End of the year update

Wow it has been a while since I’ve posted anything. I guess it’s time for a bit of an update.

The most important thing is that I got my TS-570 fixed! Thanks to a local ham who figured out there was a problem with some of the solder joints on the main board. After trying to figure it out for a few days, he noticed that pressing at a certain spot on the board would reliably reproduce the issue. He then went ahead and re-flowed a the solder joints on a good chunk of the board. The radio now works better than ever.

I also picked up two towers this summer, a 45ft aluminum and a 30ft self standing. Neither one of them is up yet but I am hoping to get to it early in the spring when the ground thaws. I hope to get a good VHF/UHF antenna on the self standing and maybe a hex beam or a Yagi for HF on the 45 footer. We will see how it goes.

Another new endeavor for me is taking over admin duties on Repeaterbook.com for Nova Scotia. It’s pretty fun to be a part of this and I’ve learned a lot about the repeaters. There’s a fair bit of research involved to get things updated. If you know of a repeater that needs updating feel free to use the update feature on the website or use the contact form here to let me know.

I’ve been working on a few other odds and ends as well. I have a Yaesu DR-1x repeater with the matching HRI-200 Wires-X node that I intended on getting set up for the club. I have a DX Engineering log periodic (VHF/UHF) antenna that I need to replace a couple elements on. I also have some other non ham projects I am working on.

Below is my latest video on YouTube. It’s showing some nasty noise I have on 80 and 40m. I’ve already shut the power off in the entire house and shack just to find out that it wasn’t anything in either of those places causing it. I guess I’ll have to get out the AM receiver and take a trip up and down the road.

That is all for now. 73s and I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

VE1XT