Monday, July 6, 2015 — I have had some time to enjoy my Hallicrafters FPM 300 transceiver Sunday afternoon, but I also remembered what I didn’t like about it — it drifted so much.
Other than that, I love listening to it, and I had to open up the manual to remember how to tune the transmitter. It is NOT much of CW rig since it uses some unGodly 1750 Hz tone it transmits thru the audio circuits as so-called CW signal. I couldn’t work CW at that frequency (or wouldn’t want to).
I’ve decided I’m going to buy one of the Cumbria Designs X-Lock VFO stabilizer kits for the thing. … saw a YouTube video of how well that worked with one fellows FPM 300, and now I have directions on doing it too. I’ve ordered the kit, so we’ll see how it works.
Right now I’m listening to my Cross Country SDR. It’s one really neat SDR receiver; I’m just about convinced I’m going to buy a Flex xcvr soon … it won’t replace my FT-2000 station, but I’m hankering for a new ham radio toy.
I had an Astatic D-104 wired for the rig; unfortunately I’m not exactly sure where it is. I found three D-104s in the shack, but they all had 4-pin plugs. I have three more to check that are up on a shelf, so I’ll probably find it soon enough. I have three D-104 table lamps, lol! My wife just shakes her head. Women!
MISSING IN ACTION! I was looking in the barn for all the Field Day equipment — antennas, etc. — and when I went to check on my FD Icom IC-706MkIIG, I found my watertight storage case freaking empty!
Well, not completely empty … there was a bundle of coax in it, but nothing else. For Field Day a couple years back I had an Icom 706 MkIIG, an MFJ 941D antenna tuner and coax connectors that I stored in a case I bought at Dayton in the boneyard.
The case — when I found it — was not secured together well. The case was on the back porch up until earlier this year. I’m almost sure the rig was in there. I own 4 706s — two first-generation 706s, and two MKIIGs. One of the MKIIGs is in the shack; I moved the other two 706s to mobile use … one was in my Suzuki Sidekick, the other was in my Dodge Durango.
I brought the one in out of the Suzuki last week, and the one that was in the Durango won’t power on for some reason. Not sure if its electrical or the button itself, which doesn’t seem to have any travel. I need to switch faceplates and see if its an electrical issue or physical button issue.
But that leaves me with a MKIIG missing, and that bothers me. I really like the MkIIG — it is a far better rig that the first generation one, and I really hate the idea that it was mislaid or stolen. I’ll check in the barn again, but my wife and the kids are smart enough to know that if the case came open you don’t just leave the radio out in the elements.
I’m trying to remember if I took it out of the case and put it in another go-type box. I don’t remember doing that at all … and I wasn’t about to run the thing mobile. I just don’t know what else I would have done with it.
In the meantime, I opened a weather cardboard box in the barn after realizing that I have a Drake TR-7 I never took it out of its box. Bought the thing in 2012, along with the Drake power supply. I spotted the box sitting in the barn — a little too close to the open end of the barn, and the cardboard had … over time … shown some water damage. I was worried, to be honest, but the packing tape split easilly with a couple of tugs and the rig was well protected in bubblewrap and layers of what looks like seat cushion foam. Right not the TR-7 is on the kitchen table until I clear space (yeah, right!) for it on the operating desk.
Actually, I have some other gear I could move or remove to make room for it, and that’s probably what I’ll do. I don’t have a mic wired for it right now, but that will come easily enough. The matching power supply is a hoss, and I don’t anticipate putting it on the desk (maybe beneath it).
I seriously need to shed some of my surplus gear … I have a Kenwood TS-430S that works well, just looks a little “rode-hard-and-put-up-wet.” It sits beneath my desk, waiting for the day when it returns to my operating position. Sadly, I don’t think it will unless its for testing.
I still have gear in boxes in the attic … a National NC-200 transceiver, NC-500 and others. Just need to list it and sell it. Maybe that’s how I can afford my new Flex, eh??
I have work to do … 73 es CUL … de KY4Z CL SK … dit dit