Mobile Radio

I'm thinking about buying a new mobile radio. I owned several mobile radios in the past. I probably started out with the Kenwood TM-741A. This radio came standard with the 2-meter and 70-cm bands. I added a 220-MHz band unit to it, because at that time I lived in Dayton, Ohio, and 220-Mhz activity was fairly common. I never installed that radio in the car, although I operated from the car with it from time to time. I was probably getting the power from the cigarette lighter jack. I had three separate glass-mount antennas on the car for 2-meters, 220-MHz, and 70-cm, plus I had a glass-mount cellular antenna on the car as well. I kept that radio for quite some time, but did not continue to use it. Then sometime after moving to Columbus in 1996, I bought a Kenwood TM-V7A. This was a dual-band radio with a bluish-colored LCD display. I had a friend help me install it. We routed the power from the battery through the firewall to the radio, which we mounted to the bottom of a slide-out ash tray, which I wasn't using anyway. Coax cables to the antennas were routed along the lower door "raceways" or whatever you want to call them. I can't remember but I suspect that the V7A had only one RF output, therefore I was probably using a duplexer to feed energy to the two separate antennas. I traded that car (a 1984 Toyota Corolla) in for a new 2003 Corolla. I have never installed a radio in that car. A half-dozen years or so ago at the Dayton Hamvention, I bought a Kenwood TM-D700A. This is a dual-band radio that features APRS operation. I had ever intention of installing it in the car, but I never got around to it. It stayed in its original box. A couple of years ago I sold it on Ebay for probably 90% of what I paid for it.

Now I currently have a Kenwood TM-D710A and an Icom IC-2820H. The D710A just like the D700A features APRS. The Icom IC-2820H is a dual-band radio and I have the DV chip installed in order to operate D-Star. I'm actually using those radios fairly regularly from the home QTH as base radios.

What I would like to do is buy the new Icom ID-880H to install in my Corolla. The ID-880H is a dual band radio but one band at a time. This radio is also D-Star ready. I don't know how much this radio will cost as it is just starting to be advertised, but I could certainly expect $550 or so. If I do decide to get this radio, I'll probably do it in two phases. In the first phase, I want to buy and install the antenna. That way I can use the antenna with my HT until I replenish my funds. The antenna that I am looking at is the Comet Antenna SBB-97 tri-band antenna. In case you are wondering why I would buy a tri-band antenna for a dual-band radio, the reason is that I am looking to the future. The SBB-97 is a 2m/70cm/23cm antenna. I've considered buying the Icom ID-1 radio. This is a $1,000 radio that is strictly 1.2GHz, but incorporates analog FM and D-Star. On the D-Star side, it has the same DV mode as other D-Star radios. DV is digital voice with low speed data. The ID-1 also has a DD mode which is a high-speed data-only mode. I initially talked myself out of this radio, saying that there is probably no one else in Columbus who operates one, and by checking out Dstarusers.org, that would appear to be correct. However, I had forgotten that I can still cross-band through the D-Star repeater and talk to those on 2-meters or 70-cm, and with the gateway, I can connect to distant D-Star repeater systems. So I will keep the option of buying the ID-1 open and buy an antenna that is appropriate. Along with the antenna, I will need a mount for it. I'm looking at Comet's trunk lip mount options. These use a short section of small-diameter coax to go past the lip of the trunk and the weather seal. Then they transition to an RG-58 type coax. As a temporary measure I can snake this coax between my fold-down rear seats to a HT that I keep in the front seat. Then I can get the ID-880H as part of the second phase. I'll likely have someone professionally install the power cable to my battery and find the way to breach the firewall. Then I will install the radio myself.

In the first phase, I can simply operate my HT by connecting directly to the antenna's coax. Also, when I buy the ID-880H, I can connect it directly to the coax. However, if I add the ID-1 1.2 GHz radio it looks like I might have to add not only a duplexer but a triplexer. Obviously a duplexer would be required because two radios would be involved, but I cannot find a duplexer that offers one port with 1.2GHz and the other port with 2-m and 70-cm together. I can find a triplexer that splits the signal from the antenna into three ports for 2-m, 70-cm, and 23-cm, but then I would need a duplexer to recombine the 2-m and 70-cm signals back together for the ID-880H. I'm currently only familiar with Comet Antenna's and Diamond's duplexer and triplexer offerings. If you are familiar with another commercial product, let me know.

One final note. Years ago I purchased a notch filter from PAR Electronics that is supposed to notch out 152-MHz where a lot of pager transmitters reside. I remember driving around Columbus with the Kenwood TM-V7A and getting quite a bit of intermod from pagers. Are these pager transmitters still around? I don't see many people wearing pagers these days, since they can send and receive text messages with their cellphones. Also, my last pager, a two-way Motorola pager, operated in the UHF bands if I am not mistaken.

73,
Ned

Two new Icom D-Star radios

I think that I first read about them a couple of weeks ago on someone else's blog. For the most part, information was only available on Icom's Japanese website and had to be translated to English. Now Universal Radio has pages dedicated to each one. The two new radios are the ID-80AD handie-talkie and the ID-880H mobile. I wonder if these will replace the ID-91AD, and ID-800H respectively. We will find out. I also wonder if Kenwood and Yaesu will continue to stay out of the D-Star game. Naturally, I'll be looking at their exhibits at the upcoming Dayton Hamvention.

I'm happy with my Icom IC-92AD HT and my IC-2820H mobile. I have made a few contacts through the Columbus, Ohio W8DIG 2-meter repeater. The W8DIG repeater system, however, is fairly low profile and I have difficulty hitting it from home. It's usually when I am out and about that I make contacts. I am somewhat disappointed in the D-Star network as a whole. One of the prime benefits of D-Star is the ability to interlink D-Star systems. So far, it appears that many systems are not interlinked. I believe that in order to be interlinked, it has to be registered with the Trust Server. W8DIG is not currently registered. It is possible to make a contact on the D-Star repeater and have your information show up on Dstarusers.org. The other problem that I am having is seeing my position information show up. I have the HM-175GPS speaker-mic, and I am fairly confident that I have the radio properly configured for sending the position information so that the APRS network can pick it up, but the IC-92AD is not showing up; only my TM-D710A station. Perhaps it is time to send an email to the W8DIG trustee to see what is going on and offer my assistance.

73,
Ned

My Station Equipment

I figured it was time that I talk about my station equipment. In this post, I will mainly talk about my base station equipment. In some future post, perhaps I will talk about my two HTs.


In this first photo, I have pictured my two VHF/UHF mobile radios that are currently serving duty as base stations. In the photo, you can see two mobile radio main units as well as two control heads. The main unit on the bottom is for my Icom IC-2820H and the main unit sitting on top of it is the Kenwood TM-D710A. As far as the control heads go, the 2820's head is in the foreground and has the green backlighting. The D710 control head is in back. Of course, the main reason for having the D710 is for its APRS capabilities, and my main reason for having the 2820 is for its D-Star features. These radios may never get installed in my car, but I would like to make up a box that these two radios can be mounted in and then quickly connected to the car battery and a mag mount antenna. In this photo, you can also see my Bencher iambic paddle. I barely know the Morse Code, but I have this paddle so that others can use it, particularly during Field Day.




In the photo below, you can see both of my current HF rigs, a pair of wattmeters, a pair of speakers, and a pair of radio interfaces. The larger radio is the Kenwood TS-2000X. This radio covers 160 - 6-meters, 2-meters, 70-cm, and 23-cm, but it does not cover the 60-meter channels. It has IF-DSP capabilities, satellite operating feaures, and a built-in TNC. The radio sitting on top of the Kenwood TS-2000X is the Yaesu FT-897D. The 897 has the LDG Electronics AT-897 autotuner attached. On top of the 897D are two Tigertronics SignaLink USB units. The one is the rear is connected to the Kenwood TS-2000X and has seen quite a bit of use lately. The one in the foreground is new and is connected to the 897D. I have not had a chance to tweak its settings yet. To the right of the TS-2000X, you will see a pair of speakers. The Kenwood SP-23 is sitting next to the TS-2000X, and a Vertex speaker (the MLS-100, I believe) is to the right of the Kenwood speaker. I've added both of the speakers fairly recently as I prefer their forward-firing sound better than the top-firing sound of the transceiver's speakers. On top of the Kenwood speaker, you will see the Powermaster wattmeter. That is the main display for the wattmeter. The Powermaster also has the HF coupler that samples the RF energy. It is shown in another picture. The LDG Electronics FT-Meter sits atop the Powermaster meter. As its name implies, it is connected to the FT-897D. I must say that it is nicer to read this meter than the 897's built-in one.




The next photo simply shows my sealed lead-acid battery in its battery box. Sealed lead-acid batteries are safe for use indoors as the hydrogen levels during charging are never high enough to be dangerous.




This photo shows a number of station accessories. The large black box on the floor is my Astron linear power supply. I believe that it can supply 35 amps continuous. There are two things sitting on top of it. You can see the Palstar DL2K dummy load with its backlit analog power meter. Sitting to the right of the DL2K, is a Bencher low pass filter. It's designed to not pass anything above HF frequencies, hopefully ensuring that I do not cause any unnecessary interference. I will have to remember to bypass it, if I want to operate 6-meters, though. By the way, neither of this two accessories block the ventilation on the power supply. The gold-colored box on top of the DL2K is the HF coupler for the Powermaster meter. Sitting on the floor next to the power supply are first, the Rigrunner 4008, and second, the Super PWRgate (both are products of West Mountain Radio). The green object with the small LCD display, is a meter that simultaneously measures voltage, current, DC power, and several other parameters. The sealed lead-acid battery and the Astron power supply simultaneously feed the Super PWRgate. The Astron normally runs the station, and it trickle charges the battery. If commercial power fails, the Super PWRgate allows the battery to immediately take over. The DC meter (the green thing) samples the output of the Super PWRgate immediately before it goes to the Rigrunner for DC power distribution to the other station gear.




Some of the things that I haven't pictured are my Palstar ZM-30 antenna analyzer (perhaps a future post), my HTs as mentioned before, antennas, my computer, Heil Sound Proset Plus boomset, Heil Sound Goldline GM-4 microphone (was free with the TS-2000X), and a Palstar DL1500 dummy load. I'm hoping to add the Palstar AT2K manual tuner to my station in a couple of weeks. I'll probably be talking about that, too.

73

More Ham Radio Purchases

I've been doing quite a bit of buying and selling lately with regard to my amateur radio equipment. Last summer I bought a second HF rig, the Yaesu FT-897D. Actually, it is a MF/HF/VHF/UHF radio. It's a great little rig and includes features such as AF-DSP, a TCXO, and coverage of the 60-meter channels. I also bought an AT-897 autotuner made by LDG electronics. This tuner bolts to the left side of the radio. That rig is rounded out with LDG's FT-Meter. This adds an analog meter to the 897D. I placed my order for a second Tigertronics Signalink USB, that will interface this radio to my computer for sound card HF digital modes. I have recently sold three HTs. The first to sell was a Yaesu VX-7R. It was a great radio, but I had four HTs and that was too many. The second HT to go was my Kenwood TH-D7A. Again, a great radio with APRS and packet capabilities, but I have other plans. Finally, the HT that I sold most recently was my Icom IC-91AD FM and D-Star radio. The reason that it had to go was because I had purchased the IC-92AD (a beefed-up, submersible, more-versatile version of the '91). Another purchase that I made at the 2008 Dayton Hamvention was a new mobile rig, the Icom IC-2820H. A few weeks after the show, I added the UT-123 digital voice and GPS board. Earlier I mentioned that I had other plans for packet and APRS. In a couple of months, I plan to buy the Kenwood TM-D710A mobile radio. There are times when I would like to run APRS but I need more than five watts of power. Another purchase that I will make shortly is a third HF rig, the Icom IC-7000. I will talk more about these purchases in a future post. 73.