Yaesu FT-450D one year anniversary

Well it is coming up to the 1st anniversary of the purchase of the FT-450D from Haydon Communications. In that time I have had occasional lockups of the rig requiring a power off reboot. I'm not sure why this happens. The connection to HRD via the CAT connector ceases and the front panel becomes non responsive requiring a reboot of the rig.

Other than that I have been extremely pleased with the radio. It is very sensitive and I have worked stations literally all over the world with it on no more than 35 watts.

An earthing/grounding stake on a 9:1 UNUN

Moonraker had a deal on the last weekend for earthing stakes. I bought the solid copper version and buried it underneath the feedpoint of my antenna.
The 9:1 UNUN feeding the 80m-6m length wire had a cable attached to the counterpoise cable so I connected it to the rod. The rig and ATU had to alter their settings to compensate for the change.

I still couldn't get the antenna to tune on 80m but all other bands were matched as before. I got a contact with a Japanese station JA1OTT on 17m and a Uruguay station CX9AU on 15m. So still working OK on all bands 40m to 6m including WARC bands.

Then I ran a few random length radials (just insulated wire) connected to the earthing stake and laid them on the ground. One of them I ran underneath the main antenna wire like a mirror image. Then I went back to the shack and found the external ATU (LDG Z-100Plus|) would match on 80m. This is a bit of a result so I will keep experimenting.

Ham Radio Deluxe Upgrade paid for

I've just paid for an upgrade to another year of support and upgrades for Ham Radio Deluxe. I got an earlybird discount of 15% off the purchase price of $49.95. This took the final price to $42.46 which works out in British Pounds at current rates to be £30.20

I think it is worthwhile paying this and it keeps people in work developing the software.

Ham Radio Deluxe Macro Management on the Yaesu FT450D

HRD is capable at some powerful macro management. Consider this:
You want to program HRD to set your rig to your favourite repeater. This is not difficult IF you work out the logic.

Here are the steps:

• Set the operating frequency
• Set the operating mode
• Turn CTCSS encoding on - this will be needed on transmission but may also be needed on reception too.
• Set the repeater shift
• Set the repeater offset frequency
• Set the CTCSS frequency
• Set squelch

So on the FT-450D here's how I do it with the correct CAT commands:
Consider setting the rig to 6m repeater GB3SX in Stoke On Trent, England.

Yaesu FT-450D not broken

I thought my FT-450D rig had developed a fault but I was wrong.
Essentially I was mid QSO with an Australian station both of us operating low power JT65A (I was transmitting 5 watts). I use HRD and JT65HF HB9HQX to control the rig. All of a sudden the PC started making beeping noises (the one when you unplug a USB device) and the rig was powering off and on by itself.

I disconnected everything and the rig would not power on. When I put the CAT cable back into the D9 on the back panel it powered up. However it would not TX and kept rebooting when I tried.
Thinking that it had developed a fault I emailed Yaesu customer service in the UK. A shortwhile later Sam Ruddy, the Yaesu Service manager, replied. One of the things he suggested was try the fuses in the power lead.

"Fuses?" I thought. "Are there two?"
Sure enough there are and the one in the negative lead had become loose in its holder. I don't know how but it had. Basically the rig had been powering on through the PC ground connection. When trying to TX the high current ground was going through the PC causing the rig to become disconnected from power and rebooting it. Fortunately there was no damage to either the rig nor the PC.

So when both fuses were reseated and everything reconnected all is working again. It just goes to show - get back to basics when you fault find.

Thanks to Sam Ruddy at Yaesu UK

ZL still elusive on JT modes

Grey line propagation between UK and New Zealand is good this morning on 40 m. I can hear (detect??) a few ZL stations. However as soon as they come up they disappear again so no contacts made yet.

Happy New Year 2016

A few JT65A QSOs over the last couple of hours on 15m and 17m. Hopefully many more of the year.

HNW 73 De Terry G8YPH