Category: Uncategorised

Signal PS/2 Kenwood/Baofeng
TX 1 3.5mm ring
GND 2 2.5mm sleeve
PTT 3 3.5mm sleeve
RX 5 2.5mm tip

PS/2 pinout

socket plug

6 5 5 6
X X
4 3 3 4
2 1 1 2

I just compiled a non-abbreviated list of callsign prefixes and country names, including non-ITU allocated prefixes.

Data source is Wikipedia plus a whole bunch of post-processing work by me. It should therefore be up to date as of now.

Link

Might be useful to people writing ham radio applications in future, e.g. me.

Should you use it, it would be nice but not necessary if you credited me, but please do credit Wikipedia.

With Exercise Blue Ham coming up again this weekend, I thought now would be a good time to put out a list of the suggested 60m spot frequencies for CHIRP, noting that the 60m band is not continuous.

You should be able to easily import this file into your compatible radio to avoid fiddling with manually programming the channels. Use of the channels rather than the VFO will guarantee you don’t operate out-of-band.

Download 60m.csv

This is going to be useful!

 

Took me a while to get this service manual downloaded, so mirroring it here myself.

Kenwood TH-D7A/E Service Manual

Since information on my old Yaesu FT-470 handheld is starting to become hard to come by, I thought I’d start a post where I put stuff I need to remember or often look up about it.

There won’t be much here to start with, but it might well grow over time.

Headset pinout:

Pin	Function
3.5mm ring	ground
3.5mm tip	rx audio
2.5mm ring	ground
2.5mm tip	mic audio

This is shared in common with these radios:

FT-411, FT-470 , FT-530, FT-51R, FT-11R, FT-41R, FT-23R, FT-203R, FT-416, FT-703R, FT-109R, FT-109RH, FT-209R, FT-209RH, FT-709R, FT-709RH, FT-727R

(credit Argent Data Systems)

They sell such a cable here.

Item 322904869921 on eBay appears to be a headset with the right plug, as does this item on Amazon.

The pin centres are NOT the smaller 8mm apart from each other – more like 9.5 to 10mm.

I find the connectors to be too loose to use separate 3.5mm and 2.5mm jacks – it is not a reliable connection.

The manual is here.

Fed with 12V, the radio will manage 5.0W VHF and 5.0W UHF, according to the manual. The rig can be fed with anywhere from 5.5V to 15.0V.

The microphone is a 2-kilohm condenser.

Mirroring a post from 1991:

From thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!wupost!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!cs.uoregon.edu!ogicse!emory!wa4mei!ke4zv!gary Sun Sep 29 20:54:05 EDT 1991

In article <1991Sep27.033057.22510@agate.berkeley.edu> ajk@garnet.berkeley.edu (Adam Jacobs N2LAW) writes:
>
>1.  Does anyone have the exact wiring specifications for the Yaesu
>side of the cable to the TNC?  Is "where do I plug it in" a stupid
>question?  Presumably the MIC and EAR jacks, but how is the MIC jack
>configured -- if it's (as the manual specifies) a 2-conductor
>micro-mini phone jack, then what do I do with the PTT signal?  Or is
>there something else I should know?  I can wire the cable all right,
>but I have no appetite for blindly trying configurations on an
>expensive piece of equipment.  Do I have to open the unit up?

The FT470 is wired like an Icom. You connect the audio from the TNC
to the tip of the mike plug through a capacitor and connect the PTT
to the tip with a resistor. The Icoms and Yaesus use a "leaky ground"
to generate PTT. The problem with this approach is there is a tradeoff
between rapid PTT and audio level and response. Typical values are
.1 ufd and 2.2 k ohms. The RC time constant limits TR turnaround.

A better scheme is to use a tiny audio transformer sideways like so,


TNC PTT----------))))))))))))------------> radio tip (audio)
                 ============
TNC AF OUT-------))))))))))))----X--------> radio sleeve (gnd)
                                 |
TNC GND--------------------------|

You can rip a suitable transformer out of an old transistor radio or
buy one from Radio Shack.

>2.  Suppose I want to run the HT off a 12V external power supply.
>Where do I feed the power?  Not the battery terminals, I hope.  I
>would have expected a DC power jack somewhere on the unit, but again I
>don't see anything except a mysterious looking rubber plug-which-might-
>hide-a-jack-but-I'm-afraid-to-pull-it-and-look.  The manual, again,
>says nothing about this.

The 2 meter only model does have a power jack under the rubber plug, but
the 470 doesn't. There's a place on the board for one, but Yaesu recomends
that you use a PA-6 module instead. This is a module that mounts in place
of the battery and contains regulators for running the radio and charging
a battery connected to the bottom of the PA-6. This is a really nice
accessory and well worth the price.

>3.  Anything else (useful modifications, hints, caveats) I should know
>about the FT-470 (or PK-88?)

Just the standard remarks that you should carefully set the audio level
so you wind up with a 3 khz deviation for your tones. Don't exceed that
level or many units will have trouble decoding your packets. Make sure
you have the power saver on the 470 turned off when you run packet or
you'll miss the first part of every packet. This can drive you nuts
because everything seems to be working but nothing prints.

One last note. Use a separate antenna and use shielded cables on your
TNC. Otherwise the RFI and RF feedback will ruin your packet operation.

Gary KE4ZV

Source

TNC wiring:

TNC TX audio -> 0.1uF cap -> 2.5mm tip
TNC PTT -> 2.2k resistor -> 2.5mm tip
TNC RX audio -> 3.5mm tip
TNC gnd -> 2.5mm / 3.5mm ring

or the transformer method, which I’ve never tried.

Headset / speaker mic wiring – unverified – need to tear apart a headset I have somewhere to check.

Mic + -> 2.5mm tip (presumably the cap isn’t required as in the TNC)
Mic – -> 2.5mm gnd
PTT will be 2.5mm tip -> 2.2k resistor -> switch -> 3.5mm tip
Headphones is just 3.5mm tip and 3.5mm gnd

Again, that is unverified.

Any speaker mic must be a design where the PTT switch is double poled, where the second pole interrupts the speaker connection, else audio feedback happens on TX.

Here’s a really simple footswitch PTT adapter for at least the Yaesu FT-450d and the FT-857d. Any rig compatible with the Yaesu MH-31 fist mic with modular 8 pin (RJ45) connector.

Buy a 0.5m Ethernet extension lead, like this:

(they are all over eBay).

Buy a tattooist foot pedal – about £7, again eBay.

Buy a quarter inch in line jack socket.

Cut the outer insulation of the Ethernet extension lead half way along.

Cut a piece of two core wire the same length as from your cut to the Ethernet plug. Solder to quarter inch socket.

Strip back a bit of insulation from the brown and white lead. Connect to the shield of the quarter inch socket via its wire.

At this point you can cut the green lead in the Ethernet cable to disable the fist mic PTT, or you can leave the green lead in place to allow both the foot switch and the fist mic PTT to control the radio.

If you cut the green lead, connect the rig side of the green wire to the other side of the quarter inch socket. If you left the green lead intact, strip back a bit of insulation and make the same connection.

Long way of saying, the green wire in a standard Ethernet cable is the PTT pin, and the brown and white wire is the ground pin. Ground the PTT pin to key up.

Here is a table of the rough state of charge of a 12V sealed lead acid / AGM battery at different open circuit / no load voltages.

State of charge	12V battery	Volts per cell
100%	12.7	2.12
90%	12.5	2.08
80%	12.42	2.07
70%	12.32	2.05
60%	12.20	2.03
50%	12.06	2.01
40%	11.90	1.98
30%	11.75	1.96
20%	11.58	1.93
10%	11.31	1.89
0%	10.5	1.75

Categorised under “things I Google repeatedly”.

Really quick hack. I was about to chuck out a broken Xbox 360 (already brought back from the dead 3/4 times) when I noticed its power supply was fairly beefy – rated 14.2A at 12V.

Turns out these are really easy to hack and work great as radio power supplies, so long as you don’t need more than 14A.

Chop off the plug, connect the red and blue wire together, then solder the three yellow wires to the positive side of your chosen power connector [1], and the three black wires to the negative side of your connector.

My big radio draws 15.6A transmitting 100W into a dummy load, which is above the rating on the label of the PSU, but it didn’t seem to mind! No heat detected even after quite a bit of testing – voltage dropped only to 11.93V. Safest to keep within the rating of course.

No detectable QRM showing up on the SDR, so they seem to be pretty quiet. While not small, these power supplies are certainly smaller and lighter than the vast majority of 12V power supplies you see out there for ham radio / bench use.

Not bad for £0 and about 10 minutes work. These power supplies are readily available on eBay for £10 to £15. Easy mod!

 

[1] I use 30A Anderson Powerpoles for all my 12V connectors – including replacing all the non-standard connectors on all of my rigs. Sotabeams sells them for the best price I’ve been able to find in the UK.

Stumbled upon this write-up- SSTV from the Raspberry Pi camera, with direct RF synthesis, i.e. no outboard radio required, complete with motion detection and callsign overlay. Neat!

Low pass filter mandatory.

Nothing stopping this being adapted for HF SSB, in fact it would probably work better.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Raspberry-Pi-security-Slow-Scan-Television-Camera/