Mon DU1FV

Note to all Icom IC-2KL Linear amplifier owners! If you have a chance, inspect the soldering of the circuit board of the LPF in your amp. Solder have been known to fail (cracked or dried up) in certain units of this vintage. Solder should be reflowed as soon as possible. Although this model has many safety features, unfortunately a fault (mostly open circuit in case of cracked or "oxidized" solder) in the LPF bank could promptly result in damage to either or both PA modules and possibly the 40v power supply. Also make it a habit to turn the band selector switch to all positions once in a while to allow contacts of all band change relays to self clean. Do this specially when your operation is limited to 40m alone. There is a method to actually measure with an omhmeter the Health of your LPF bank. On the main unit board: you will need a female RCA to female RCA adaptor and jumper P5 (small grey coax connected to amp input terminal) to the P1(LPF) (the big black coax going int...

An Icom IC-260A story by Ramon Reyes DU1FV I was helping Ferry DV1FA find a good vhf sideband rig. After checking out ebay and some local offerings. I found that another old friend was selling an old vhf sidebander.  Later it turns out he has two old ones. One was a Kenwood TR-9000, the other an Icom IC-260A. Both are ealry 80's vintage! Well the Kenwood went to Ferry as it was the only one working. The other, an icom looked nice from the photos considering its vintage. but had several things wrong with it. Ferry tested the icom and found when it did power up properly on 145.000 (normally after several power on, power off cycles) it did receive and transmit well. This made the Icom very tempting. As luck would have it, I got a chance to talk to the radios' owner. After some haggling I was able to negotiate a good (I think) "as is' price for it. Off to the workbench! Problems found. 1. The cpu wont reset properly. The cpu reset capacitor was found and changed t...

(from  http://hamradio.lakki.iki.fi , with re-layout) I offer the following information in 'the spirit of amateur radio'. I accept no responsibility whatsoever for any misfortune that may occur regardless of the use that the information is put to. Firstly please note that the following is not intended to be a complete description down to the last nut and bolt but more as 'food for thought'.  It is open to individual adaptation to suit what is in your particular junkbox. Treat it as such and feel free to experiment. By doing so you will probably come up with something better (feedback please!!) The six metre band really is a superb place for packet and FM voice operation. OK the band is a little noisy and suffers from anomalous propagation from time to time (don't they all) but I really don't understand why there is such a complete lack of activity. Being a relatively low frequency it is quite easy to build equipment for and actually get it up an...

 Tracy wins First Runner Up! Tracy (teary-eyed) who has had only three weeks to prepare for her first competetion, is congratulated by Singaporean Online Game Producer Addison Kang a the SMX Convention Center, SM MOA on Oct.28, 2012 Day had this to say, "Bravo! Done with great aplomb! Congratulations, youngest daughter! You now know how sometimes life pays back careful planning, diligence, patience, and plain hard work! And more than anything material, you will be endowed with a raised level of self confidence that ANYTHING can be achieved with God's grace if you set your mind to it!"

The Fox Victor Forty Revisited: How I really got started Homebrewing by Ramon R. Reyes DU1FV BSEE UP 77 In the 80's I used to for an engineering geoscience company in Legaspi Village, Makati. I was in the seismometer and telemetry department. I owe that small company for my first intro to computers through the ($10,000.00 back, then) OKITAC 4300 computer that used magnetic memory, front cpu panel bit-key programming and paper tape for data storage and a modified teletype for a printer! (As the 90's, I have been told you could get this computer surplus in Akihabara quite cheaply.) One part of the daily office commute I really look forward to was dropping by a small shop on Pasay Road where I often saw Japanese ham radio magazines displayed on its window. They are used. Probably the owner of the store is a Japanese ham. The full color radio ads were really nice and I manage to make a little sense out of most circuit drawings so that was good enough reason for me to bu...

Calibrating the Kenwood TR-9130 How to calibrate the frequency reference of the Kenwood TR-9130 using your HF rig and the Internet (yes, you read it right, the Internet). The Kenwood Service manual requires that a frequency counter  good for 130Mhz plus be used to calibrate the PLL of the Kenwood TR-9130. I don't have one, but I do have the trusty TS-850S, so I tried to figure out a way to adjust the vhf all mode transceiver using the HF rig. Please read these and follow instructions in its entirety. There are two frequency determining sections of this rig. One is the carrier unit and the next is the PLL 14 mhz oscillator (which generate the 0 to 9.9khz spacing of the PLL). Measuring the frequency of a carrier with an HF receiver can be tricky.  So I deliberately tuned the receiver 400 Hz away so there would be a beat note if I monitor the signal whose frequency I was interested in measuring.  I can hear a beat note  but how do I know it i...

C'est moi! Amateur radio operator since the early 80's.  I love building things when i can.  As of now I am into 23cm yagi beams. I am also trying to improve my cw speed.  I am also restoring some of my old equipment.