April 13, 2019

Yaesu FT-891, FT8, USB-C Mac, PS/2 cable

There was a lot involved in getting this working so I thought I would write a post about getting the Yaesu FT-891 to work digital modes (FT8 in this case) with a new Mac the only has USB-C ports. There are probably other ways to do it but I think what I am describing will be the lowest cost route. First, here are the settings in the FT-891 menu system that I ended up using: 05-06 CAT RATE – 9600bps 05-07 CAT TOT – 100msec 05-08 CAT RTS – ENABLE 07-12 PC KEYING – RTS 08-01 DATA MODE – OTHERS 08-03 OTHER DISP – 1500Hz 08-04 OTHER SHIFT – 1500Hz…

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written by AA0O - Posted in Antennas, DX, Parks on the Air

March 6, 2019

Great DX Today, Galapagos, Antarctica (X2) and Mauritania

Made some good DX today. 2 contacts with Galapagos Islands DXpedition(HD8M) on 17m and 20m, two different stations in Antarctica (RI1ANL and EM1UA) and then Mauritania in Africa (5T5PA). These were all FT8. I’d worked Mauritania via SSB, the other two are all time new ones for me.

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written by AA0O - Posted in DX

November 26, 2018

CQ WW CW Contest 2018 – 175 contacts!

I’m still not fast enough to decode contest callsigns in CW on the fly but I read an article about some guys who didn’t know any CW and participated in a CW contest using a decoder.  The contest logging program I use, N1MM+ Logger has links to one so I tried it out.  CW contests are super fun.  It’s probably the fastest contacts you can make.  I made 175 contacts.  I definitely improved my CW skills and more importantly it’s invigorated me to keep working on it.   I checked cqcontest.net where people post their live contact logs.  The claimed winner, LZ5R, had 8170 contacts.  This is a contest club out…

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written by AA0O - Posted in Contests, CW, DX

November 16, 2018

Hit 100 DXCC confirmed on LOTW!

Today I hit 100 confirmed DXCC entities, with Iceland being my last one.  I almost had Iceland before with FT8, only got half the QSO with a guy named Odin before it faded.  I’ve picked up the last few on 17m FT8.   Now I just need someone to confirm Hawaii on LOTW and I’ll have Worked All States as well.  I have a QSL card from Hawaii but the guy doesn’t use LOTW.    

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written by AA0O - Posted in DX

May 8, 2018

Good DX this week

The Hexbeam is working good. I made a bunch of new DX contacts this week that are new to me, El Salvador, Uruguay, Moldova and Estonia, all on 20m SSB.  I was trying to get A66A in UAE for about 20 minutes but the pile up was too big and I had to get going.   I also picked up W1AW during the NE QSO Party.  I’ve worked them during Winter Field Day but this was the first time using my call, so I sent out a card.  

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written by KX4HL - Posted in DX