I have an FT-950 and MFJ-998 tuner. I was attempting to transmit on 60m with a dial frequency of 5.3665. When I started the tuning cycle, the tuner displayed a frequency of 2.6666, not the expected 5.3665, of course it did not attempt to tune since that freq is outside of the amateur bands.  The 998 showed a power output of 20 watts which was also confirmed by looking at the power out meter on the rig.  I tested the tuner on the other bands and it worked fine, just like it has been since I have owned it.  I have check the firmware revision on both the tuner and the rig and they are both up to date.  Has anyone seen this behavior before or have any ideas on what I can check to help troubleshoot.  I am going to call mfj, but I figured I would get some feedback here before wasting an hour of my life on hold that I will never get back.

Thanks,
Carlton
K2CMH

I have a Xantrex whole house inverter that causes S9+20 noise on 20m whether it is actually inverting or just 'floating' the battery bank. 

I would buy the LED backlit monitor because I have experienced many LCD monitor failures that were backlit with flourescent due to the flourescent backlighting failing...either the light strips themselves or the ballast.  You are much less likely to have that happen with an LED based backlight.

I purchased a PwrGuard by West Mountain Radio that detects low DC voltage and immediately cuts power if it drops below a threshold.  I don't know if it will help or not, but it couldn't hurt.

I have really enjoyed my FT-950.  For the money, I think it is a great value.

>Logically, why would they? The finals are much larger RF output transistors which have absolutely nothing to do with CPU power or the various low power & signal circuits at all. Q5401 & Q5402 are obviously low power signal or switching transistors,

They wouldn't, I just mentioned it because I think someone up a few messages mentioned something about the finals.  I just wanted to make sure that it was clear that was not what happened to me.

I had that problem happen to mine, all of the diodes/transistors on mine were SMT.  Note that these were not the finals that went out.

Are you using a true serial CAT cable or one that plugs into the USB port (or a USB->serial adapter)?

There are quite a few reported problems using the USB type cables.  I don't know if that is your problem or not.  I have the exact same setup you are describing except that I use a true serial port on my laptop.  I know that you should definitely stay away from any USB that uses the 'prolific' chipset/drivers.  Those are complete junk and will cause you tremendous amounts of grief. 

I don't recall off hand, what does the z817 manual say in the  troubleshooting section about the pattern you are seeing on the status LEDs?

Carlton

>But if you put the tuner at the antenna and have a 100' typical coax feedline like >RG-213/U, the difference between 1.0:1 "in the shack" vs. 1.5:1 "at the antenna" >can be several dB.  You could measure that.

I have pretty much the same situation with the 43' DX except that I only have maybe 20 feet or so of 213 coax instead of 100 feet running from the antenna to the shack.  Do you think it would worth the effort (and cost) in my case to locate the tuner out at the antenna given the short run of coax?

Thanks,
Carlton

> I am not one to run a lot of power and the open wife will probably never have more than 200w on it.

I can never get more than 100w on my open 'wife'   

>When I put together my annual Christmas wish list, I give Santa all the help I can so she doesn't screw it up!

heheh...me too, I actually include links to said items just in case the elves don't have to make it in the workshop  ;-)

I did a google search but was probably too restrictive, I used "hf net santa clause" and came up with only one link that looked promising...the 14300.net/santainfo url.

Thanks for the reply,
Carlton

This will be my first Christmas as a General.  I have heard talk about there being a 'Santa Claus' net that operates for a few days sometime in December.  I was wanting to know if any of you know anything about this or where to go for more information.  I have a 10 year old stepson that would probably have fun talking to Santa this year.

Thanks,
Carlton

This will be my first Christmas as a General.  I have heard talk about there being a 'Santa Claus' net that operates for a few days sometime in December.  I was wanting to know if any of you know anything about this or where to go for more information.  I have a 10 year old stepson that would probably have fun talking to Santa this year.

Thanks,
Carlton

>Usually when it stays out all night and won't tell you where its been.

Ok, that was totally unexpected and funny as h*ll!

So in a nutshell, what does using IF shift accomplish that you would not be able to do with RIT?  Why use one over the other?  I have been trying to get a definitive answer on this one myself for quite a while.