Pulled the clasic, sending a check, then oh I overpaid, but going on vacation so Western Union Me the difference in the UK Scam on my 897 package here. Turning the check and emails over to authorities

Built this antenna a few months ago and put it up on my roof tower this weekend. Carefully inspected the antenna before mounting it and then afterward and all looks correct but Something must have gone wrong in the building phase.

The antenna should be resonant, if built properly, on all bands. The SWR should be less than 2:1 on all bands. We tested it with an analyzer and its under 2 on many bands, but higher on a couple, around 2.7 or so on a couple, I have an FT-950 and its autotuner can tune the antenna and bring it down to acceptable SWR on all but the 15 meter band, where the autotuner will not tune it at all, which is weird because it will tune it on 40.

Any one have and suggestions as to what the problems might be?

This software front end Yaesu puts out for the 950, it seems to only work with computers having a serial port. Any way to use it with a usb cat cable?

If you are a Licensed Ham you could go to a clubs field day operation and operate on all the bands with the club's call. Its a great way to get on HF

I have an extra 2 M Radio I'd like to use in the Kitchen for monitoring mostly. My 2m vertical is in the shack only. So I'm looking for ideas of hooking up a seperate 2 m antenna for that reason. If I could build it , so much the better.

I want to use Power Pole connectors on all my Power Supplies, these are all mostly 30 amp supplies. I want to make some pigtails with the power poles on them to connect to the Power supplies and then over to my Rigrunner. What is a good guage wire to use to do this ?

Tom, the power supply adapter that came with the rig I ended up putting Anderson Connectors on for my rigrunner when I use it in the shack. Is there another source of getting another adapter or will I have to make one myself.

Received My 817 overall a very sturdy rig, have'nt had too much time to play with it, my only dissapointment is in the battery area. I knew that the battery had to stay in the unit to be charged. But i bought another battery figuring I could swap them out. Problem is the plug is so tiny and frail that I know constant unplugging would lead to some unpleasant breakage. it's too bad another connection system could not have been figured out. I guess I'll sell the extra battery, and maybe look into getting a small external 12volt cell I could carry with me.

Oh yes, I'm trying to get an elmer to help me put those up now.

Thanks for the tips Ken. I'm wondering how grounding figures into all of this, since I'll only be pushing at most 5 watts, and since most antenna thrown into a tree will be temporary, is there any need to worry about grounding? I picked up the LDG817 tuner to go with the 817 so I should be able to tune the bands..

Can a serial cable between the radio and computer still work if one uses an adapter to USB on the computer side, I have no serial on any of my PC's

I ended up buying 200ft of LR400 from them and they were quite prompt in shipping thanks for the tip

I bought a FT-7900R with the intention of Using it in the shack but ended up putting it in my 2007 Mustang as it fit best with its 2 piece design. I ended up ordering an FT-2900 for the shack, it's 2 meter only, but its 75wtts out and very sturdy, even comes with Base Feet. Its a very nice 2m Basestation.

I'm a returning Ham about 7 years ago my Tech licensed lapsed so I'm retesting and hoping to get to General.

The Station I have put together:

All Yaesu

FT-950
FT-2900 2m 75 w
FT-7900 2m/440 Mobile
VX-8DR 6m/2m/440 Handheld with APRS GPS Unit
FT-817ND QRP Rig

I also picked up a Wouxon 2m/440 Handheld

In Addition I picked up a DV Dongle to do D-Star Communications Portable from My Netbook.

I've seen alot of vids with people using larger aftermarket Batteries for rigs like the 718ND, trying to find a source for these.