, all in all, I think this will enable me to sleep better knowing that the antenna isn't about to land on the back of the house!

What do you recon, better egh? Cat's not impressed, seems to like the new radio though:

I've really done it now!

Well,

After the installation of the new antenna system, my HF capabilities have improved significantly. The front to back ratio of the new antenna is excellent and I'm really pleased with the performance.

I've been out this weekend and swapped one of my radios for a newer one, I've treated myself to a FT-DX-5000D, it looks like this:

It's got a free Kenwood towel draped over the top of it right now. So the shack has had a slight modification to one of the shelves, but it's looking like this in the radio area:

The receive performance of this radio is simply outstanding, the noise floor is very low and there seems to be a noticeable improvement over the FT-2000 that I had previously. It's also got a fully DSPd 2nd receiver as well as a 200W output. The radio can also be placed into Class-A mode so that the output is cleaner; in this configuration the maximum output power is 75W which is ideal in digital modes like RTTY for driving my solid state linear.

All in all it's just fantastic!

So that's me done spending for a while, but it looks good, agree?