Tag Archives: battery

Kempton Park Rally 04/11/2007

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As usual I attended the Kempton Park Radio Rally on 4th November. It was an early start for me as the person who was giving me a lift had to leave at 04:45am. Ouch.

So alarms were set and I woke up an hour early thinking I may have missed alarm and could get back to sleep. Instead I played a couple of games of bejeweled with my friend JW on MSN.

We arrived at Kempton about 5:30 and I helped set the tables with the info displaying where the vendors and clubs would be.

After 6am one of the big Vendors arrived with their Transit stuffed full of Amateur Radio items to sell. I helped them un-pack as I normally do and then other traders and clubs started turning up. After the 2nd large vendor was unpacked with my assistance I went to our clubs tables and added my 2 items with prices. I put up for sale my Icom IC-E90 handheld radio and my Squeezebox wireless music player.

At 10am the punters were let in to spend their hard earned cash and I was busily checking that everyone had a ticket. When someone could cover the door I went and brought 2 copies of the RSGB Prefix guide (one for M0BOV) and went back to keep on checking the tickets.

A while later I had a call on the radio that someone was interested in my radio. The person was tempted and the haggling began. Eventually we settled on a price and the sale was made.

Time for some more shopping. As I had helped one of the vendors I got a good price on some items. Alas the music player was unsold and when I arrived home was unpacked and back in old position.

Items Purchased

  • RSGB Prefix Guide
  • 2x High quality patch leads
  • Yaesu FT-897 battery – FNB-87
  • Yaesu MD-100a8x Desk Microphone

All in all apart from being knackered when I got home was another great day. And the M0TZO shack is getting better.

First Impressions of Icom IC-E90

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Well I have had my Icom IC-E90 for a few days now and battery life is pretty good so far. The Charger that comes with the Radio requires 15hrs to charge, so I may have to purchase the 2-1/2 hour desktop version very soon. As I am writing this it’s having it first charge since Christmas day, but has been charging since 2am and is now 7pm and is not complete (But that may be because the cable when I picked it up at 10am fell out so may not have been home snugly. We’ll have to wait and see.).

I have managed to program in all the CB (UK & EU) and PMR (446Mhz) channels into the memory, as well as some normal radio stations like Capital FM (95.8fm), Kiss (100fm) and Radio 1 (98.8fm). This radio has a feature that when listening to Public radio stations and TV channels (yes can get them as well) switches to a WFM mode.

My uncle will be making a cable to connect to a PC for me and then once I have the Icom software I can arrange all the channels via the computer. (Hopefully that will be easier than programming on the handset.)

On Boxing day I also caught about 5-10 minutes of a broadcast (I think they call a net) by the Sutton & Cheam Radio Society. I heard them using their Amateur Radio call signs, but either because I am not used to listening or they were said to fast I missed them.