It's like I tell folks — I have a photographic memory; but sometimes nothing develops.
I made a mental note of the date of the CQ WPX RTTY contest in order to get a cable for my ancient-but-working MFJ all-mode TNC. It covers RTTY as well as several other modes, and I used it with much success on my former main rig, my Kenwood TS-450S/AT.
My old cable ran the audio in through the mic cable; it was a rather lashed-up affair, but hey, it worked. What I really wanted to do is get a cable to connect the MFJ interface into the ACC port on the rear of the rig. It would be nice to have all the audio i/o cables in back of the rig, which is where it works best anyway. Unfortunately my mental note must've printed with disappearing ink; I didn't think about it again until this evening while trying to tune in the KSN frequency, 3579.
I had the 746PRO's filtering on 400 cycles, and I was hearing lots of hashing and signals creating QRM. I opened the filtering up and realized that half the band — from 3550 to 3600 was packed with RTTY signals. There was no mistaking the mayhem, a contest was full-tilt underway.
There was a station almost directly on top of the NCS frequency. NCS was Willis, AD4DX, and his signal from Ashland was a little better than usual. It took just about all of the rig's filtering, noise reduction and passband tuning tricks to shut out as much QRM as possible. It wasn't beautiful audio, but I could copy Willis 100 percent, not an small feat on an extremely crowded band segment.
Willis was having trouble copying signals through the noise; only 3 stations checked in, and several of us tried but weren't heard. I called him several times but he never heard us. K4BEH tried 4 times before Willis copied him, and that's only because he called him while the RTTY station was listening. I was waiting to try to call him again when I heard him QNF and the net was over. Wish I had that blasted RTTY cable!
In the past couple of months I have visited the MFJ web site to order one, and even had it in the online cart. I canceled it and figured I would come back after I priced the cable with one of the ham retailers. I'll probably order one from MFJ anyway now.
MFJ PACKET TNCS PACK IT IN. MFJ still lists its TNCs on its Web site, with links to digital copies of the manuals, but the interfaces themselves have been discontinued. With all of the sound card software and interfaces available (including MFJ's own versions), there's no reason to have separate interfaces for any digital mode.
The new soundcard systems and software is superior to the old stuff, but to run RTTY with a soundcard system would require me to have either a very late model laptop or revamp my shack to allow space for a desktop computer. I don't have space for the monitor, that's the biggest problem. I'm thinking of mounting an LCD screen to a boom, similar to an MFJ mic boom. That would allow me to shove the screen out of the way, and pull it down to eye level when needed.
My shack is built on a corner desk with three shelves. There's gear on all three (it's a rather tall stack) and there's absolutely no room for a monitor, particularly an older one. There's no place to sit any monitor, which would mean mounting it swing-arm style. Hmmm ….
NEW KEY ON THE BLOCK. I've been watching more than buying on eBay lately, but I did get in today's mail a very nice package.
It was an E.F. Johnson Speed-X 114-321 key, NIB (new in box). It had been described as “new” and I was skeptical until I opened the box. Heck, the box looks like it just came off the shelf at P.I. Burks. The box is looks like new, the key doesn't look used a bit. The key still has the booklet with tips for learning CW, along with a catalog of Speed-X keys and EF Johnson ham equipment. The key has the navy-style knob, and no circuit closer. The key, according to the little booklet, sold for $5.65 when new.
In comparison, the E.F. Johnson 500 bug (my favorite t-bar type with a chrome-plated base) sold for nearly $24. Not a cheap key, particularly when war surplus J-36s were plentiful.
I'm tired and going to bed ….. 73 es CU AGN … de KY4Z …. sk …. dit dit ….