Saturday, January 4, 2020
My new little QRP rig, the FT-817, arrived earlier this week. The sale was from someone who as selling it for the estate of a Silent Key, and of course, the seller knew nothing about the rig.
The FT-817 arrived in excellent condition, despite the piss-poor packing job. Thankfully, the FT-817 is relatively lightweight, so it could bounce around in a box and still remain in decent physical shape.
The sale did not include a power cable, microphone or (annoyingly) the battery cover. Of course, the price was so dirt cheap, I can afford to buy replacements. Having previously owned an FT-817, I opted to buy a solution to the factory rinky-dink DC power plug — I bought a 3D printed plug that uses PowerPole connectors, which I’ve become a big fan of lately. It works great, BTW.
I have a mic on the way from Hong Kong, and a battery door cover coming as well.
I haven’t made any contacts with the rig yet, but plan to give it a try soon. Thankfully, I found that it works GREAT and has a nice receiver. No optional filter, of course. I would like to find a 500 Hz CW filter for it, but those things aren’t cheap … I hate to invest half the purchase price of the radio in a dang CW filter. I have several external audio filters, and I think I can make do with one of those (cheapskate filter engaged, hi hi).
Editor’s Note: I found that I sold my previous FT-817 more than 3 years ago on eBay. Sold it too cheap, but wanted it gone.
SKN NFG. Well, I wasn’t successful with doing more than monitoring a few QSO during Straight Key Night. One of the issues I found myself facing was having a straight key with the necessary 1/4-inch phone plug on it. It took me some time, but I cobbled together two pieces of cable and had my John Merrick straight key at the ready.
Due to some XYL QRM and some household projects that apparently couldn’t wait any longer, my SKN operating time was severely curtailed. Maybe next year.
I need to go out on the north side of the house and repair my dipole that serves Studio A. I need to repair the feedline too … neither job is that difficult. The shack however is another story. I need to move some stuff back to storage in the attic. Sadly, the shack becomes the repository for whatever needs to find a home out of the living room, hallway or kitchen.
CW NET SUCCESS. I have taken time to check in several times to the Georgia CW net. Sometimes the band doesn’t cooperate, but I still manage to check in.
73 es CUL … de KY4Z SK SK …. dit dit ….