Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017 — Success! From my corner in our home’s library — amidst our cable TV, DVR, 3 desktop PCs, four laptops and a Minecraft server — I made my first contact by HF last night with nary a complaint from my wife, her Spider Solitaire game or my son and his Mystery Science Theater 3000 streaming via YouTube.
I have been using the ICOM IC-746 (non-Pro) for several weeks now, having replaced the first-generation IC-706 I was using for testing purposes. The 706 allowed me to determine the Dell XPS 8700 next to my chair was creating the wideband RF hash I was getting. The non-Pro 746 lacks DSP, but it does have a very effective noise reduction system, and that works well to reduce the hash.
I purchased a neat looking iambic key several months ago but never used it. The key is based on the FYO style key, and is a larger clone of a Bencher BY-1. The base of the key — like most of the rest of it — is aluminum, which makes it very light. It could use a little heavier base to keep it from moving, but it isn’t a problem to hold. The action is very similar to a Bencher, naturally. The most difficult part of the QSO was me getting the swing of an iambic paddle once again. The homebrew key could be dialed in for very narrow spacing if desired, which is how I like using a Bencher.
There’s no maker’s mark on the key, but there is (presumably) a serial number — 004.
The rest is simple; the band was going long, but I managed to check in to the Georgia CW net and copied all participating stations. I haven’t operated CW on an IC-746 since before I bought my new IC-756PROIII years ago … I’ve always liked both rigs, which were very nice CW rigs. Since the non-PRO IC-746 doesn’t have DSP, its CW filter is much appreciated.
As crazy as it sounds, I’m thinking of upgrading from the 746 to a IC-756PRO. I just have always liked the spectrum display. I removed the DMU card from my FT-2000 in the shack and the DMU unit (along with the monitor) with the intent of replacing it with an RTL-type dongle from mypanadapter.com. Unfortunately, I have never been able to get the dongle to work correctly. I’ve wasted a lot of time messing with the dongle and related software, but never got it working. The only high point was the computer interface cable I bought separately allowed me to operate the rig over a network. I really, really miss the DMU display, as slow as it was. I’m going to have to try the dongle thing again one last time, and then I’ll put the DMU back in place. I’m doing something wrong with the stinking dongle, maybe my old Windows XP machine is too old to work with it. Time will tell.
The next step in the library hamming will be to operate a bug from my new operating position. Neither my XYL or my son have seen a bug in operation, so this may prove interesting, HI HI.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z SK …. dit dit ….