почта from Russia: Fixing the FT-897 Display

As the Hudson River Radio Relay event gets ever closer, I wanted to finally get around to fixing the "zebra stripes" on my Yaesu FT-897 display so that it would be easier to use again in the field while on Bannerman's Island as N2B on June 11th.

Replacement LCD display modules and controller sourcing for this 18+ year old radio has not been easy. Luckily, there is an enterprising amateur named Aleksey in Russia who has designed a replacement and it only cost around $60 USD.

When Yaesu designed the mobile FT-857 and the multi use FT-897 radios, roughly 10 years later many users started to suffer display issues like pictured below. Now my radio was ready for a facelift! 

Not all, but many Yaesu FT-857 and FT-897
have suffered from "zebra striping" on the LCD displays

The bad news is when I finally found out about the miracle replacement display,  there were some issues starting to take shape in February 2022 in the region, which I shall not yet name.

Quickly, Aleksey rushed to the post office to hopefully get the package out of country before worse things could happen. After weeks of lead up, Russian military crossed the Ukrainian borders on February 24th. 

Display has arrived. Now what?

Amazingly, the two piece kit made it across the United States in only 3 days according to USPS after its 48 day customs event between Russia and the destination. Here is what arrived, well packed in bubble wrap. Thanks Aleksey R3ZI! 

The new LCD with attached ribbon cable along with the
new LCD controller on flexible PCB with connector thanks to R3ZI

After dissembling the front  of the FT-897 and separating it entirely from the radio body, all else was needed to remove the seemingly infinite number of screws holding the control board to the face.

It was rather easy to access the old LCD display and start preparing for surgery.

The old LCD display still set within the
white plastic holder prior to removal

Tilting the display up exposed the ribbon cable and the
connections which will need to be desoldered carefully 

I used a hot air SMD rework station to remove the old ribbon connections since I wanted to be careful to not lift off any of of the PCB traces on the main display board of the FT-897D.  I could have just as easily used a standard pencil iron, but when you have the means.....

Extraction was a success and a little clean up was needed to prepare for the new display controller to be attached.

A little more clean up was needed and what appears to be
a missing trace was intentionally blank.  Sigh of relief

I took some solder flux and solder paste and prepared the surface to receive the new flexible controller.

A quick wave of the hot air tool melted the solder into all the right places and the moment of truth in restoring display visibility was now one step closer.  

The new flexible PCB with controller is connected and now just waiting for the ribbon cable for the LCD to be attached and the radio to be reassembled. A thin bead of hot glue was put over the connections for extra security.

Pushing the power button

I was confident in my work and decided to just put everything back together and not try to do some sort of  "preliminary" power up test to see if everything worked the way it should.   

The moment after getting the radio fully re-assembled, applying power, connecting antenna and then taking a breath before pushing the power button was met with success as shown below. 

Thanks for reading and my goal was to NOT do some sort of step by step video or make it easy for you to find out where and from whom I sourced the display, but I promise you that this info is easy to find and is an easy project if you plan carefully.  

Hope to catch some of you from Bannerman's Island via this radio on June 11th.  Will be focusing on 17m SSB and 17m digital modes most likely as part of the N2B station.

HR3:2021 Visualized Results

With our first HudsonRiverRadioRelay.com event complete, many of the station sponsors that participated have started to publish articles in club newsletters.

Certificates of Achievement are now being issued to those that submitted electronic logs and printed certificates are being mailed to those that donated to the event's fund raising goal honoring Bannerman Castle Trust.

Summary of  the event is below and at https://hudsonriverradiorelay.com/2021-results.html 

While we are showing an entire list of all contacts  on the Hudson River Radio Relay event page and which of the eight special event stations they were able to contact, it is time to release files to best visualize all the contacts made by station using Google Earth. 

Special Notes: 

• HVDN used the K2DSL ADIF to KML conversion tool to take our logged data from the fantastic N3FJP AClog program to generate these Google Earth files.

• The web based version of Google Earth as well as the desktop versions work great and you can manipulate the data however you like.

• You can download the related KML/KMZ file from each of the eight special event station landing pages to see how they did.

A few things worth commenting on:

• We used the 4 digit grid square locator, so all contact locations are approximate on the map.

• To keep all data uniform, even our eight special event station locations on the map are approximate since we used four digit grids for them also, but actual locations are listed on the event website.

• Grid square locations are listed in the center of each grid versus actual location.

• Next year, we are going to try and ask for six digit grids instead of four digit for enhanced accuracy.

Please also take a moment to visit each of the sponsoring clubs websites to see what else they are involved in as we strive to continue to put the Hudson Valley and our amateur radio community on the map both figuratively and geographically!  

And, if you live in the Hudson Valley and interested in joining a club, here is a great way to learn more about nine of them through this great event.

Much more to follow.....

Operating as N2B, Steve K2GOG (Front, left) operating on 2m FM before a satellite pass.  Joe NE2Z using FT8 on 17m and Lloyd K2JVX in background on 20m SSB.

The Bannerman Castle Tour's were full of young and old that were interested in history.  Mark WA2NYY doing CW all the way at the back with Steve K2GOG and Joe NE2Z trying to be quiet during the tour presentation. Benefits of being a CW operator.....

The Magical Military Tent Pole

Introduction

You've seen them for sale online, at some Hamfests, mentions of their for building antennas, I am talking about military tents poles repurposed and sold as military antenna masts. 

They come in heavy duty fiberglass, smooth-walled and ribbed aluminum. Camouflage netting supports being repurposed and sold as insulator top pieces for a vertical or base. They end up being re-usable building blocks for antenna experimentation.

I started using the heavy duty fiberglass poles a decade ago as end supports for dipoles on top of the Hotel Pennsylvania for HOPE Conferences that would occur every two years there. We would build 12 feet of fiberglass mast for each end and strap the masts to whatever structure that was anchored to the building as possible. 

Each conference they would be up there in the summer heat and winds for three days. The ends would be reinforced with duct tape. In eight years of use we hadn't had any structural failure with them but did started hearing some creaking in their last use.

Low Dipole atop Hotel Penn in NYC. Far mast just behind left corner of building

12 feet strapped to the side of an existing structure might have been secure enough, but what about when it comes to how high can you stack military masts safely in open space using guy rings and ropes?

Use case

Carrying the N2B load during HR3:2021

Is this a mast to serve as end point for a wire antenna, a mast for a beam or vertical, some combination? This adds up to how much load we are balancing at the top. 

Will this installation be a semi-permanent setup at home or will this be part of a portable operation kit? For the latter weight, easy setup/teardown are considerations whether one or more people are involved. 

Let's start with portable operations. and the most precarious setup.

Fiberglass Mast as Center Support for Wire Antennas (Dipole/V/OCF)

Base

Let start with ensuring you are setting up on level ground and what are you using for your base. The Paddle base is what is commonly used for flat surfaces as well as portable locations where you need to leave the least foot print on nature.

Top is Paddle Base
Bottom is Swivel Base(photos goverticalusa.com)

The mast kits used to include Paddle Bases but have since started to include the more expensive swivel stakes. These are good where ground is soft enough to pound them down into the earth.

When it comes to re-purposing or making your own portable base, I have used a plastic Christmas tree stand. 

An item you could re-purpose for a base in a semi-permanent installation is a concrete block used for posts as sold by local home improvement stores. 

They are too heavy for frequent portable operations but

a consideration for infrequent long operations setups like Field Day

at easily accessible locations.

Guy Ropes

11.5 x 8 x 11.5 inch
Concrete Block

For a total mast height of 24 feet, run guy ropes at 12 feet and then again at 20 feet for a mast that is 24 to 28 feet tall given a top load that will support the center of a wire antenna and 2/70cm mobile antenna.

While advise against going higher than 28 feet with fiberglass poles, for a similarly loaded mast that is 32 feet high, run guy ropes at 12 feet and then again at 24 feet. 

To add some life to the fiberglass poles I've wrapped duct tape around the ends since when these poles fail it is often at those points.

Tripod base using six
 fiberglass poles

If you want to run only one set of guy ropes for heights above 20 feet and have six extra fiberglass poles may you want to build a tripod base using a tripod adapter from companies like GoVerticalUSA or fabricating your own if you have the tools and materials. With a tripod added you can run your guy ropes at 24 feet for mast heights up to 32 feet.

Aluminum Pole Use

For this use since there is little weight difference between the fiberglass and aluminum poles, I use fiberglass poles for the legs of the tripod and all but the top two sections of the vertical mast.  

With the top two sections fiberglass this reduces signal pattern impact to the wire antennas. while having a stronger support.

Aluminum Poles as a Portable Vertical

With tent poles being four feet in length, you and up lugging at least six poles for 24 feet to as much as eight for 32 feet. If you go with a tripod base you end up adding six poles to each configuration. Does not make for light carry for portable operation, just acceptable load for long operation setups.

So I got thinking about making an antenna out of the aluminum poles and cut a short section of fiberglass as a base. 

Portable Vertical - Blue taps first aluminum pole, green is counterpoise laying on ground

The diagram above is that idea as a 13 foot vertical. 'B" is a fiberglass section cut down to one and three aluminum poles stacked on top of it. A non-metallic guy ring with ropes is attached between sections '2' and '3' to keep the structure stable. A short wire is connected from the balun to bare aluminum using a metal hose clamp and a twenty foot wire is attached to the other end of the balun laid on the ground as a counterpoise.

While I have made a few FT8 contacts with it on 20 meters using a Yaesu FT-817 with a Z-11 tuner. 

I need to do some more experimentation to see how far I can improve it to be a viable alternative to the performance of windsock verticals. 

Will follow this article up at some point with results.

73,

- Joe, NE2Z

UPCOMING 5/17/2021 HVDN:LIVE - Putting balloons into the sky with USMA

On April 27th 2021, the United States Military Academy at West Point put its 11th Astronomy Club and Amateur Radio Club balloon up into the atmosphere of the Hudson Valley and reached 80,000 ft.

Cadets Raymond Triggs '24, Rathin Shah '24, Jacob Willis '23 and Nolan Pearce '22 KE8JCT led a team of fourteen cadets, four of which also have amateur radio licenses.  A total of seven USMA faculty members, including  MAJ Robert Perezamemany and COL. Stephen Hamilton KJ5HY, MAJ Ben Popko N2IAV and Dr. Kate Duncan KB2ZOO helped make this years mission a success.

CDT Nolan Pearce '22 KE8JCT

Please join HVDN: LIVE on May 17th at 8:00 PM EST for a detailed overview of this project

CIC(Cadet In Charge) Pearce will cover the design, build process, launch and recovery of the 6 lb.  STEM focused payload which  included:

• VHF APRS
• GPS
• SSTV
• GoPro camera
• Space beer? (Wet yeast!)
• More....

Cadet Pearce will share details from this years launch over a 30 minute presentation with audience questions saved until the end.

Nolan is active within the USMA radio club W2KGY which will also be participating as N2D during Hudson River Radio Relay this year and he also has a rather excellent blog covering many topics of interest to the amateur radio community.

How to attend?

This presentation is free for anyone to attend via the free open source Jit.si application and will also be live streamed on the HVDN YouTube Channel.

First 50 guests can join via https://meet.jit.si/hvdn/livemay2021 and use password = helium

Additional "human" attendees can follow live or during the replay on the HVDN Video Channel. 

Please give 17m a chance....

With nice weather finally returning, its time to take some green pictures of some outside operating compared to the last still frosty excursion with the Icom IC-705 promoting some upcoming combined IOTA, SOTA  and POTA activity here in the Hudson Valley via the Hudson River Radio Relay event on June 12th.

After some portable antenna discussion with Nolan KE8JCT who will be a guest presenter on HVDN Live scheduled for May 17th at 8:00 PM Eastern US time, I was tempted to build an even lighter antenna out of some really nice yellow Teflon 24 gauge wire acquired from the local candy store known as P&T Surplus.

While Nolan will be talking about the recent USMA Balloon Sat in a few weeks time with us, he is also very interested in portable operations and CW QRP!

There is a growing number of portable focused operators in the Hudson Valley like myself, Nolan, Jonathan KC2BNW and a number of others interested in the convergence of radio and the outdoors.

With a freshly mowed and goose poop free lawn for the moment at casa de K2GOG, I set up my just constructed "Lazy Linked Inverted L" to see how well it would work on 17m.  I needed a back up antenna for my pack and this seemed like a good idea.

This antenna which is supported by the 20ft version Jackite pole in orange is supported by a simple $4.99 Tiki Torch stake at the bottom with a piece of PVC that the pole slides over.

Dimensions for the simple 52 foot long chunk of yellow wire is as follows:

• 40m Band = 52 feet, plus 12 foot counterpoise, half wave, medium Z
• 30m Band = Link at 46 feet, half wave, no counterpoise, high Z
• 20m Band = Link at 33 feet, half wave, no counterpoise, high Z
• 17m Band = 52 feet, full wave, no counterpoise, high Z
• 15m Band = 46 feet, full wave, no counterpoise, high Z

The SWR was about 3:1 on 17m, but the magical ZM-2 antenna tuner got things quickly under control at 1.2:1 to help maximize my 5 watts of RF outwards on 18.1575 MHz.  The "long" end of the antenna not visible in the picture was tossed into a nearby tree.

Admittedly, my first contact with this antenna had a much better station down in Texas that probably helped a little, but a contact is still a contact. QSL? YES!

Tom K5VWZ has a world class station and was able to pick me up out of the noise as documented by the recording function on the IC-705. 

I really like this feature and how flexible it is, but to get the file off the radio still means I have to remove the SD card from the radio which is sort of annoying so I could trim it and convert to an MP3 to share with y'all in this article.

Click to play K5VWZ & K2GOG QSO on May 1st 2021

While this was far from an optimal antenna for 17m band and a dipole would have probably done much better, its still always amazing what low power communications without the internet can accomplish.

17m is your next challenge

Be sure to keep an ear on 18157.5 kHz USB as it is known as the 17m HFPACK calling frequency where portable people like me are likely to pop up, but usually not from the backyard.

During the upcoming Hudson River Radio Relay event next month,  expect to look for N2B located on Bannerman's Island (USIAP NY047) which has never been activated by radio before and also N2D, which will be operated by the United States Military Academy at West Point on Constitution Island that now has been awarded USIAP NY073 thanks to this event and its goals.

A few of the eight participating stations like N2B are also technically going to be part of Hudson Highlands State Park K-2079 which actually counts as separate parks such as K-5161 and which you will hear N2U operating on thanks to the PEARL club.  The Orange County Amateur Radio Club operating as N2O from K-2010 and possibly K-2081.

There is much more happening too, so hopefully this article excites you about 17m and some MAJOR upcoming activity across the Hudson Valley.

Learn more about Hudson River Radio Relay - June 12th 2021 and help support Bannerman's Island too!