If I remember correctly, there was an entire list of CI-V commands in the back of the owners manual.

Using the ANI burst on amateur frequencies is how most EMCOMers identify themselves as top notch Grade A whackers.

Don't beacon too frequently. Some digis filter out packets that are being sent too often as a means of reducing QRM on the network. Also make sure you don't have the squelch set too high. If the squelch is set too high, your receiver can't hear when other stations are transmitting, greatly increasing the probability for packet collisions.

I have found that with low power transmitters, it's better to just use simple time interval beaconing instead of smart beaconing. Smart beaconing only sends packets when the vehicle is in motion or making changes in direction or speed. With a low power transmitter, if your sent packet collides, you have to wait for another change in course before the next report is attempted. With simple time interval beaconing, you only need to wait until the next time interval expires before another position report is attempted.

Although it has nothing to due with reliability, please do not set the TXDELAY too long. The best way to check is to listen to your own packet transmissions on another radio. If you hear anything that sounds like a continuous tone before the packet BRAAP, your TXDELAY is set too long. There are a few stations around here that have their TXDELAY set rediculously high, (like 2 seconds!) which ties up the frequency needlessly.

If the HT is in the same location as the transmitter, you may be overloading the HT- the images could be being generated inside the HT and not the other rig. Try connecting the HT to a rubber duck or dummy load, then see if the images are still there.

With the reputation OCF dipoles have for common mode RFI, this sounds like a recipie for problems!

Set your meter to measure AC volts. Hook it to the power supply output and load down the supply. If you see AC voltage on the meter, you have excessive ripple. My guess would be to check the filter capacitor. If your meter also has a frequency counter setting, measure the ripple frequency of the supply under load. If the ripple frequency is 120 Hz, both rectifier diodes are probably good.

Tom, KA1MDA

Does it squeal all the time, or just when the engine is running? If the squealing goes away when you shut off the engine, it could be alternator noise.

Tom

Cheap CB type SWR meters will often work on HF, and perhaps 6 meters, but I would not use them on VHF or UHF. On VHF, their accuracy is often doubtful, and on UHF they can induce SWR issues due to their sloppy internal wiring, excessive lead lengths, etc. For UHF, you should really use an SWR meter which incorporates stripline type circuit layout designed specifically for UHF frequencies.

Daiwa made some nice cross-needle type meters, which I prefer over the single needle types, as these do not require adjusting for full scale in the forward direction (and readjusting every time you change power). However, I am not sure if any of the Daiwa models will cover the full HF/VHF/UHF range you are looking for. Something like a Yaesu YS-500 (avaialble on the used market) is a single needle SWR/power meter that will cover 140-500 Mhz. The Yaesu YS-60 (also only available as used) covers HF-6 meters. You may need to use at least two SWR meters, one to cover HF and 6 meters, and one for VHF and UHF use.

Tom

I'm not saying the standards need to be higher- I'm saying that hams should UNDERSTAND the concepts that are covered on the tests instead of just memorizing the question pools. Let's face it- you wouldn't go to a doctor, dentist, or lawyer who got their license by memorizing the question pools of their respective licensing exams, would you? No, because you would know they had far less knowlege than someone who actually studied and understood the material. Yet you won't apply the same logic to ham radio.

Whether you want to admit it or not, ham radio IS a technical hobby. The voltages inside some ham gear are easily lethal to someone who doesn't know what they are doing. Unfortunately, by memorizing the question pools, you may not even have enough basic knowlege to know what you are about to do is dangerous. Far worse, by memorizing the question pools, you are denying yourself the very foundation on which you will need to build on as you go forward in the hobby. Without such a foundation, many new hams feel frustrated, and many even leave the hobby due to this frustration. Without a basic understanding of the underlying concepts, it's like trying to drive a car in a foreign country where you can't read or understand the roadsigns. You may eventually get to where you want to go by sheer luck, but it's going to take a lot longer and it defiitely won't be fun.

These forums are overflowing with the painfully obvious results of memorization. Extra class hams who have to buy ready made dipoles because they can't figure out how to make one for $10 worth of wire, or who need help hooking up an LED because they don't know Ohms law. Or hams who get suckered into spending big $$$ on the latest super miracle antenna because they don't know any better, and then get frustrated because no one can hear them.

Tom

"If upgrading the license was too difficult and required too much training to make us all technically competent according to someone's yard stick, then I doubt the "hobby" would grow at all."

Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.

Promoting emergency communications and rediness isn't a bad thing per se, however (IMHO), all of this EMCOM stuff is useless without technically competent people. No matter how much emcom training is involved, the current widespread practice of memorizing the question pools has filled the ranks of amateur radio with hams who are utterly clueless and technically incompetent, to put it mildly.

OK, so if an emergency strikes, and IF none of the equipment has been damaged, and IF all the equipment is available and deploys as planned, great. But what happens when a feedline gets cut? Or the antenna is damaged or unavailable? Or if some equipment is not available and something needs to be improvised? One just has to browse through the "technical" questions posed in forums here and on other web sites to see what the results would be. If someone can't troubleshoot a simple power supply problem, or figure out how to hook up an amplifier, or can't even make and tune a simple dipole, what good are they in a true emergency?

I've seen situations where local clubs plan Field Day for at least 6 months in advance, going through a mind numbing number of planning sessions, and when the big day arrives, they still can't get it straight due to some minor unforseen technical glitch. To be effective in a true disaster scenario, hams need to be technically proficient, at least to the point of being able to improvise effective communications solutions with whats on hand, even if that means stripping the zip cord from a cheap extension cord and making a dipole out of it. God help us if a simple coax jumper goes bad during an emergency and the local Radio Shack is closed!

Tom

It might help if you would define your expectation of "affordable".

The backlight circuit in the 746 is a POS design. The backlight would have probably crapped out any way.. just a coincidence it crapped out at that moment. There are only 2 types of backlight inverters used in Icom 746's- those that have faied, and those that will fail.

The capacity hat doesn't have to be PHYSICALLY at the top of the antenna to be a capacity hat- it has to be at the top of the ELECTRICAL section of the antenna. Since the BTV is a multiband trap vertical, there are multiple "tops" to the antenna. the electrical top of the 10 meter portion is just below the 10 meter trap. The electrical top of the 20 meter section is just below the 20 meter trap. You could install a capacity hat at either of those locations. It doesn't matter if they are not at the very top of the antenna physically, they are indeed at the top of each resonant section electrically, which technically still makes them capacity hats. As far as RF is concerned, the rest of the antenna above the trap for that band doesn't exist.

Isn't the spider on a 5BTV BELOW the 80 meter resonator? For a capacity hat to work, it's places at the top of the radiating element. I think the spider below the 80 meter resonator is used on 40 meters, not 80. Just because it's physically next to (below) the 80 meter resonator doesn't mean it's part of the 80 meter portion of the antenna.