FT-70D on WIRES-X

To connect and control WIRES-X with your FT-70D, you first need to find the room or node numbers you would like to connect to at Yaesu's active Rooms and Nodes pages. All columns can be sorted. e.g. Sort by State to see rooms or nodes in your area.

If you are using a hotspot MMDVM, don't follow these instructions. See the information by Chris, K9EQ about this at hamoperator.com.

CONNECT - To connect to a WIRES-X repeater or node, select the frequency of the repeater or node, then press  MODE  until the DN mode is selected. Connect to WIRES-X by pressing   F   then  AMS .

SELECT - To connect to a room, rotate the  DIAL  until you get to the entry screen  EN # _ _ _ _ _ . Enter the room number and press  AMS 

STORE - After connecting to a room, store the room in one of five memory slots by pressing and holding the corresponding number of  1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 , or  5 . A confirmation beep will sound.

CHANGE - To change between rooms stored in memory,  DIAL  to the room and press  AMS .

DISCONNECT - To disconnect from a room, press and hold  BAND . To disconnect from WIRES-X and return to normal radio operations, press and hold  MODE .

If you run into trouble, just disconnect and reconnect to WIRES-X.

And there you have it!

Download the PDF of these instructions.

Blessings!

You're Grounded

Since my "ham budget" is, well... there is no ham budget. So spending big bucks on thick copper busbar, copper mats, copper this, and copper that can get pretty pricey, not to mention a non-negotiable with the wife. This is true especially if it's all prefabricated PnP stuff.

Being like most of you other hams, I like to design and build my stuff myself. In furtherance of this manly, hamly expression of creativity, I designed and built two ground and lightning suppressor boxes, and two interior ground busbars. One set for myself and one set for my friend Stu, KD9MNK. Here is what I came up with.

Busbar in the box with two ATT3G50U's installed

The busbar is constructed with a 1.5 x 1.5 x 0.125" aluminum angle and #10 x 3/4 stainless machine bolts. I drilled 1/4" holes spaced 1.75" apart, allowing for three Alpha-Delta ATT3G50U surge and lightning suppressors to be mounted on the bar, and a heavy ground wire block (top right) for the ground wire. While assembling the busbar, I applied Noalox to all metal surfaces to insure electrical connectivity and prevent corrosion. The exterior bar is housed in a 8 x 8 x 4" PVC junction box with a waterproof cover. The interior and exterior busbars are identical in construction, except for the length - the interior busbar is four inches longer.

The box I made for Stu is fed from the bottom with a 2" PVC conduit running from his home to the back yard where the box is mounted at the base of his antenna. A second 2" opening on the box floor provides the coax exit. this is plugged with a 1/4" thick rubber disk with holes for the coax to pass through. A third exit in the box - also plugged with a rubber disk - is for the cable grounding the busbar and the ATT3G50U's. Water tight. Bug tight. Nice.

The KD9MNK busbar box for the base of the tower

The interior busbar is mounted in the house, just inside the coax conduit feed point. Another set of Alpha-Delta ATT3G50U's reside here, as well as the grounding point for the radios. I designed a 1.25" conduit that passes from the basement, into the wall cavity of the room above, where the KD9MNK station is located. The 20" long conduit terminates into the bottom of a sealed plastic duplex electrical box. A standard blank wall plate holds two SO-239 connections and a grounding stud. Nice and neat. A ground line runs from the wall plate stud to the busbar and out an exit point from the coax conduit, just outside the house. Grounding rods take it from there.

Yup, this should work fine.

The K9KMS busbar box ready for installation at the base of the tower

The KD9MNK interior connectors and grounding stud

CQRlog

See the Update

"CQRLOG is an advanced ham radio logger based on MySQL database. Provides radio control based on hamlib libraries (currently support of 140+ radio types and models), DX cluster connection, online callbook, a grayliner, internal QSL manager database support and a most accurate country resolution algorithm based on country tables created by OK1RR. CQRLOG is intended for daily general logging of HF, CW & SSB contacts and strongly focused to easy operation and maintenance." - cqrlog.com

CQRlog 2.5.2 on Linux Mint 21.3

A couple years ago, I wrote about several Windows-based and web-based logging software systems for amateur radio enthusiasts. The web-based software provides users the option of using any OS, as all that is needed is a web browser, but on the downside, you also need an internet connection.

Long ago, while looking to get off the Windows bandwagon, I experimented with Linux, Redhat, and a few other OS's, but recently, I was introduced to Raspbian, a Debian-based / Linux-based OS designed for the Raspberry Pi computer. My opinion of Raspbian so far is very positive. The fact that the OS is free, and thousands of programs are available for free, helps my wallet recover from the ever-expanding money pit Windows based computers can be.

Now let me jump forward to what I really want to talk about - the new Raspberry Pi 4 and CQRlog. The CQRlog software package is touted as the best Linux-based amateur radio log program on the planet, and I may just have to agree. The Raspberry Pi 4, on the other hand, may just change the way we currently look at desktop computers. This is good.

I am a big fan of Ham Radio Deluxe, a fantastic Windows-based program, but now it is quite expensive, initially $100, then $50 per year for maintenance. And if you still mail out QSL cards, the annual cost of the hobby can really eat into the household budget. More recently, I was using the Log4OM software, another fantastic Windows-based program that has most of the bells and whistles of HRD, but the best part is Log4OM is free, but please make a donation to their work if you like it.

Then there's CQRlog, an open source software system that, when used with a few other Linux-based open source software packages, rivals anything out there, and it's free! CQRlog integrates with LoTW, HRDlog.net, eQSL, and Clublog. It also provides live logbook support through HamQTH or QRZ. HamLib takes care of TRX controls so current radio configurations auto-populate in the QSO window.

You can find all available software packages in the Raspbian/Debian repositories. In Raspbian OS, simply go to the Preferences menu and click on Add / Remove Software. Search Ham Radio and select all the desired software packages. It's as easy as Pi.

Update

September 29, 2020

So it's been over a year now since I started using CQRlog, and well, I'm still using it and I really like it! Logs are super easy to set up, updates to several online logs can be automatic and in real time, and the integration with LoTW is great. 

Services from the website HamQTH - from the makers of CQRlog and RemoteQTH - are well integrated into the CQRlog software. No nagging ads and no subscription fees. If you like the software and services, you are free to make a much appreciated donation.

This software has been very stable, reliable, and easy to use. I did have it crash twice, but I believe it was related to a rig control conflict I created by using several programs wanting rig control at the same time. My bad. As you can see, the appearance of the many interfaces are nice, clean, and up-to-date, unlike so many ham programs with the vintage 1980's, DOS-to-Windows transition look. 

CQRlog is clearly at the top of my list for logging software. See the CQRlog website for more.