Update: Finally had a correctly rotated photo of the rack (below), and removed the rant about TypePad.
My wonderful wife Tina KD7WSF graced me with a Kenwood TM-D710G for Christmas. Her procurement of it could have been a real irritation, but I'll distill it down to a blanket recommendation that the Portland (area) branch of Ham Radio Outlet are great folks to deal with when buying Amateur Radio equipment.
Unlike most owners of this radio, my primary interest in it is that it's a plug and play 9600 bps "packet radio" and I plan to use it in fixed (base) operation. The built in APRS capabilities are... interesting, but it's the packet radio capabilities that got me interested in it. Credit is due to Bill WA7NWP for making the case (though, in fairness, it took years...).
The travails of bending the TM-D170G to my preferred mode(s) of operation will be in a future post. But two amusing asides... the TM-D710G was so new at Christmas 2013 that I could only find passing references to it online, and mostly on Amateur Radio dealer websites. Kenwood did not have the manuals for the TM-D710G online, but the TM-D710G had shipped with a CD-ROM of documentation, so I had to dig out a DVD drive and get that up and running on my office computer to be able to open the CD-ROM and find out some absolute basics of changing modes on the TM-D710G. It was so... 1990's... to not have been able to find this same information online :-)
My TM-D710G has been making 9600 baud APRS packets on the Seattle area 9600 baud APRS channel - 440.80 MHz since Christmas 2013. One thing quickly became apparent - the radio module (it's two pieces - a head that's remoted from the actual radio) is incompatible with my otherwise reasonably quiet office / shack. The TM-D710G has a fan that is triggered by the radio transmitting, and stays on for more than 30 seconds. The fan running is not related to temperature, so it starts running every time the transmitter is keyed. In packet operation... the transmitter gets keyed a lot. There are fans funning in my office, but not like this one. It's fast, it's on a lot, and its pitch is what is apparently a resonant frequency with my particular ears. So, it's annoying. Not merely mildly annoying - major annoying.
So, before the TM-D710G could be settled into a suitable place in "the stack" (another future post), the radio module would have to be remoted out of my hearing. Fortunately, the TM-D710G is designed to be remoted; the Kenwood PG-5F is a complete kit of parts and cables to extend the distance between the two units an additional 4m.
So, my TM-D710G radio now lives in my basement, approximately six feet below my office.
Most important, it's totally acoustically isolated from my office/shack. The TM-D710G's fan can run continuously if necessary, and it won't bother me one bit any more.
So, here's the project list of what got done:
- Finished installing two shelves in the basement rack
- Moved TM-D710G radio to basement rack
- Tested remoted TM-D710G in a QSO with WA7NWP
- Project of remoting noisy TM-D710G radio (fan noise) to basement was a success. No TM-D710G fan noise heard in the office!
- Secure TM-D710G bracket to a heavy base; currently it's just floating on the shelf
- Install audio cable from TM-D710G in basement to office for a future project - external TNC to use second radio in TM-D710G for data
- Install serial cable from TM-D710G in basement to office for a future project - computer control over radio frequency, etc.
- Sheath together the five TM-D710G remote cables running from basement to office
- Clean up TM-D710G head installation in office, including dual speakers and microphone clip
de N8GNJ