Yaesu FTM-100DE : Stop the presses!! Alex, PA1SBM is going digital !!!

Stop the presses and go to def-con 1 !!!!

For those who know me this will be a huge shock.... for which i want to apologize in advance.
Today was one of the biggest ham-fests in the Netherlands (or Holland for people who do not realize we're not a province of Germany)
And on this ham-fest i bought a new dual-band transceiver which is capable of C4FM/FDMA, also better known as system fusion. It's the YAESU FTM-100DE .

I never cared at all for any digital modes what so ever.... But system fusion is different.....
It's different in that it does not rule out analogue. It detects it by itself.
And somehow it gives me a totally different gut feeling then d-Star or DMR. Also not having to register at any "authority" is a great plus in my humble opinion too....

So i will make an in debt post about this radio as well..... but for now just the first impressions....

I have 2 MAJOR points......

1. I always said that having to buy software to program your radio from the manufacturer is complete bullshit.... add it to the price and make it free. That the cable costs money i can understand, but IMHO the software should be free.
   ALL HAIL YAESU !!! with the set, a free piece of software, AND A "FREE" CABLE!!!
   Yaesu, you guys rock !! spot on! A+++ service. (ofc the cable is included in the price, but it's now an option... AWESOME!)
   
2. Yaesu... WTF... no i have to spell it out WHAT THE F*CK were you thinking ???
   A SO-239 connector on the back for 70cm in EUROPE?!?!?!
   HELLO!!!!!! we use N-connectors over here!!!!.. you bunch of..... AAARRRGGGHHH
   All the HAM's over here now have to buy a pl-239 to N adapter....
   Well , not me, i'm ordering a N-chassis connector and i am swapping it out.

I fiddled around about 15 minutes with the set, and 15 minutes with the software. looks ok so far, and i really like the display, i'm 100% sure the readability of this display in a car is awesome.
Ohh and did i mention build in APRS?? This set is quite loaded with goodies for a great price...

I will play around with it a few weeks and write something more in depth after.

until then!
73
Alex
PA1SBM

Looking back at PACC 2016.....

After being locked up in my shack for 24hrs, and feeling like total crap afterwards, it's now time, after a good night sleep , to look back at a weekend which usually makes me avoid my shack for the upcoming 3 to 4 weeks.....

I already wrote a post about the preparations not going completely as planned... but ohh well what else could happen.... Well..... I volunteered for being on call for work last week.... cause nothing ever happens....  So 20 minutes be for 12:00 UTC..... yeah you guessed it right... phone call from work....
One of the big systems was down.... So I had to log in remote, and fix it...
As I was still preparing lunch to eat just be for the start of the contest, I had to do that as well...
Total "time-damage" was somewhere between 45 and 60 minutes....

So how about the contest....
Well last years "learning point" was to start off at 10m....
And the conditions looked like this....
I forgot to grab the Saturday and Sunday conditions, but they were fairly the same. 10 meter conditions were not great at all.....
I struggled a lot to get any QSO on 10 meters. Which is a shame as this cost me a lot of multipliers.

Another learning point of last year was to get active at 80 meters.
The conditions were as stated in the chart fair , and even sunday morning I made several QSO's on 80 which I thought was a lot of fun, I even started to call CQ for a bit.
Last year due to my cheap headset, i got a lot of HF feedback in my set causing my ALC to go haywire, but this year i treated myself to a Heil Pro6 Elite....  So this worked absolutly fine! I had loads of fun on 80m

I worked (for me) quite a lot of stations as well on 15meters. This is also a band I enjoy a lot since I started to do the PACC contest. 20meters always has been on of my favorite bands, probably because my antenna (the OUT-250b) works quite well there as well. But!!! I mostly worked everything on my ZS6BKW again. This antenna works so much better , and is so HUGE... it does not fit in my back yard.... (I use part of a field behind my garden as well)

Even though I started out almost an hour later, I was semi pleased with my final score.
235 QSO's , and 60 Multipliers. leading up to 14100 points

This is again a yearly improvement. The results keep getting better.
I can't say I am looking forward to PACC 2017 yet.... This will need a few weeks, but i am sure that next month or so, I will be looking forward to it.
It is great fun, and it is nice to see so much activity in such a small country as the Netherlands.

One thing be for I wrap this post up....
The madness at 40 meters...... Sunday morning 40 meters becomes a too small band. All stations are literally stacked up on each other.... it's total chaos... and total fun...  narrow filters on max, rf gain lower then 60% otherwise you can not hear anything!!!   And exactly at 12:00 UTC..... POOF!!!  Everyone is gone.... and the band is totally cleared ....

So what is there to learn for next year....
The 0 points at 160m is bugging me.... but I have no antenna for 160 meters. Also I have no idea if I can use it in my area. I am in the middle of a big city with a lot of noise on lower bands.
Also I don't know if there is any activity on 160m I would be able to work. Maybe something to look into.

So I had a lot of fun, and I was exhausted! The scores improved again so looking back at this PACC, I can only say that I am happy with how all went.... On to next year and again try to get an improvement!


73's
Alex
PA1SBM

P.s. Would love to see some comments on how your PACC went....

PACC 2016 preperations.... They never go as planned....

From last minute bought headset's to setting up antenna's... planning PACC never seems to be easy....

This week started wit me wanted to buy a new headset as my old computer headset which worked fine, was not comfortable at all....
So I went to several computer stores, and I just could not find something that suit me. Even online, it was never what I wanted. the lightweight stuff was flimsy and the more expensive better stuff made me look like a character in halo or some other Call of Duty kinda game.
So I ended up going to a somewhat local HAM store and got myself a Heil Pro6 Elite. Which is not even more expensive then the "high-end" gaming headsets anymore.....

When setting up the bigger ZS6BKW antenna I my backyard (and kids paying area behind my back-yard) somehow the towing line got stuck in the top, which obviously did not come loose easy again....

Again this year I had a major coffee incident.... no, not again a faulty machine... I was simply out of coffee.... as the Illy cups are not available in supermarkets, I usually order them online.....
next business day is Monday, not Saturday. So I had to drive to a supplier yesterday...

Then one of my close coworkers decided to leave the company, and his "goodbye-party" was last night... so I went to bed WAY too late, and could not sleep till like 03:00.....
This morning my body decided it would be a good idea to make sure I was wide awake at 08:00 in the morning... good for a work day, but not when you wanna start PACC at 13:00 and want to go on till late...

So here I am wide awake, still tired, but also very anxious for the PACC. This year is hopefully going to be as good of a year as last year (with a slight increase in points and ranking :) ).

Did you have stupid set-backs in your preparations? let us/me know in the comment section.

Good luck to all in the contest, if you hear me, do call me and give me that extra point.
If you want me to pay extra close attention to your callsign, drop me a msg via twitter or mail.
NO I WON'T DO A SKET.... i don't wanna be disqualified. :)

73's
Alex
PA1SBM

It's almost time.... Time for PACC 2016 !!

The only contest I do is the PACC. As the whole world then at least takes the time and effort to listen for me, I am able to make nice contacts all around the world.
This year might be different though, i might also do the CQ WW SSB contest as well...

Butt back to the PACC....
Every year i try to do better then the year be for. And I succeeded so far.
It's not mandatory for me to do better, but it is always nice to see progress...

Again this year it's again on valentine's day.... now i might have gotten away with that if i would be dating a dutch women, but i am not. I'm in a long term relationship with my girlfriend (15+ years) who happens to be an American.... America... the land who invented valentine's day in the current form... (Giving presents, be romantic, go out for diner, spend loads of $$ on your S.O.)
Now i really like doing this contest.. So i have to bribe her..... we celebrate valentine's day on friday in stead of Saturday.... She knows i really wanna do this so she is okay with this.... she's awesome in that way!

Well....  About the PACC...
More info at: http://pacc.veron.nl/
And for the dutch people, if you are like me only doing the pacc, check out the software from Evert Beitler, PA3AYQ
You can download it at the Veron website (Link)

Hope to hear you on air and make a contact. I'll try to  make sure i follow my twitter and my email if you want to contact me.

EDIT: email and twitter contacts are not ment for sket or selfspotting. This is against the rules. It's only ment for non pacc relatief msg's 😀

73's
Alex

Happy new year !!!

Hello all,

Just a quick post to wish all you who follow my blog, and all your loved ones a very happy new year
Lets hope all our HAM dreams come true and we all expand our awesome hobby.

Until the next time!

73's
Alex
PA1SBM

Build an active receive antenna..... The Mini-Whip.....

So I was browsing the dutch variety of eBay... called marketplace... (no i am not kidding)....
And all of a sudden I stumbled on an advert with a PCB+components for a mini-whip....

Now, as I wanted to build one for a while, but did not feel like going through the trouble building my own PCB's, so I ordered a kit at this webshop....

It's a very simple and basic kit.... So out came the components and the soldering iron was turned on....

The PCB's are very nice... BUT!, i was taught that you should never use 90 degree corners, but use 2 of 45 degrees instead. I was told that it is wise to keep the actual antenna part as close to the gate of the J310. and although it is close, i can see some small improvements in the layout of the PCB.
But, don't get me wrong, it's a  very nice PCB!

So after a few minutes......

There are not that many components so it did not take me too long....
One thing to remember is that the PSU PCB needs to be soldered on 2 sides!

Hopefully you can see the soldering of the C's on the upper layer of the PCB....

So all was left was to put all in a housing and start to test this antenna.....

I found a very nice housing for the PSU at a fair.....

So I hooked everything up and started to test the reception of the Mini-Whip....

I made a short video of some CW i found on 40m. There was not much going on on other bands...
Propagation was bad, and the time i was listening was not that great either.....
Ant1 is the Falcon out-250b (outside) and Ant2 is the Mini-Whip behind a double window, inside , close to my switching power supplies...... Not the best place :)

So my conclusion was..... I am amazed.... Yes the base noise level is a bit higher, but the signal is as good as my outside antenna! And the mini-whip is not at a good spot at all....
The mini-whip will go outside somewhere away from the house. which probably will be good for the noise level.

New toy: ZD-985 desoldering station.... Part2

Hello all, 

So today I finally cleaned my workbench and installed the ZD-985 desoldering station.....
The absolute first impression I got was: "O.M.G. its big!!" and however this sometimes is good, this time I was less amused. It is really bulky compared to my other soldering stations...

It will not fit under my shelve!!!
The unit itself, so not the holder, is 17 cm high, 13 cm wide and 16 cm deep.
For my non metrical friends.... 6.7 inch high, 5,1 inch wide and 6.3inch deep... (if this is wrong, please don't blame me, but blame google for finding me a crappy only converter :) )

So whats in the package.....



Well off course the unit itself..... but it also comes with.....

- Some spare desoldering tips in different sizes.
- Spare filters in different sizes. (3 for the desoldering gun, and 1 for the main unit)

- A Manual in German and English
- A service manual
- 3 different sized cleaning rods.







The cleaning rods actually are labeled A, B and C.... but the tips aren't.... So I guess you need to find out which to use for which tip... Not too hard I think....
They actually look quite nice and the end is processed so you can get the sticky bits out without a problem....

So let's take this baby for a test drive......
The test print to be desoldered.... A standard PCB, nothing fancy... quite old...

So i turned on the unit, had to wait a few seconds till it reached operating temperature, and about 5 minutes later it looked like this.....

The unit is light and the cable and tube are flexible so they do not start to irritate you after 2 seconds because it pulls you away from where you want to go.....
The solder pads and the components are both clean.... I kinda expected the unit to fail a bit here due to low vacuum pressure... but it did not.... it looks perfect..... I took a picture through a magnifying glass to check.... but this just looks perfect to me....

So all good ? no, not all good.... 
The Cable and vacuum tube don't come with a few clips to keep them together. Not necessary, but would have been nice.

One other thing that I don't like (this is totally my opinion), is the desoldering iron itself... It's ergonomics are making you hold it in a position which to me is weird when the PCB is too flat on your workspace.

And this is because it looks like a gun.. (maybe my friends in Texas are more used to this  ;) )
Weller solves this problem better I think , and it is probably not that hard to build it like this....
Maybe it is a copyright thing (But then again, since when does that stop our Asian friends to produce it anyway....)

 So..... Let's add things up.... starting with the cons....

CONS:
- Its a bit bulky....
- Ergonomics could have been better....
- No wraps to keep the vacuum tube and the cable together. 
- Compared to for example a Weller, the whole thing feels a LITTLE bit plasticy and light....
- No ESD connector...

PROS:
- It works like a charm.... results are just as nice as when i worked with a Weller at school and in a repair shop.
- It's light, so no fatigue when you have to work with it a lot
- IT IS CHEAP !!!!!!!
- and did i mention it is CHEAP!!!!

No Kidding , I found a Weller discount store, and they charge 1109 euro's for a basic Weller station, the WR-2002D. A desolder station that does EXACTLY the same as the ZD-985.....
They do give a 10% discount... but that is still 995 euro's 
The ZD-985 was 129 Euro's including shipping.....

CONCLUSION:
So to conclude this review.... I already stated in my previous post that the price/quality factor of this desolder station would be hard to beat. And in have to conclude that I was right... it's not...



There are some cons... but they are sooooo minor...
Add your own clips to keep the cable and vacuum tube together....
Add an ESD point to it yourself, it's not that hard.
Even me saying that the ergonomics are not that good is almost looking for a thing to be negative about, because when you work with this station, you will put it back into the holder a lot anyway to get the components of the PCB.

This desolder station has entered my shack.... and it's not leaving anymore.....

73's
Alex
PA1SBM