It's been a busy week in radio related stuff. I drove to Ashland for their club meeting Tuesday and spoke briefly and did lots of after meeting talking. Very good time and productive too.
Seems like I've been on the phone to CT all week over a couple of issues, both of which were settled and no harm done.
I've been operating CW exclusively for the past couple of weeks, and my first SSB QSO of the year was going to be the KEN this past Monday. I tried to check in a couple of times, but my audio wasn't heard. On the third try, I watched the S meter, and it showed full output on transmit — even when I wasn't talking.
RF problem perhaps? I quickly switched to the PROIII and checked into the net, still not knowing what was going on the the 746PRO.
Later Monday night, I ran some tests and listened to the tx audio on my Tempo 2020. On keydown in SSB, the rig transmits a distorted hashy audio signal. The mic gain doesn't vary the transmitted signal, only the audio that can't really be understood through the hash.
The power output control varies the signal, for what its worth. The transmitted CW note is just fine, no sign of RF in the shack or on the signal. Even on SSB there's no sign of RF in the shack.
I've fired an e-mail off to the fellow in Washington state who services my rigs to see when he can take a look at it. Yeah, I've got the PROIII here, but for whatever reason, the 746PRO has been my daily driver. I'll continue to run the 746PRO on CW until I ship it out.
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The February issue of QST has a photo of the IC-7700 on the inside page and I sure like the looks of it. I don't expect to scrounge up the cash — about $6,000 from what I've read — to buy one. I AM still very interested in buying a Yaesu FT-2000 with DMU unit. Again, not something that's going to happen tomorrow; my wife has the new car itch, and she'd skin me alive if a new rig showed up in the shack.
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Getting back to the semi-automatic key market, prices are trending upward again. Its kind of hit and miss, but some average, run-of-the-mill keys are bringing some top prices. I've been eyeing my collection, even considering thinning out some of the duplicates I've picked up. Some of the skanky-looking keys cleaned up very nicely and I'm confident they would sell for more than the price I paid.
Speaking of eBay, I need to get in the attic and pull out some gear to list on eBay. If I'm going to pursue that FT-2000, I'm going to need to put some stuff on eBay. I have two National transceivers I've never put on the air — an NCX-200 and NCX-500 transceivers. I've had them for several years and they wound up buried in the attic when my wife was in a fit of housecleaning. I later excavated most of the boxed-up ham gear she buried, but set it aside for later retrieval.
Both transceivers were allegedly working, but I've (obviously) lost interest in fooling with them. The one National rig I really would like to add to the shack is the NCX-5, which is fairly collectible and brings top prices on eBay. I won an auction for one on eBay, but it was one of those estate sale beauties, complete with “the family said he took great care of his radio gear and it all worked great” testimonial. Naturally the rig came without cabinet screws, and it was as dead as a hammer. I bought the rig and PS together. I kept the rig a couple of years, later selling it at a break-even price on eBay, even after disclosing its nonfunctional status.
While I'm in the attic, perhaps I can find some of my wife's stuff to sell on eBay .. hmmmm….