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Thread: Another NOOB

  1. #71
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    And yes an early riser I am sir. Have to be for work!! It's what pays for my bills/hobbies. This hobby can be expensive as well!! And as far as the radios you have listed above, the Connex is an AM only radio with extra freqs. No good for anything other than AM though. And stay away from the Galaxy radios, again good AM radio but they drift around freq and that is no good for sideband. You want a rock solid stable radio for SSB and want to upgrade radios, look at the Yeticom Optima MK3. Best SSB export radio I've used. And they have and extra filter for SSB which no other export radio on the market has. I have one and have used it for 3 or 4 years now and it had a rough life the first 3yrs anyway. It was a work van radio that saw many bad dirt roads and pot holes and such. The radio is well built and took the licking and kept on ticking. Kind of like simple timex watch. They do about 50-60 watts on SSB and about 50 watts pep on AM, 12 watt AVG. They aren't as good on am as they are on SSB. On SSB they rock! If you were to order direct from the dealer which is in New Zealand, you'd get the better mic with the radio and it would be aligned and tuned properly. And it will have a warranty. About $300 shipped they cost. You can also get them off eBay for like $265-270 when you can find them. They have a freq range of 24.500 to 29.999. No banks of channels. Radio tunes from one end to the other in 5K steps, so you get all the zero freqs as well. Nice for SSB dxing as you can get away from a lot of bs. Anyway just some more food for thought.

  2. #72
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    Connex does make an SSB radio I believe, but idk how they perform. And like I said, the Galaxy radios drift until they warm up or they drift even after warmup at times like when they get too warm. Again, not good for SSB. Some may disagree with me on this, but I've heard too many drifting Galaxy radios on air to know what they do!! That and I have an old Galaxy 55 sitting in the closet. Great AM radio, but it's doesn't have SSB. I use an HF radio or what some call a ham radio. An Icom 746. If you are serious about getting back into the hobby and have the coin, the kenwood ts480hx is a nice radio and can be had for a good price. Find a good used one or get a new one, either way if the you'll have a sweet radio. Now they work great on both AM and SSB, unlike a lot of other HF radios, they will do 200 watts on both AM and SSB. And talk about stability and real options that will make your radio experience much more enjoyable at times. You did right by getting the 980 and not spending 3-400 for an export. If you are willing to spend that much, spend a couple more hundred and have a real HF radio that will knock the socks off any export made. JMO.

  3. #73
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    And also the dipole antennas like the one you posted, again they can be made to talk some locally, but are more of a dx antenna unless you set it up as a vertical. But like I said if you're going to do all that then just get a simple antenna like a sirio GPK27. They are a lightweight inexpensive aluminum antenna that works pretty good. That or there are orbs base antennas made by Sirio and many other companies. Again, not fully sure of your intentions but a good antenna is the first thing I would buy. Even before the radio!!! Without a good antenna setup idk if you have a $10k radio, it will only be as good as the antenna that is being used with it!! A good antenna and your 980 and you can make contacts across the world. I did it with a home brewed dipole, 1st one I ever made, placed it about 15ft off the ground. Radio was a Uniden pc122xl, stock 12 watt SSB radio. I made contact to Australia with this setup. When Mother Nature opens the doors for DX'ing, you can get real lucky if you keep at it. I met a gent off the forum and we ended up linking up "on air". He was down under. This pretty well half way around the world from me. Just goes to show what a simple but we'll put together antenna setup can do even when not able to get it up high!! Verticals can be the same way at times for dx anyway. For local talking, height is might. The higher the antenna, the further it will talk, general rule of thumb anyway. This may not always be true, but for the most part it holds fast. Anyway. Sorry for the brick walls so early. Gotta get up early to get things done!! Have a good one and if you have any more questions you can PM me and I'll help as much as possible. I'm not an expert by any means, can only go by my own experience and what I have learned since getting back into radio about 4yrs ago or so.

  4. #74
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    Yea I just saw the article and instructions on the guy building an antenna using PVC and electrical wire and thought if it’s that simple I could do that. 10 feet of 12 or 14 /3 wire is easy enough to come by and the PVC pipe, connectors and antenna connectors isn’t expensive so what the heck. I have power supplies from the RC car battery charging equipment. The only real cost would be coax and the trouble of getting it in the house.

    I could set up that 29LTD and see what kind of traffic I could hear in the evening when I’m home and not in the truck. On CB though but it isn’t too much a stretch to see buying another SSB capable radio. Maybe watch Craig’s List for a used one on the cheap just for fun. I can see even going the route to getting a Ham license. They say it’s not hard for the lower levels.


    I just can’t get crazy with it for now and if I do find higher interest in it I can make better purchases. I have maybe 30 RC cars here and parts and equipment from racing them for many years. I got so much money tied up in that stuff its nuts. I also have some 20 Guitars here and amps and effects processers and speaker cabs etc…. and all I can do is make noise, I can’t play but I got some cool stuff
    J A guitar players wet dream!


    But I need to stay focused on some other things right now and have already spent more than I should have and that’s why I am here and again I want to say thank you for the responses and sharing your knowledge on the subject. Look we have an 8 page thread in the NOOB part of this forum and it seems the most activity here in a long time. My guess is others are at least reading this even as guest and getting questions answered that they have.


    I got a text earlier this morning that my Sirio Antenna isat the local Post Office so that means it should arrive today or tomorrow and then we can have more to talk about and maybe then I will find others on the radio to reach out and touch.


    Here is another question at the end of this long post- What are your thoughts on the RM Italy KL 203-P amp. Do you know this unit? Again way ahead of where I should be but knowledge is everything right! I believe ClubGuy brought this one up.
    Last edited by FATKAT; 11-12-2015 at 08:48 AM.

  5. #75
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    Don't PM...keep this thing public!!! It's a good read.

  6. #76
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    The KL203 is a good little amp to pair with the 980. You will however need to lower the dead key (carrier) on AM to 2 watts or less. The radios internal functions don't work right below 2 watts but the amp like a low dead key. Pep wattage is fine with the 980. Put a fan on the amp as well. It will get you a good little bump in power. JMHO. Good day.

  7. #77
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    I have picked up that the radio needs to be set up for any amp. It would appear that this type of adjustments can be completed by the user with little trouble (after watching some u-tube videos). But I have no test equipment to monitor what I am doing. It would also appear that some of the equipment at least the equipment I could afford to buy is not very accurate. It may be that it is accurate enough for what little I know about all of this and would suffice for my needs. I will have to defer this to some of you for a conclusion.

  8. #78
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    Sell a few guitars and build an awesome test bench.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk

  9. #79
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    Quote Originally Posted by clubguy View Post
    Sell a few guitars and build an awesome test bench.

    Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G925A using Tapatalk
    Got to wait for the market to turn around on the Guitars. Tried to sell a few some months back and no one wanted to play so I said they can collect dust and I can pass them on to my son when that day comes (He plays a little thanks to me) or the market get right and I will let a few go.

    But for now........ The Eagle has Landed....... The Eagle has Landed

    I think I ate something bad for lunch and need to go home early. I don't feel good. It has stopped raining and the sun is out. YES......

  10. #80
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    It's very easy actually and can be done with a decent watt meter and 10-25 watt 50ohm dummy load A RadioShack watt meter will work and a small 50ohm dummy load and a couple of short coax jumpers are what you need. Good things to have when messing with radios IMO anyway. All you are going to do is to lower the AM dead key by turning a small pot. Turn radio to channel 20 and complete this. Should be the same on all channels. It's only got one control for the am power. The other is modulation and I wouldn't worry about that. The radio won't over modulate. Those 980's are lucky to see 95% modulation I'd venture to say. Just lower dead let for AM, SSB power is fine at stock levels. And as far as AM, those radios aren't big swingers. You'll most likely see 6-8 watts pep with a 2 watt dead key and the modulation turned up. Again, you don't have to mess with the modulation. Leave it stock. Use a power mic if you need more audio. But the radio only needs to have dead key lowered for AM for input to the KL203. They will tolerate a 2 watt dead key from what most say, but I believe they like less dead key than that. Make sure your VSWR is good before ever adding the amp in line. Hope some of this helps. The pots are marked in the radio. It will say AM power. This is the one you wan to turn down. Use a ceramic tip screwdriver or something nonmetallic to move it. You will see on the meter which way the power goes as you turn the pot, but I think you need to turn it counter clockwise. If not then the other way. Key up your mic with mic gain all the way down.

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