Yaesu FT Dx 570
A good friend of mine, Jeff (N9IZ) brought me this little jewel. It is an old tube radio from 1972, the Yaesu FT Dx 570.
This radio has been so much fun to play with. I made 6 domestic (USA) contacts in like under an hour on 20m.
This old radio uses 20 something tubes and can get a little warm. I have had great signal reports out of it and it has been so much fun to operate. It is truly old school and the only piece of tube equipment in my shack at the moment.
I measured the power output of this radio using my Power Master meter and found that on 20m this radio puts out about 287 watts. watts is not bad for having older tubes. Jeff told me that this radio can put out about 500 watts PEP on SSB, so I bet with new fresh tubes it would really go the distance!
Eastern Europe DX!
Last night I made several contacts in Eastern Europe. Stations from Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and Ukraine.
I made about 10 contacts, later in the evening. The eastern European stations seem to get up early in the morning (about 3:30 UTC) and start operating on 20m. I love the summer since 20m is open way into the night, and usually doesn’t fade out until after midnight.
Here is a list of some of the contacts I made on 7/18:
- SP3LPG – Marek in Poland
- UA3TCJ – Andrei in Russia
- US5IFA – Nik in Ukraine
- UA9FAR – Vlad in Russia
- RV6AOH – Yuri in Russia
- 4L4WW – Gia in Georgia
- ES5QD – Vello is Estonia
- US4IL Sergey in Ukraine
- UT7UV – Sasha in Ukraine
- LY600A – Jonas in Lithuania
Very cool! You can see from the map that these stations are quite a distance away from me in Indiana! These contacts made with the magic of radio. A good radio, a modest antenna (G5RV) and a little power when needed thanks to my SPE 1K-FA 1000 watt amplifier.
DX hunting is so much fun. I will talk to you on the bands!
73s! de Nick N9SJA
20m SSTV
Today I thought I would play around a bit with SSTV. I made a QSO with Don, VE3IYA from Canada. He had a strong and powerful signal into Northwestern Indiana today. We exchanged a few pics. I sent him a picture that I took at Lucas Oil Stadium when the Colts were playing. I also sent him a picture of the fountain at Purdue in front of Hovde Hall.
SSTV is a fun mode. A little difficult sometimes, but fun none the less. If you want to tune in some SSTV fun use a SSTV progie like MMSSTV or Digital Master and tune into 14.230 Mhz. That’s where all the SSTV action is. Even if you are not a HAM and just have a reciever, you can still download the pics sent over SSTV. Tune your reciever to 14.230, pipe the auto out of the reciever and into your sound card input on your computer. Start up your SSTV software and wait for the chirping sounds over the radio. You will soon be downloading the pictures sent to and from other hams via SSTV.
Here on the left is a signal report sent to me by VE3IYA. You can see that in the bottom left he copied the transmission I sent. It is the picture of the fountain at Purdue University in front of Hovde Hall in West Lafayette.
Until next time…
73! de Nick N9SJA
6m: My first contact
Today I made my fist contact ever on 6m. K0DU from Colorado was transmitting. I just have a vertical antenna a Comet GP-15 at the moment for 6m. As I look at the action on the DX cluster, 6m is hot at the moment. I did try the G5RV on 6m, but I hear nothing. Looks like I need to construct a 6m dipole antenna soon.
Maybe when I go to the Indy hamfest next Saturday I will find some good antenna making items to take home with me!
Anyway I made contact with K0DU and he had a 5/7 signal here on my Comet GP-15. I was hitting him with 5/4 using just 100 watts. My new amp would have helped me here, but the GP-15 is only rated for 200 watts. So unless I wanted to ruin the antenna, better not pump 1000 watts of signal though it eh? Yeah, that’s also what I thought. 🙂
6m seems like a really cool band to operate on. I wish I had more room for antennas, but its a little rough living in a suburban neighborhood with only 3/4 of an acre to work with.
Until next time…
73! de Nick N9SJA
Special Event Station: 13 Colonies
This holiday weekend there are several special event stations on HF/VHF/UHF that are all part of the 13 Colonies Special Event. I have already contacted several of the stations that are spread out all over the bands. The stations can generally be found on the “13” frequency of the bands (i.e. 14.313, 7.213, etc.) but they are also on other frequencies. TIP: Use a DX cluster to spot these stations! I used the K9USA DX Cluster to find them.
More info can be found here: http://www.13colonies.info/
They do give out a nice certificate that is printed on heavy card stock.
Here are the stations that you will hear on the bands:
* K2A – New York
* K2B – Virginia
* K2C – Rhode Island
* K2D – Connecticut
* K2E – Delaware
* K2F – Maryland
* K2G – Georgia
* K2H – Massachusetts
* K2I – New Jersey
* K2J – North Carolina
* K2K – New Hampshire
* K2L – South Carolina
* K2M – Pennsylvania
I really enjoyed working Richie at the K2K New Hampshire station. He was very enthusiastic and got others on the band fired up and patriotic!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!! Have a great Independence day!!!
73! de Nick N9SJA
WORKED: DX Pedition – Isle of Jersey
Today on 20m I heard a station from the Isle of Jersey. MJ/PA9JO and the gang were on a DXpedition.
You can read all about their team and the DXpedition here:
http://www.jersey-2010.info/team.html
It was nice to make a quick contact with Jo MJ/PA9JO and he was working quite the pile up. I got to use my new amplifier the SPE 1K-FA and was a solid 5/9 to him using about 500 watts. The amp really helps me get though the pileups. The island of Jersey is off the coast of France in the English Channel between England and France. It is located off the coast of Normandy, France.
73! de Nick N9SJA
New Logbook Page!
I just set my new logbook page to upload straight from my logbook to HRDLog.net. There is a nice script that you can use to post your log to your page. Setup is a little tricky, but well worth the extra effort. Click here to see my logbook.
SPE 1K-FA 1KW Amplifier
Today I received my new SPE 1K-FA 1000 watt solid state HF amplifier.
I eagerly connected the amp to my Icom IC-7600, and then found a frequency on 20 meters to call CQ. The amp worked awesome and I had a blast discovering the new features and operating the amp. I am going to post a review soon for those that may be contemplating this particular amp.
73s! de Nick N9SJA
20m QSO with only 1.1 Watts of RF Power!
I just made a QSO with Greg VA3GKO in Canada with only 1.1 watts of power using my modest 20 meter antenna!
I usually tune my Icom IC-7600 with only about 12 watts, and by mistake I left the RF power low. By the time I realized my mistake, I was allready transmitting and thought “well, he didnt hear me, Ill have to increase power and try again”. But Greg did hear me! He told me that I was 5/9 and booming into his QTH (location). He then asked me to back down the power. I then tried again using about 5 watts, and he still had me at a 5/9! He told me again to turn it down as far as I could, so I turned down the RF power all the way down. Using my Power Master power meeter I saw that I was transmitting only with 1.1 watts! Greg told me that he still had me about 5/7 with perfect audio! This contact holds the record for me with distance and such low power. Greg is located in Beeton ON, just north of Toronto. AWESOME! I think I may get into QRP!!!!!
I would just like to thank Greg for the nice QSO, and hopefully we will cross paths again soon!
73! de Nick N9SJA
2m Band Opening!
There is a band opening on 2m this evening. I first noticed this when I heard a second repeater give it’s ID on the W9RES repeater (147.135) here in Lafayette!
I quickly switched over to the simplex calling frequency at 146.520 and made a few contacts from way up north.
KC9LCW – LaPorte, IN
KG9TT – Mark in Mishawaka, IN
KC9SJN – Midway Airport – Chicago, IL
73! de Nick N9SJA
HF Band Conditions
K9XN 