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

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

New toy: ZD-985 desoldering station.... Part1

Today the postal service delivered  a package.....
 Within was another box....

In that box was my brand new desoldering station.

It is the same as Dave from EEVBLOG talked about in this video
He was not too positive about the one he received.... His one did not heat up...
Worse, his tip did not open without the help of the cleaning tool which let me to believe that the suction power is not too good....
I want to state right now.... I did NOT have any of these problems.....
That makes me think Dave got a, what we call in holland, "monday morning item"
Lateron in his vlog he became a lot more positive, especially when he was using it......
His verdict was based on that you get a big bang for the buck.... Which I think will be my conclusion as well...

I turned it on  , and all worked straight out of the box.....

I ordered mine from a supplier on "marktplaats" which is like the dutch eBay.
After sending him an email I found out that I had actually met him at a dutch ham fair....
So I payed the invoice, a whole whopping 129 euro, and I received the desolder station today....

He added small gift as well......

Solderwick..... really... you can NEVER have enough of this stuff.... this works 100000 times better then the spring loaded sucker.... that one really sucks....

Next post I will write some about how i think it works.... but without a doubt i will find myself writing the same conclusion as David has in his vlog....

More to come sometime soon (few days... work will be busy today and tomorrow)

73's
Alex
PA1SBM

A new PSU... KPO SPS-30-II ... PART 2: Installing the missing part

So I promised part 2 soon , so here it is :)

This week my order of 10 clixons (50c N.O.) arrived.....
And today i had time to add this to my latest PSU.....

So again i got rid of 13 screws....

And i looked at an empty spot where a clixon should be......

The holes you see there are only in the metal sheet they use for a heat sink... they are not drilled through.... which took me about a minute to fix.... 2 nice holes all the way through.....

I installed the clixon.....

You can see the slightly smaller black bolts i used to install the clixon. You would say this is as it came from the factory if you would not know better....

When wiring up everything, I noticed it that it would be better to rotate the fan 90 degrees, so the wire would exit the fan close to the clixon. (2nd picture)

The fan they use i this model is not (how surprising)  an expensive one.... I might replace in time with one which is better (at least one with a ball bearing)
I am not sure yet as it might also be handy to have a "noise" warning if it becomes too hot.




After that it was just a bit of soldering and the job was done.....

I put back the cover, screwed in 13 screws.... and reinstalled it on the shelf....
Again, I now have no fan noise if everything is in idle mode.... nice and quiet....

So from a silent shack, I wish you 73's!

Alex
PA1SBM

A new PSU... KPO SPS-30-II ... PART 1: The good, the bad and not so bad at all

A while back I bought a KPO SPS 30-II .... And I promised to write something about it in a few weeks... well.. a few weeks became a few months....

So without any more delay..... here it is , a 59 euro 30 amps power supply......
yeah you read it right... 59 euro..... (thats dirt ass cheap for dutch standards)

It looks like this.....

Not too bad in my opinion, nice clear meters, and if you take the price into account, it's beautiful.
It feels well build as well , as only the front s plastic, the rest is all metal....
It does have this nasty warning at the top back.....

I guess this is a bit over exaggerated as the construction will not allow this to become too hot... (airflow is continues, and the components are on the bottom and not at the top)

Soooooo.... Let's take a look inside....
Well yes.... not that quick though.... to get inside you need to take out  >>13<< screws.
My 1st thought was that this was a tad too much.... but no.... as soon as you have them all out you will notice that without the 13 screws, the structural integrity has completely gone... and it feels not well build at all anymore...  Not that this is a problem, i do not know any people that would take it apart, and then put it on a shelf to use it....

So now we can take a look inside....

At first glance, this PSU looks really nice... A bit like the other proper build KPO i wrote about earlier... No spilled heat paste or white glue stuff...
But after about 30 seconds i noticed a missing part..... AGAIN!!!

In the picture above, again, the clixon is not installed.... KPO clearly did want to put it in as the 2 holes give away their intentions.... (ohh by the way, the heat past you see in this pic, is the only you will find in this unit)
I do not know why they will not just add this.... the PSU is 59 euro, add the stupid thing and make it 64,95... still cheap...

So how does it perform... As I did not have time to have it run at high current for a while, I measured the DC voltage with no load (just 2 small vhf/uhf transceivers powered on) and 1 measurement with a load of around 8 amps....

As you can see , with 8 amps , the PSU drops 0.06 volts..... I think that this will do perfectly for all my VHF/UHF sets.... (I will measure some higher currents on all my PSU's in the near future)

Part 2 , adding the missing part will come soon :)

73's

Alex
PA1SBM

The FoxDelta.com 1-50 MHz swr analyzer.........

A while back I was browsing the internet..... I always wanted a SWR analyser, but i always thought that the price was a bit high for a tool I only use like 5 times a year....
 So somehow I got to a site.... foxdelta.com ...... And I found this..... aaz-0914a
..... 50 bucks...... After like thinking about it for about a month, I ordered it....

Then after a few weeks....... No i have to be honest.... it was more like just over a week from the US/India to the Netherlands... nice and fast....

WOOHOOO!!! its here...... but then... ohh crap... real life.....

So after a month... I started to unpack it.... holly crap this is nice......

Every thing in zip-lock bags, even the PCB... and the PCB looks sweet as well.....
And oh crap again... real life.... Again a month later....
Finally some free time.... lets go !!!

And after about an hour or two we got a working project.....

Well, in this picture it was not working to be honest.... I kinda screwed up a C on the PCB... soldered it on the wrong spot... so no input signal came to the controller.
So this is when it was really done :)

And, as there is no OSX or Linux software yet to my knowledge (I will check up on this later), I had to steal my girlfriends windows 10 laptop.... she never noticed :).....

And then you get nice graphs.... like this.....

Now this is from my 10m antenna, which I thought to dip a little later in the band.... more around 28.450 MHz.... and I thought the SWR would be a little lower, but I never actually measured this at all.... So now I need a propper SWR meter.... guess I need to borrow one :)
If the analyzer is way off, I will post again , but I think it is not that far off to be honest...


73's
till later!!

Alex
PA1SBM