Another DXCC and radio stuff

I checked LOTW tonight and was pleased to see I have another DXCC confirmed. FM5CD confirmed My contact from Martinique for number 71 confirmed. Slow but getting there. Really helps when I have a chance to participate in contests. too bad I missed CQ WPX recently-oh well.
 I've had some nice QSO's with locals on 2m SSB recently. We quite often have up to five of Us in a round robin. Lots of fun and good information being passed. Also been slowly working on a 432mhz antenna addition and that pre-work will eventually help prepare for the tri-bander I plan to put up on My short tower. More to come on those projects!
  73---Tim

DVS-6 module installation and testing

The DVS-6 Digital Voice module is easy to install just by following the instructions from page 120 of the FT-950 manual. Removing the 18 screws from the bottom take the most time! Note the module position in the pictures. Left connector has one less pin than the connector on the right. I did mark all the cables from the back of the radio for easy placement putting it back together. Once reassembled, follow page 64 for testing. Really neat to hear what I sound like on playback.I transmitted into a dummy load for testing. I'll try both microphones to hear the difference but for now just happy it works. No time to play in the WPX contest this weekend except for several contacts of some loud DX.

 73---Tim

Yaesu DVS-6 Digital Voice memory unit

Picture from Yaesu.com of DVS-6

 I ordered this unit today from a major Ham Radio Supplier for 59.95 plus shipping and handleing! I have in the past thought about a Voice keyer for contests but the price has always stopped Me. This price I couldn't pass up and it is manufactured for the FT-950 and fits inside.It has 5 memories with 20 seconds of storage each. Should be enough for Me to call CQ contest and rest My voice. I'll try to post a pictorial as I install this and do testing-- Fun!!!
  73---Tim

FT-950 and noise

 I updated software yesterday on My Yaesu FT-950 and because of this , all the settings are lost. Not a problem because I wrote all the menu settings down if not default. Each band setting like "My Bands" and band stacking are also lost. I also noticed tonight when switching between bands , the contour,notch filter and noise blanker were default off on every band. Just so happens My noise level is very bad without these on!  It might have been this noisy- S9 depending on band, for quite some time but I didn't notice when all the filtering is turned on! Wow-- what a radio! I'm constantly impressed and at times like this it is cool to reaffirm the radio's ability to amaze Me!! Some conversations on several bands were hardly even heard until I turned on the notch,contour and noise blanker which reduced the noise level to below the received voice. S9 to less than S3- incredible.
  Great radio!
  73---Tim

Yaesu Ft-950 software update

  Beginning of March the rules and frequency allotments had some minor changes for the 60m band. Power was upped to 100w (with restrictions, ) CW ,PSK31 and Pactor III are also allowed and channel 3 (USA) frequency was changed ! My FT-950 has the nice feature of downloading software updates and Yaesu included the 60m changes to its latest "Main" software update. I've updated several FT-2000s but I've never had the need to update My own radio till now. Fact is the radio came with a current EDSP version of 11.54 which is still valid but the main software was an older version 0112 and not the newer 0117. The current new version will include all previous update changes including changing ch-3 from 5.368mhz to 5.3585 mhz and permitting Cw transmission on 60m plus other miscellaneous changes.
  More information can be had from the Yaesu.com website- in fact part of the download includes very good instructions! I did go to the Yaesu site and to the FT-950 and the "files" tab. Scrolling down has many file options but towards the bottom is the file containing ( ft-950_PEP950_3-2-12.zip)called "FT-950 Software update v0117 and EDSP 1154". After downloading and unzipping I installed these files to a folder called "Yaesu downloads" under " My documents".
  By following the procedure for the main software update , the installation is very straight forward but a couple parts I want to point out!. First-- read the instructions all the way thru so you understand them well. I definately recommend writing down any menu parameters that have been changed from default! Very important because this update will wipe them out- plus "My band" data,QMB memories,band stacking and so on! Another point to remember is power both radio and power supply off and after hooking up serial cable and sliding PGM-Sw to the right you need to turn on power supply again but leave radio off!! Very important!! Radio is basically powered off except for circuitry needed for the upgrade.  Also remember to set com port and baud rate to 9600. A communications error will result otherwise. Following the instructions step by step should lead to a successful conclusion. After this upgrade I checked the memory area according to the manual and ch-3 frequency was changed and now 5 more memory channels were there , hard coded for 60m CW operation! I spent time re-entering memu parameters,band stacking and other info but now this radio is updated with the latest software and 60m is ready to use!!
  73---Tim
PS--VERY IMPORTANT!  Do not attempt to update the EDSP software on lot 43 and later FT-950s. My radio is a lot 39 version. Please read instructions provided by Yaesu for  more info concerning this!!
PSS-- refer to My postsfrom October 9,2013 and October 1 ,2014 for more FT-950 information about manufacturer discontinuation of this fine radio and some possible software support!

Apple Support

 My Wife's iPhone needed a software up date and to do this I needed to update iTunes to 10.6. Her PC is a Windows machine and recently had a very nasty virus which took great effort to clean-- needless to say I tried but failed! It came back and all appeared to be good until recently with an iTunes software update. The phone would sync OK, but update kept failing and i suspected a corrupted iTunes application. Since We have Applecare I accessed the Apple support site and followed the prompts, answering questions until the menu inquired on how i wanted to contact support. Seems I could "reserve" a callback time and date! The website indicated 8 reservations left for early evening and more for the night owls-:))  I reserved a time and gave My call back number and almost right on time a Apple Support person named David called Me! Neat-- He was very nice and knowledgeable and after about a 45 minute phonecall, I now have a working Itunes 10.6 program ready to update the iPhone!
   Apple always has great support service like no other! Maybe thats why they seem so successful. Great products and service--  :))
 73---Tim

Winter in a week!!

The winter that wasn't turned into the this!! Around 12" of heavy wet snow middle of the week and then another 11-14" on Saturday. The last amount was supposed to be less than an inch but conditions turned right for a healthy dose of "lake Effect snow"  a phenomonon caused by winds off of Lake Superior. Since I still hadn't finished clearing snow from the work week, Saturdays addition sent Me into full snow removeal over the weekend. Consequently My Ham Radio hobby took a back seat-- I was supposed to have time for the ARRL International SSB DX contest but it was cast aside to make room for snow! I did hear the bands were not great so it would have been a tuff slug for this little low power station anyway! Thats what I'm telling Myself-Hi,hi!!
 73---Tim