Friday, October 21, 2016

Progress on the FTDX9000DX

I've sold the FT2000D to help in the purchase of my FTDX9000MP. I must admit I liked the 2000D, it was a good rig, a bit of power with 200 watts and a nice DSP set up and if I could I would have kept it but it just wasn't practical. So I was quite sad to let it go. A nice chap in Northern Ireland bought it for a reasonable price and  I'm sure he will enjoy using it and it will be well looked after.

All I have left now is my trusty K2, a Tokyo ATU and my OHR-100A QRP 5 watt transceiver together with 3 RockMites and the FTDX9000MP. All other bits and pieces are now going towards financing the Yaesu. Actually I need a good clear-out, so this is just the excuse I need.

I'm continuing to learn more about the FT9000, I've just ordered a 64Mb memory card for the recording of voice and CW. I'm also at the stage of working out what exactly I can get on the Monitor. Looking in more detail you can actually set up an internal log book with maps of contacts. You can set up times around the world and if you have one, set up a rotator with all directions of the compass! But as things progress I will no doubt begin to understand more that's available to me.

The FTDX9000MP takes up so much room!

Contact wise has been interesting, I tried my first SSB QSO the other day with a chat to a ham in Texas, who gave me a 59 at 300 watts which wasn't bad considering the conditions and with CW I had another QRP contact from a German station who was only using 0.5 watts from Leipzig. The receive capability is just amazing, you can pick out these QRP stations quite easily and no one else seems to be able to hear them!

M0AUW at the controls
 
It's not all plain sailing though, a classic mistake I did today was install the MD-1 mic I have in to the back of the rig (you have to, as the front is a special 3 point pin) and if not fitted correctly the rig will lock itself and you are unable to transmit. I spent a good hour looking for a reason why it wouldn't transmit finally got some info off the web which solved the problem! Still got loads to learn!




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