Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024
I’m still having a ball with my RS-998 SDR transceiver. However, since it doesn’t come with a manual, digging into its features is often a “press this button and see what it adjusts” kind of thing.
I’ve not found anyone with a manual on it yet; I assume there’s on in Chinese somewhere, but can’t confirm that (or find that).
But despite not knowing its full operation yet, I’m enjoying it tremendously. I have found that clicking the multi-operation button will allow you to tailor the filtering on receive, much like the Passband Tuning does on my Icom IC-756PROII. The display shows the adjustment, its just a little tough for my old eyes to read it in detail.
The receiver is better than the other QRP SDRs I’ve purchased in the past; it just seems like a much more robust and capable rig.
I love the seven-inch touchscreen.
IS IT ME … OR THE RF?? Ever since my first time on the air with the RS-998 I’ve had intermittent CW keying misfires. Now I wasn’t ready to blame the rig because I had to cobble together a cable to attach a Bencher BY-1 to the rig — the 3.5mm connector had to be one of the very narrow ones; the fatter body connectors would not fit the recessed jack. I bought a 6-foot cable with stereo 3.5 connectors and cut it in half to make a new keying cable. I hastily cobbled connections to the key, and the first night I had a couple of keying misfires.
“Bad wiring job” I thought
Despite my efforts to improve my wiring job, I still experienced the random keying flub.
I was running at the radio’s full 100 watt output, so I cut it back, thinking the issue may be RF hanging up the built-in keyer. No luck. I cut the power further and thought I had it licked. Nope.
I tested it last night for an extended period without a problem — think my first transmission to check in on my CW traffic net, the keyer hung up on dahs. Happened a couple times. The NCS finally asked me for my call again after three misfires. Got thru 100 percent the last time.
My shack is on the second floor, so its not exactly got a real “earth ground” available. There’s nothing “hot” with RF in the shack, but maybe the key cable I’m using it picking up stray RF. I’m still flummoxed about it all to be honest. To check out of the CW net, I switched to my PROII, which keyed without a hitch.
I have some ideas left to try, though none of them involve reducing power further. I haven’t tried a voice QSO with the rig, and if I have RF issues, it should be more prominent on voice. We’ll see.
EBAYING SUCCESS. I’ve been gradually selling keys on eBay, though I still have a gob of them left to sell.
My next move is to list another batch of keys.
So what’s next for the shack? I would like to get the Yaesu FTDX-3000 back in the operating position long enough to make a video of it operating and take some pics. I would like to sell it, and some other HF rigs like my 520s, and others I’m not using.
Wish me luck!
73 es GUD DX ….. de KY4Z …. SK … SK …. (dit dit)