AA4PB and N5VTU, the address on the transceiver is correct and I neglected to mention that it was the only thing I changed on the PC side... In any event, with CI-V transceive ON, it shouldn't matter what the address is, right? I'd still see data coming through in the serial console when I turned the dial. At least that's how it was on the 706...

Unfortunately, I'm suspecting that I have a fried component as N4ATS suspects... I'll crack it open and see if I can figure anything out.

Thanks everybody for your suggestions!

Thank you for replying, but I've read that page a few times (in the context of general background reading) and it doesn't have anything particularly helpful for this problem, unless I've missed something. I understand how CI-V works, the level converter troubleshooting isn't applicable (I've already determined that it's the radio), and I'm not trying to write any software (at least right now). Is there anything specific you were directing me towards?

Hi all - My new-to-me IC-718 seems to have a bad CI-V jack. I got a cheapo Chinese USB cable (based on the PL2303) and it didn't work, so naturally I assumed it was the cable and checked everything. But it worked first try and perfectly with my school club's 706, so the cable is good. Same computer, cable, software - no dice on the 718. As far as the config on the 718 goes, neither baud rate nor CI-V transceive makes any difference. For the record, I'm testing it at 9600 baud and CI-V transceive ON, but getting nothing in a serial console when I turn the dial (not to mention the programs don't work!). Again, swapping out a different radio and the same setup worked first try, so it must be the rig

I'm hoping to break out the voltmeter tomorrow and start looking around to see what I can find, but before then - does anybody have any ideas? I'm hoping it's just the contacts in the plug or a bad solder joint or something. Google searches have come up naught. The previous owner never used the CI-V so I don't know how long it's been broken.

Assuming it's not something simple, I guess it would have to go into ICOM... What kind of $$$ do people think they'd charge?

I think "what has happened to our hobby" is a bit much. It's just the band, and it's just now. Every propogation forecast for 10 meters says poor, and it has for a while. A friend of mine tried to do the RTTY contest last weekend from Pennsylvania and worked more Pennsylvanians than anyone else. The band's in bad shape these last two weeks or so. I was grumpy, but then I remembered I should just take a break if I'm bored and had fun working through the pileup on 20 meters for http://www.qrz.com/db/OF9X to talk to Santa Claus. Had a blast, and checked my equipment. Now I'm back to 10 meters to see if it's any better, and if it's not I'll go look around 20 or 40 meters for a bit, and then I'll come back. No big deal.

Got Montana, Washington, Alberta, Nevada (and more closer) from Pennsylvania. Heard Brazil and Peru, but couldn't work them. Serious QSB on pretty much everyone. I'm running my school's club station, and we've got a pretty nice vertical up about 70 feet, but it's not helping me much now. I know it works - heard Ireland clear as day a few weeks ago - but nothing doing. I seem to be getting out alright, but I just can't hear anything!

This is my second contest, and the band is so dead I literally had to go borrow another rig to make sure my setup was working. Best so far is heard but not worked Brazil from Pennsylvania (I'm coming back to him!)

Seems to be getting better in the last hour or so.

I suspect the DSP will come in handy. I think the 706MKII we have can be fitted with the same one, but the 718 (at least recent ones) come with it standard. The MKIIG comes with it as well, but we don't have it. There's actually a pretty nice automatic notch filter in it. According to the QST reviews, the receiver performance is nearly identical. The guts are virtually the same, there's no doubt about it, but ergonomically a bigger rig is a bit nicer if you're not mobile. A bunch of little stuff - RIT is its own knob, there's a keypad, more info on the screen, etc.

I ran the November SS with the 706, and it did just fine, but I was fighting a lot of QRM/N that I feel like I could get rid of now. We'll see in a few days!

Hi all - thanks for the suggestions. A nearby ham actually read this post and contacted by email. He had a IC-718 that he was trying to sell (to finance a TS-590s he'd bought) and he gave me the rig, the SM-6 desk mic, and a G5RV Jr for $500. We checked it out at his shack, and it worked fine - put out the rated power, etc. I also got a good recommendation from Gene, K2KJI, of KJI Electronics, who sold him the rig in the first place! So I'm definitely happy I went local, because that stuff is certainly impossible to do over eBay.

I managed to pass my General, but then I took the Extra test and passed that too. Which is great, except that I didn't study it, so I still have to learn what I "know". But I don't have to re-test.

I had an Astron RS-20a for my other rig, and it seems to power this one fine. When I get into digital modes, I may need a bigger PSU that can deliver 20 amps (or more) continuous, instead of peak, but it seems to do alright now. I also picked up an autotuner - the IT-100, new - and it works a treat (but what a racket!).

I had my first contact this morning, using what could generously be called a "lackluster antenna system". I had the G5RV Jr out the window in an inverted-V configuration, hanging a few inches below my gutter (so the center was at about ~12 feet, which is too low - the ladder line was about 5 feet longer, so I looped it up to my porch railing). I wasn't expecting much, but I worked Phil KM4OP in East Central Florida on 20 meters. I heard him 599+20, he heard me 58 - I'm just happy he could hear me at all! I would have put up a more permanent(= higher up) antenna, but I was only home from college for the weekend and I didn't want to start shooting lines through trees. So I set it up to be able to tear it down quickly.

I've currently got the rig in my suitcase, since I'm taking it on the train (carefully) so I can work the 10 meter contest from the school club next weekend. I'll be using the club callsign W3KZ if any of you guys hear it. We've got quite an antenna, but the 718 is nicer for contesting (with the DSP) than the 706 the club owns, so I wanted to bring it. I figure it'll get out really nice, especially with the desk mic.

So thanks everybody for your suggestions. Hopefully I'll see you on the air!

(p.s. I know it's 10 meters and up, not down, but I figured this would be less ambiguous!)

OK thanks everybody for the advice. I've been doing more research and it looks like the suggestion to stick to HF-only rigs makes sense - it looks like there's certainly a lot more used gear out there that isn't also a 2m/70cm transceiver, and I've got that well covered.

It also looks like eBay is a good thing to avoid, if possible. Lots of horror stories with stolen gear, etc. More on that later.

I checked out the above-mentioned FT-840 and IC-718 and the IC-735. They all seem like they fit my needs and budget well, but that also means there must be a hundred other ones that do as well.

But it seems like there's more good starter rigs for me than not, which is starting to make me suspect that a better option is to show up at a hamfest and find one that looks good (maybe check the eHam reviews first!), make sure it works, and buy it. Assuming it's hard to get an entry HF rig wrong... but is there anything I shouldn't get? Models, makes, etc? What should I ask before I make a purchase?

I don't know how I'll be able to do on the hamfest front, though... I can only find one nearby in the next 2 months and I don't know if I'll be able to get there. I'm going to check out a local store and see what they have, but if it comes to it - what's a reputable place to buy used ham radio gear online? I may not be able to avoid needing something shipped.

Thanks again everyone... there's too many rigs in current production to keep track of, and adding in all the older ones on top of that just makes it an impossible task, so the recommendations have been very helpful!

Hi all - Got licensed a few years ago, and have been having fun putting around 2m/70cm on FM and packet. But I did the November Sweepstakes last weekend and had a blast. I was activating my university's radio club, which hasn't really existed for about 15 years, so it consisted of a really nice vertical (don't know the details) on the roof about 60 feet up, and an IC-706MKIIG running barefoot into it in a conference room with the feedline coming out of the ceiling. We (a local alumnus came by as a mentor/operator for licensing reasons) got 52 sections and 111 contacts, for about 11.5k points, with this setup in about 6 hours, which was fine with me as a first-time contester. Had we used more of the time, or been more competitive, we would've done very nicely indeed. I was pretty impressed with the 706, and I'm definitely not far enough along to feel where it's lacking (though I can see where some filters would be nice!)

But it was a painful realization that my little VHF/UHF world is very small. My current setup is a TM-V71A as a base and TH-D72A, so I'm fine for VHF/UHF, but I'd love to expand "down". I'm working on the licensing, but I need a rig to be able to use any of it. Antennas are a concern, but I figure I'll deal with that after I graduate in a few months (and I'll try running a wire out my 7th-floor window now to see what happens!).

But I'm a college student and I'm on a budget. I'd love to go buy a brand-new TS-590S or something, but that seems like buying a Lamborghini as a first car. Plus, while I can technically afford it (that is, $2000 + planned_expenses < bank_balance), it seems like it makes poor fiscal sense.

Here's what I'm looking for:
1) A HF rig, ideally 10-160 meters but a subset might be alright
2) Relatively inexpensive*
3) Able to "grow" (works well with ATUs, amps, etc) but works fine on its own (puts out 100 watts or so - no QRP to start!)
4) Can do SSB voice and will interface with a PC to do things like PSK31, RTTY, and maybe WINMOR/PACTOR for Winlink. A keyer and CW would be gravy as I'm learning the Morse code, and it seems like most rigs have that anyway.
5) 2m/70cm is a plus, but not a requirement. It helps to justify the cost because then I can move my v71a into my car, which was the original intent (upgrade but use the old stuff)

(*I don't know what "inexpensive" means in terms of "decent, reasonable starter HF rigs" - that is, what's a reasonable ballpark to start with?)

Honestly I think the IC-706MKIIG that I used meets these criteria. I was seriously considering it as my first rig, since it seems like a "classic" radio, but couldn't justify spending almost a thousand dollars just to get on the air for the first time (between rig, PSU, etc) so I went with the v71a instead since I couldn't really use HF anyway to start.

So here's my question to the people out there who know better than I - Does the 706MKIIG meet the criteria above? eBay suggests $700-$1000 for one (I'm keeping an eye out). Is $700ish a fair price for a used but good condition unit? Or is that a steal, or a ripoff? Most importantly, can I do better on cost with another unit without sacrificing quality/features too much? $700+ is a lot harder to justify than something in the $500ish range. I'm still doing my research, but I don't know of an easy way to compare all the rigs out there across all the manufacturers and sort by price (if such a thing exists, I'd love a link!). It seems like a mobile rig will best meet my needs, but only because they seem to be cheaper. Portability isn't really an issue, but if it runs off 13.8v anyway I'd probably try it at a Field Day.

Thanks in advance! I hope this question hasn't been asked a thousand times already, but feel free to post links instead of repeating advice.

I fiddled with the audio that my radio outputs (a TM-V71A), and brought it down a bit to be more suitable for my mic input. The built-in soundcard doesn't have line-in. After I brought it down to the point where there was no clipping, there were still harmonics. I suspect the transmitter is overdeviating?

In any case, I get the best packet results when the noise is clipping (in the oscilloscope view). And since I'm decoding the vast majority of the packets I can hear above the noise, maybe it's not a problem?

I may get the TNC anyway. Being able to simply plug it in, not worry about deviation and line-level/mic input attenuation and isolation and so on is kinda appealing to me right now...

Thanks for your reply. I don't have any ... anything (isolation, grounding, etc) between the radio and the computer. It doesn't seemed to be causing a problem (subjectively), but I'll be putting in isolation transformers and the attenuation circuit mentioned here: http://www.soundcardpacket.org/1cablerx.htm . However, the AGWPE scope seems to be giving good clean signals. See these images:

http://rmead.com/noise.png
http://rmead.com/packet.png
http://rmead.com/packet-best.png

Both packets were properly decoded, and the second one has clear harmonics from the 1200Hz tone, which says "good signal" to me. Channel noise is minimal (1/9 maybe) with my new antenna. I'm terrified of overdeviating, so I've got my soundcard all the way down (literally one or two clicks above muted). Packets seem to come through fine.

Is it just all in my head? If so, I may get a TNC for other reasons, but I don't want to rush out and buy one without an idea of what good it'll do me.

Hey all -

Got my ticket last summer, and worked VHF all day. Back home this summer with a new antenna (from Arrow Antennas, a fantastic J-Pole) and got my shack re set-up.

But I've been having trouble with AGWPE this whole time. I couldn't really afford a proper TNC, and had some spare computers lying around (I'm a computer tech) so I have it set up and working.

However, I'm having a lot of problems with it. With my new antenna, I'm decoding a lot more - and now trying to digipeat them.

That's the problem, but it's more a symptom. The sound-card modem just doesn't do a very good job realizing when a new packet is coming, and it shouldn't be colliding. So whenever I try to digipeat, I collide like crazy. I'm sure nobody appreciates that, so I've turned it off.

If anyone knows how to sort that out (maybe some AGWPE settings?) I'd be more than grateful.

But my real question is, is it worth it? I can afford a TNC now, and I was thinking about picking up a TNC-X (MFJ-1270X) locally. Will it perform better? I appreciate the idea of not being dependent on a program, and my instinct says that I'll do a better job transmitting/receiving. I also suspect that a lot of my problems are due to the fact that I'm not set up properly, which presumably a (relatively-)plug-and-play TNC would fix.

Am I way off course?

So I'm living in a dorm room (at a university you've heard of) until May. Because of a hectic last semester, I didn't have time to set up my shack, but this semester should be better.

I have some obvious limitations. Obviously, I can't go out to the roof and mount a nice antenna - if I could, I'd have an awesome range. But I'm about 50 feet up with nothing in front of me for miles, and have a window. However, this obviously limits my line-of-sight to 180 degrees - the other half of the sphere is behind a cumulative 4 feet of walls.

I have a nice mag-mount that I was using at home (stuck to an air conditioner at 30 feet, worked great), but the interference is terrible here. I've already wrecked a clock radio with my 50W transceiver, and I've got much more expensive computers and things at stake here. The few times I've tried going OTA here, I've disrupted my hard drives and crashed my stereo system (no permanent damage). I don't have a very good ground plane here... I'd need to scavenge/salvage/buy a large-ish piece of steel and figure out how to keep it in place.

My eye's been drawn to the Arrow dual-band J-pole: http://www.arrowantennas.com/osj/j-pole.html . I can stick this out my window, and I don't think I'll be given a hard time (though I'll have other uses for it if I am and it doesn't work out). Would this lessen my interference issue? My EMF theory is pretty weak, but for some reason I can't explain, I feel like a J-pole would.

In short, what's the best way for me to run (up to) 50W out my window without screwing anything in or releasing any blue smoke? Can it be done?

Thanks in advance... 73 KC2YWE