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Last Friday, I was working from home. I generally have one of the radios on in the background and of late, it has been the revived TS-940S, generally on 10m or 40m.

Thursday evening had been very windy, so when 10m seemed very quiet indeed, I wasn’t too surprised, I thought the coax had fallen off at the feed or something. I popped out and checked – it looked ok, but I tightened it all up and tried again. Still nothing!

I replaced the barrel coax connector between the antenna and the feedline, No luck!

Then I put a dummy load at the end of the coax – hmm. SWR 1:1.5 or so in the shack, but no receive noise. I quickly connected the FT-817 to the base of the antenna. Lots of signals!

A coax problem then! That could be interesting as the coax was buried in undergrowth around the perimeter of the garden. I gently started to trace the coax from the antenna back towards the termination point. Rather tellingly, just a few moments later the cause became obvious. The coax had been gnawed through.

Rats!

A hasty bit of splicing and we’re back in business!

Last Friday, I was working from home. I generally have one of the radios on in the background and of late, it has been the revived TS-940S, generally on 10m or 40m.

Thursday evening had been very windy, so when 10m seemed very quiet indeed, I wasn’t too surprised, I thought the coax had fallen off at the feed or something. I popped out and checked – it looked ok, but I tightened it all up and tried again. Still nothing!

I replaced the barrel coax connector between the antenna and the feedline, No luck!

Then I put a dummy load at the end of the coax – hmm. SWR 1:1.5 or so in the shack, but no receive noise. I quickly connected the FT-817 to the base of the antenna. Lots of signals!

A coax problem then! That could be interesting as the coax was buried in undergrowth around the perimeter of the garden. I gently started to trace the coax from the antenna back towards the termination point. Rather tellingly, just a few moments later the cause became obvious. The coax had been gnawed through.

Rats!

A hasty bit of splicing and we’re back in business!

After its’ trip to James M1APC, the TS940 arrived back here on Thursday. I had a slight fright when it arrived back, when it needed a reset on switch on. And indeed, each time you switch on, you have to hold the A=B and power it on, which resets the microprocessor.

It didn’t do that when it left James, so I can only assume that it got shaken up somewhere. Anyway, it’s simple enough to do that, so no problem. Other than that it is working really well!

I checked the transmitter output and that looks good – even on AM! I was listening to various US stations on 29MHz AM this afternoon and although signals were fading up and down, it sounded very nice. It also sounds good on SSB and I’ve been listening a little on 7MHz where signals were good.

I haven’t tried it on CW. I don’t seem to have a working external morse keyer. I was hoping to use my old Morse Machine MM-3, but that seems to have stopped working in the years since I used it last and despite a quick poke and a prod, I couldn’t persuade it into life. I’ll find a small external keyer somewhere soon, I’m sure. I hope so, as the receive seems quite good on CW. I was listening to W1AW/5 on 21MHz this evening when I didn’t really expect the band to be open. Copy seemed a bit better on the 940 than on my IC740 which is currently making my HF CW contacts.

But it’s great to have the TS940 back and it does have a very nice feel to it. Thanks James for all your help in getting it going.

After its’ trip to James M1APC, the TS940 arrived back here on Thursday. I had a slight fright when it arrived back, when it needed a reset on switch on. And indeed, each time you switch on, you have to hold the A=B and power it on, which resets the microprocessor.

It didn’t do that when it left James, so I can only assume that it got shaken up somewhere. Anyway, it’s simple enough to do that, so no problem. Other than that it is working really well!

I checked the transmitter output and that looks good – even on AM! I was listening to various US stations on 29MHz AM this afternoon and although signals were fading up and down, it sounded very nice. It also sounds good on SSB and I’ve been listening a little on 7MHz where signals were good.

I haven’t tried it on CW. I don’t seem to have a working external morse keyer. I was hoping to use my old Morse Machine MM-3, but that seems to have stopped working in the years since I used it last and despite a quick poke and a prod, I couldn’t persuade it into life. I’ll find a small external keyer somewhere soon, I’m sure. I hope so, as the receive seems quite good on CW. I was listening to W1AW/5 on 21MHz this evening when I didn’t really expect the band to be open. Copy seemed a bit better on the 940 than on my IC740 which is currently making my HF CW contacts.

But it’s great to have the TS940 back and it does have a very nice feel to it. Thanks James for all your help in getting it going.

Having enjoyed using the IC-740 over the last few weeks and making some fun HF QSOs, there was another of my old HF rigs that I wanted to get going again. My old TS-940, bought second-hand from Jan G0IVZ, perhaps 20 or more years ago, maybe more had been sat up in the loft since we moved to Oxfordshire 10 years ago. I’d got it down some months ago and had been disappointed to find that only half a display lit up and it wasn’t well at all.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a post from my friend Matt 2E0MDJ on Facebook saying that he was having a repair done by James M1APC. James is based in Cornwall and is well worth following on Facebook (search for ‘The Shack’) and he posts pictures of many of the rigs that he has in for repair – which is fascinating to see.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I emailled James to see if he would be willing to look at my TS-940. The answer was yes, so last week, I shipped the rig down to James to have a look at. I was delighted to see, on Facebook, last night a picture of my TS-940 lights bright and working again! James also sent me a video of the rig running on 10m – it sounds great.

James has the rig on soak test but tells me that he hopes to have the rig back with me very shortly. I’m really looking forward to it!

My plan is to have it on the bench, alongside the IC-740 and the FT-847, for a little CW, SSB and AM on the HF bands. Assuming it works well, and I am sure it will, that will probably free up the FT1000MP to go elsewhere.

If you want to find James M1APC on the web – he has a site here with some contact details.

Having enjoyed using the IC-740 over the last few weeks and making some fun HF QSOs, there was another of my old HF rigs that I wanted to get going again. My old TS-940, bought second-hand from Jan G0IVZ, perhaps 20 or more years ago, maybe more had been sat up in the loft since we moved to Oxfordshire 10 years ago. I’d got it down some months ago and had been disappointed to find that only half a display lit up and it wasn’t well at all.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a post from my friend Matt 2E0MDJ on Facebook saying that he was having a repair done by James M1APC. James is based in Cornwall and is well worth following on Facebook (search for ‘The Shack’) and he posts pictures of many of the rigs that he has in for repair – which is fascinating to see.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I emailled James to see if he would be willing to look at my TS-940. The answer was yes, so last week, I shipped the rig down to James to have a look at. I was delighted to see, on Facebook, last night a picture of my TS-940 lights bright and working again! James also sent me a video of the rig running on 10m – it sounds great.

James has the rig on soak test but tells me that he hopes to have the rig back with me very shortly. I’m really looking forward to it!

My plan is to have it on the bench, alongside the IC-740 and the FT-847, for a little CW, SSB and AM on the HF bands. Assuming it works well, and I am sure it will, that will probably free up the FT1000MP to go elsewhere.

If you want to find James M1APC on the web – he has a site here with some contact details.

How long have I had my FT-8900? Four, five years, maybe? Of course I knew it received AM on air band and have used it on there from time to time, but it never occurred to me that it would work on 29MHz.

This afternoon, I noticed a tweet from Richard GW1JFV saying that he’d worked K1GUP on 29MHz AM and went on to say that he used his FT8900. I happened to be in the shack at the time and had the instruction manual to hand.

Menu item #45 was quickly found AM on | off – which allowed me to toggle AM on to 29MHz.

I fired it up and it sounds ok. Not brilliant on the monitor receiver – perhaps a little harsh, but it’s AM nevertheless.

Another option for using AM on 29MHz. Thanks Richard!

Update: Oh dear – this turns out to be wrong! The 8900 is receive only on AM. After an interesting conversation with Chris G3VEH, I checked this. Although the 8900 transmits when AM is selected, if you listen, it’s actually FM. When Richard made his QSO, his QSO partner must have slope detected his FM!