Tag Archives: radio

New Radio Ordered – Vero VGC VR-N7500

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I’ve been looking for a small 2m / 70cm radio to sit next to my Yaesu FT-991A for a while, and decided as near my birthday finally a good excuse to have a look at options and buy something.

I’d come across the Vero VGC VR-N7500 a few times, and ticked some boxes for what I wanted. The main thing about this radio I liked was APRS and the Bluetooth features. The Price was also nice.

So choice made, I headed to my usual UK radio online emporiums. “Out of Stock” everywhere. So looked at a couple of EU sites and thankfully Passion-Radio.com had it in stock.

Will post some pics, etc when it arrives (due Wednesday, 11/11/2020).

4,000 QSOs in Logbook

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4,000 QSOs

I’ve been pushing hard this year to get lots of QSOs. I started year on under 900 in total in Logbook, but found although higher I had somehow got some duplicate PSK contacts.

Today I hit 4,000 QSOs in total in the log.

Raspberry Pi Remote Radio

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In 2019 I purchased the Yaesu FT-991A radio. It’s a radio with a single cable for control and the built in sound card. My previous Yaesu FT-897D needed separate and many cables.

After running on my Windows 10 laptop and with TeamViewer for a while, I decided I wanted a Raspberry Pi to run radio stuff, instead of my laptop being left on all the time.

I purchased the following items

  • Raspberry Pi 4 4Gb (ebay)
  • Large Heat Sink (The Pi Hut)
  • Stacking Case with Fan (The Pi Hut)
  • PoE Ethernet to Ethernet & USB C

I already had a SD card. The Raspberry Pi arrived before some of the other items, so I started building it. Next to arrive was the PoE adapter.

I loaded the image with Etcher to the SD card and started setting up Raspbian. One early issue was not being able to VNC in, but solved in Raspi-config by setting screen size. So far this has been setup and run headless.

I installed WSJT-X, ADIFPush (for Cloudlog) and GridTracker. I can use a VNC viewer to remotely access the Raspberry Pi 4 and load the software as if using a desktop PC. The Radio is also remotely powered on with a SmartPlug.

This setup is working well. In March 2020 I’ve as of posting this worked 115 QSOs and heading towards my best year on the air.

My Logbook is filling up nicely. m.0tzo.me 

[This is a blog post, not a setup guide]

Yaesu FT-60R

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Yaesu FT-60RIt’s been a week or so since I got my new radio. As pictured it’s the Yaesu FT-60R. And I am loving it.

There are a few minor things that the Icom IC-E90 I had the edge on, but nothing to do with the radios performance. The Icom had a seperate power switch meaning the volume remained where you left it. Also it could receive FM broadcast bands.

Right now I have that out the way, how am I finding the rig. I have had only a few QSOs so far, but the reports have been good.

It’s also built solidly which is why I went for this radio. I have heard it’s so strong, some shops where you can buy it they have one they throw across the shop to prove it’s strength to customers (but I am not going to try that yet with mine).

Over the Christmas period I shall give it a good use. On Christmas eve it will travel with me to my nans, and will keep it on Christmas Day.

I have also ordered a cable as the radio has 1000 memories, so I don’t intend to program them manually.

Type Amateur VHF/UHF transceiver
Frequency range 144-146 / 430-440 MHz (Europe)
144-148 / 430-450 MHz (USA)
RX 108-520 / 700-999 MHz (cellular blocked in the US)
Mode TX: FM
RX: AM/FM
RF Power output Hi: 5/5 W
Mid: 2/2 W
Lo: 0.5/0.5 W
Sensitivity 0.16 uV (12 dB SINAD – 140-150 MHz)
0.2 uV (12 dB SINAD – 420-470 MHz)
Selectivity 12 KHz (-6 dB), 35 KHz (-60 dB)
Voltage Nominal: 7.2 VDC (battery pack), 6-16 VDC (external)
Current drain RX: 45-125 mA
TX: Max 1.5 A
Impedance 50 ohms, SMA
Dimensions (W*H*D) 58*109*30 mm
Weight 370 gr
Other 1000 memories with alpha-tags.
CTCSS & DCS.
WIRES II.
ARTS.
Emergency Automatic ID (EAI).