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.

Fishing In the Woods: Looking for Radio Signals

This was the first Winter Field Day that justified a reason to purchase an ice fishing tent.

The tent manufacturer claims you can set this up in under a few minutes and pack it up even quicker.  Lets see what the breakdown looks like.

 

Inside the Tent:  Gear needed

We all like lists right?  Here is what was in use in the photo below.

• Icom IC-705

• Emtech ZM-2 Manual QRP Tuner

• Heil HTHD-Y headset

• Lenovo T495 laptop

• 12aH DIY LiPoFe4 battery pack

• Polaroid Brand Travel Tripod

(Photo Courtesy:  Ken Campbell AD2T)

Excluding the table, chair and propane heater, this was a minimal operation which proved pretty comfortable even in the low temperatures during Winter Field Day.

The goal was to operate 10m or 15m  PSK31, JS8CALL or SSTV but most of the time it seemed that FT8 was more popular, so that would not count for Winter Field Day. Too bad!!   The 15m band was wide open which was really nice.  A few contacts were made on 40m SSB, hence the need for the headset.

Antenna Questions

A 40m Off Center Fed home made dipole was used with good success.  This design allows for 40m, 15m and 10m operation without really needing the tuner..  One leg of the dipole is 44 feet and the other is 22ft.  At the center point is a 4:1 DIY balun.  The antenna center was mounting with velcro ties on the 20ft orange Jackite fiberglass mast.   

The mast was secured to the ground with a ground stake and length of PVC pipe which the mast simply slides over.  The longer end of the dipole was attached to a nearby tree with a length of paracord.  The shorter end was attached to an artificial tree known as a tripod.

Even with heavy winds, the antenna system as expected maintained upright for the 24 hour event in the frigid cold!

This antenna system works great and easily stows in a bag designed for audio equipment.  Many other accessories for additional HF and VHF antenna also fit in this bag along with a few 25 and 50 foot RG-8X feedlines. 

I would estimate that my entire antenna kit which includes the storage bag, surplus tripod (RIP KE2EJ), feedlines, support stake, full wave 2m loop, Arrow II antenna, 40m OCF, 10m-17m-20m-30m linked dipole,  End Fed 40m/80 and a few other odds and ends cost less than $200.  This is a lot of antenna gear for different applications mostly meant for POTA operations and not SOTA activity which is much smaller scale.

(Photo Courtesy:  Ken Campbell AD2T)

An article like this can get really long if I wanted to detail how to set up Wi-Fi on the Icom IC-705 to talk to the laptop with virtual com ports and audio cables, but there are great tutorials on YouTube which cover that already.  

The only issue I really ran into which continues to be a level of annoyance is that the "705" has such a broad front end that semi decent antennae can easily overload things, so backing the RF gain down is a good idea.  

Nearby strong out of band signals also are problematic and an external band pass filter will be needed for the 705 to perform better during group special events like Hudson River Radio Relay coming up in June..

Last year during that event, the 705 on the 6m band was useless when nearby 20m or 40m CW and SSB activity was taking place.

Not really sure if this article answered any questions for anyone, but it was fun setting this up for Winter Field Day and spending some time playing radio plus teaching others about how to set up a minimal self contained field 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

Dash Battery Status: Field Day & QRP

 

The HVDN Notebook blog tries to remain very unbiased and focused on future relevancy around active lifestyles involving amateur radio without enforcing the beliefs or mission statements of certain national level advocacy groups.

It is the authors opinion that we enjoy a pretty great relationship with our local regional leadership when talking about the ARRL since they were more than happy to encourage what we did via our recent Hudson River Radio Relay special event which was led by a non-affiliated club in the ARRL ENY section.

As we get closer to Field Day and the end of COVID, looking back on our data analysis gathered over the last ten years about Field Day, it was a good idea to shift our attention to the status of battery operated field day efforts.

Certainly 2020 and this year are different when it comes to normal field day operations and is why talking about the differences between low power, battery powered and emergency stations is a good idea since many people will be still at home and possibly contributing to club overall standings.

Battery Powered

According to the 41 pages of ARRL Field Day rules for 2021,  in section 4.2 it specifically explains:

This is very clear. If you are a club, such as HVDN who will be operating under N2HVD this year from POTA K-2084 for just a few hours on Saturday June 26th, or a non club portable group of more than two people  in the Hudson Valley from a location only they can get to via backpack and foot power as a group of SOTA enthusiasts

This means that no matter how much battery capacity you have or output capability of our radio, if you wish to claim Class A - Battery status, you need to stay at less than 5 watts output if you will be sharing one callsign. 

Operating at low or QRP power is a way to drive distinction to your club or group compared to being plain old "alpha" class running on some sort of other power system such as carbon fuel based generators.

If we look at the "Bravo" class of setup and its battery powered variant, it is also very clear how they differ for these smaller groups of amateur radio enthusiasts that are not going to represent a club or be more than two people.

No one here at HVDN is complaining, but simply offering an alternative to encourage distinction for your field day activities for this year and the future.

Being safe is paramount since the majority of those involved in amateur radio are those at highest risk of suffering from not being young any longer.    For those who will be 1D from home this year and rolling your scores up to your favorite club, why not try a decentralized QRP field day instead?

Based on the public data shared from the ARRL, it is amazing that more operators do not try legitimate battery power operations in the field or even at home. The data below does not lie, unless the ARRL material is not accurate.

Look at the above chart. The most popular historic way to operate as a true battery powered station, using less than 5 watts is classified as 2AB and 3AB. This shows that HVDN is only part of a small crazy bunch of operators to attempt this likely in 2021.

There are even the 2 person 2B2B plus one transmitter 1EB and B1B classifications out there which have about the same number of crazy adopters.

So whats the point?

The total of entities operating as true battery powered stations is far too low and needs more to join the club compared to the larger "Alpha" cousins with the bubble based 1D's that will help again this year. which do not operate as battery powered.

The point is that there should really be a different classification for QRP power 5 watt stations as well as a separate class for those running from battery, but may wish to use more than 5 watts since radios like the Yaesu FT-891, Xiegu G-90 and a few others are pretty popular these days and are capable to run more than QRP power.

Low Power

Ever speak with a QRP operator about antennae or feedline?  They will have interesting stories about how to optimize the gain from an antenna headed where they want it, find ways to save weight by avoiding certain types of antenna or even feedline and probably be more knowledgeable about patient operating practices or ways to be more efficient in getting as much RF to radiate outward rather then get burnt up as wasteful heat energy.

All this differentiation should be encouraged by the ARRL, but not confused by battery power.  Nothing prevents anyone from dropping down in power to try QRP nor trying to be sustainable from just a battery. 

If you plan to be 1D from home (again) this year, why not challenge yourself by running QRP from home if you can scrounge up a battery to run your radio from before Saturday.

Emergency Stations

There are many first responder or community groups that fall under the "Echo" class of operation for Field Day, but what makes them so different than a battery powered station?  It is possible to run emergency and on battery, but this still means they are limited to only 5 watts.  

If there was a long term emergency situation and the ability to charge batteries was not possible, would more EB stations be a good experiment? Perhaps the E class stations will not use a whole building generator used for many EMCOMM facilities and see what they can do from a battery and only run five watts.

Obligatory Antennae Stuff

Not always can we arrange the perfect antenna system and often the way around that is to transmit more power to make up for a lousy antenna. 

Perhaps trying to optimize antenna as if everyone was using 5 watts would be an interesting experiment, especially since we have so many low signal to noise ratio modes and superior equipment available today capable of receiving weak signals.

Can we try to improve our antennae systems or try modes that reward low signal to noise ratios?

Hopefully the excuses of whatever you are already thinking about can be put aside and more people decide to try something new when it comes to field day.

It is HVDN's belief that that ARRL is taking us in the right direction during the strange times we live in, but they do not always do a good job of articulating the benefits, values and most important awareness things we should all be focusing on. 

Oh, and did you want access to the nice 10 year database in excel that we compiled from the ARRL website?

Feel free to reach out to me at .K2GOG.@yahoo...com (remove the extra dots!!) and I am happy to share a copy with you of the 2010 to 2020 data that was used for the below two articles.

Thanks for reading

Steve K2GOG

Trustee, N2HVD

Co-Founder HVDN

Organizer, HR3

ARRL Field Day: Independent Data Analysis

The Dreaded Independent ARRL Field Day 2020 Analysis Article

HR3:2021 Quick Engagement Results

Yesterday was the first annual Hudson River Radio Relay event. This year our fundraising theme was to support Bannerman's Castle Trust via GoFundMe and we managed to raise $1,418 in total with over $300 of that coming in the hours leading up to, during and just after the four hour event which took place from 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM Eastern US time on June 12th

While we await the final logs from all eight of our participating special event stations to get compiled and posted to the HudsonRiverRadioRelay.com website, an initial estimate from casual discussion with most all the participating locations sounds like we should end up around 500 to 600 total contacts as a collective group.

There are so many positive things that will get mentioned about this event that will get published in the coming days along with lots of pictures and videos, but here is a quick snap shot just based on who visited each special event web page as well as the QRZ.com page for each of our eight callsigns.   

Both metrics were measured from between May 13th and June 13th at 10:00 AM EST.

It was expected the N2B station would possibly gain the most attention as a never before activated USIAP island NY047, but the N2O station rivaled our flagship location mainly due to its various USIAP, COTA, POTA and SOTA designations along with an amazing number of enthusiastic members that promoted what they were doing.

Our three stations that were not aided by affiliation of the different "on the air" categories like islands, parks or summits such as N2H, N2S and N2V seem to have also been very popular too over the last 30 days of measurements and deserve a lot of credit also.

The three lowest elevation stations, some only a few feet above the river such as N2U, N2D and N2N are hidden gems that deserve much more attention considering how hard they worked and are all actually very rare locations that we need to help promote even more for next year. 

Between these three stations, there was a brand new USIAP NY-073 on a US Army facility plus POTA K-2079, K-4582, K-5161, COTA K-00825 and the former home of the founder of Paramount Pictures.

What's Next?

Now that we have an official website visit metric posted just after the event, please go and learn more about each club and location they operated at during this special event by visiting HudsonRiverRadioRelay.com 

More detailed articles from each station highlighting each sponsoring club and a list of total event contacts plus the winner of our Xiegu G90 package raffle will be coming soon, so please follow the HVDN blog for more details between now and ARRL Field Day which is just under two weeks away.

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!

Hacking in USB CAT control to the Kenwood TS-50

The Kenwood TS-50 was a great radio in its day and still holds its own against modern radios over 30 years later.

When Kenwood released this mobile 100W HF radio back in 1993, it was in the early days of modern computer aided transceiver or CAT evolution.  

This article explains how to add USB based CAT control to a vintage Kenwood TS-50 and maybe squeeze some extra life out of this great radio when it comes to digital modes.

Gathering Supplies

The bottom of the TS-50 has a small removable plastic disk that allows the user to access a 6 pin connector which the no longer available (and expensive) Kenwood IF-10D computer interface connected to along with the also expensive (and no longer available) Kenwood IF-232C serial converter.  

The original Kenwood IF-232C accessory permitted the inverted TTL communications native on the TS-50 to work via standard RS-232 serial communications at a blazing 4800 baud which is more than fine for simple communications between a radio and computer.

While there are some other aftermarket solutions still available in 2020, there is a cheaper way.

For less than $20 in parts, you can add modern CAT control to your TS-50 for easier use of digital communication modes like PSK31, FT-8, FT-4, JS8CALL and so much more. 

We will also not need to be removing that little plastic disk, so leave that alone.

To add modern USB CAT control to a Kenwood TS-50 you will need:

• CP2104 USB-TTL UART Serial Adapter
• JST ZH 1.5MM 6 Pin Female Single Connector with Flat Wires
• Some ingenuity to mount the CP2104 in your TS-50

Both items can be easily sourced via Amazon.com and you will even end up with 9 more sets of wires and matting PCB mount connectors that you can save for some other projects. Mounting inspiration is illustrated and detailed below.  

A small donation from the purchase link of either item is also headed to the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club located in the Hudson Valley to help them maintain its famous 146.805 analog FM repeater and to add to its treasury for future additions like a DMR repeater or advanced APRS digipeater plus support great events like ARRL Field Day, Winter Field Day and other special outdoor events.

Connections on the TS-50

The below photo diagram illustrates which  of the six pins on the Kenwood TS-50 offers what function.

On the CP2104 USB-TTL UART serial adapter, we are going to need to attach the following wires.

For this to work, matching up the TX to the RX and RX to TX pins are needed between both devices.

While some other less detailed guides made it seem that only the TX, RX and GND pins were needed, on the recommended UART serial adapter, we also need to connect the 5V line for a total of 4 wires used. The remaining two wires from the 6 pin pigtail were just left for future use and taped up.

You will see the onboard green LED blink to show that communication is happening between the radio, TTL adapter and computer. You will not be able to see this LED since it will be hidden inside your radio if you install it the way that I did.

Mounting the CP2104 inside the TS-50

After removing all the outside case screws, go ahead and remove both covers of the TS-50.  You may wish to use a piece of painters tape to hold the TS-50 speaker in place while you flip the radio chassis over.

There are not many places to put the TTL adapter inside the Kenwood TS-50 unless you want wires hanging out of the TS-50 which looks messy and unsafe, so now is the time to get organized. If you wish to be neat with this modification, you will need to cut a hole into the side of your TS-50 on the side of the bottom cover.

The support bracket  for the TTL adapter was fashioned out of a brass corner bracket on hand and was insulated with a piece of heat shrink to ensure the metal to did not contact any PCB traces on the bottom of the TTL adapter.

Some zip ties were used to hold the TTL adapter in place, but another piece of heat shrink was used during final assembly to hold things in place. A screw and double nut were also used to attach the bracket to the radio for mechanical strength, but this is optional if you trust glue 100%.

Finally, some epoxy was used to fill up some small gaps left behind from cutting the TS-50 case so that the TTL adapter PCB can add additional structure to the finished modification.

To complete the assembly, simply route the connector end of the 6 pin wire between the front face and main chassis near where shown below.

You can then plug the connector into the radio and reassemble your radio carefully.

If cutting a hole in the side of the bottom cover of your radio, be sure to make sure your mounting bracket or the TTL adapter will not accidently squish board level components such as the picture toroid's.

Using the TS-50 CAT Upgrade

When using software like FLdigi, you can use the "hamlib" for control and select the TS-50 from the menu of supported radios. This is the easier path for CAT control. 

Be sure to set your speed to 4800 baud and you select the correct COM port. Most other settings should be automatically found when using FLdigi and most other software.

After you have the software configured, then go ahead and power up your radio after connecting the USB cable to the TS-50 and into the USB micro port. 

You should be easily be able to change frequency on the radio and have it track correctly in your software of choice. 

Using a TS-50 on digital modes with CAT control

Adding CAT control only offers control of frequency and some other basic functions of your TS-50.  This upgrade does not route any transmit or receive audio, nor does it offer PTT control.

It is possible to use the TTL adapter and a simple 4N26 optocoupler with the CTS wire to add on PTT, but its possible to accidently trigger transmit while the radio powers up or down when the USB wire is connected between the radio and computer, so this feature was left out of this article on purpose. If you wish to enable this convenience, that is up to you.

You can follow this article by HB9AMO  to add PTT if you wish and by using the extra wires we taped up before from the 6 pin connector.  

Routing of audio signals and PTT is done via the 8 pin microphone connector through your interface of choice such as a Rigblaster, Signalink or something like those devices.

 Summary

So now that we have near total control of the TS-50 using only two sets of wires, one for CAT and one for audio/PTT, the old Kenwood TS-50 is much easier to use for digital modes. 

It was decided that the Kenwood TS-50 was the perfect radio to use as part of an inexpensive dedicated digital data station for the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club and joint HVDN special events. 

Given that the radio, computer, power supply, antenna tuner came from inventories held by both organizations, this was the perfect project to show how old and new can be used together to aid in digital awareness of amateur radio in the Hudson Valley and beyond.

If you enjoyed this radio, please support HVDN or OMARC with a small donation via the links below:

Support the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club - 501.c3 charitable organization

Join Hudson Valley Digital Network as a supporting member

And, if you happen to be looking for a great portable case for your own go kit digital or otherwise, the Kenwood TS-50 along with its supporting cast of support components as a self contained digital station has a new home in this great 4U Gator Case and if purchased, a small donation also goes to the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club too!  

You can see this in action at the upcoming COVID compliant Winter Field Day event at Ferncliff Forest in Rhinebeck between the hours of 2:00 PM to 6:00 PM Saturday January 30th and from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM on Sunday January 31st 2021.

Virtual HVDN Field Trip: The Farmacy Seeds Network & Making the HV Green

CJ KD2IIN of The Farmacy Seeds Network had Steve K2GOG of HVDN on as a guest for his live stream back on December 29th, 2020 and was only interrupted by paranormal activity once during filming, no thanks to a famous occultist visitor from 100 years ago who heard us talking about him!  

Be sure to check out this informative two hour long interview partially related to our upcoming special event on Bannerman Island this spring. Date for that is still TBD.  Sign up for news to get more details.