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-====== Tue 19/02/24 : New Year, New Start======
-After deciding last year to only concentrate on HF CW to the exclusion of //all// other aspects of amateur radio I enjoyed a happy few months over the summer of 2023 doing just that - using manual telegraphy on the HF bands. I became comfortable on the Vibroplex bug keys and had many nice CW ragchews.
-Winter came and drove me indoors, away from the shack and since I'd vowed only to use CW I found I did nothing radio related for many months. I had a few brief sorties on 60m digimodes using VNC to operate the shack PC without needing to sit in a cold icy shed....
-Now as spring approaches I find I miss the variety of other aspects of the radio hobby, and I can't always find the time to sit in a shed using only manual telegraphy (enjoyable though that is). I want to be able to //do radio// even when I'm not able to spare the time to //do cw//.
-I've found my DMR radios and hotspots and resurrected them. I've had some DMR QSOs, and I expect to have more over the coming weeks/months.
-I've had one (so far) SSB QSO on 60m, after finally locating a microphone for my IC-7200.
-I've put a V/UHF antenna up, only 2m agl adjacent to the shack, and set up an APRS i-gate (GM4SLV-2) and (after repairing the fan control circuit and fitting a new cooling fan) installed my TM-D710G in my van - for APRS and to monitor other V/UHF activity.
-I've decided not to be so narrowly focussed on one (fun) aspect of the hobby, and to stretch myself into other areas.
-==== Plans for 2024 ====
-  * DMR Dual-timeslot duplex hotspot
-    * More participation in DMR QSOs
-    * Take mobile hotspot most days in van and try to have a QSO when possible
-  * More HF CW, SSB and Digimode operation.
-    * Try to have some/more 60m SSB QSOs
-    * Investigate higher bands - 17/12/10m
-  * HF Portable operation with Xiegu G90 - kite, fibreglass pole etc.
-  * HF CCIR493 Selcall using IC-706 and Jenal SC2 mic
-    * modify one SC2 mic to convert to RJ45 connector for IC706
-    * Experiment with SC2 and Xiegu G90
-    *  - make some contacts with HFLink group(?)
-  * HF-VHF X-Gate - revist the project
-  * HF and VHF APRS - are they worth persuing, or is it rather pointless overall?
-I had a 60m QSO with Stuart GM4WMM and Bob GM4VIK this afternoon on 5279kHz. I started by using the **MK1 IC-706** at around 30W to get a few reports on the audio quality. The report was "it's quite //thin// sounding". That's not encouraging. I seem to remember the original MK1 IC-706 had a reputation for weak audio. I'm not going to expend much effort investigating or trying to improve it. What should I do with the IC-706? It's a handy "standby" HF rig. It's not really for suitable //portable// use, being a 100W radio and quite thirsty on current, even on receive, and anyway I have a Xiegu G90 for that purpose. I decided to try digimodes using **Fldigi** via a Signalink-USB sound interface. A quick search of the web and I had the necessary pin-out of the Signalink's internal jumpers to allow a simple Cat5 cable to connect between the Signalink and IC-706 RJ45 Mic socket. A few tests and it all works. No rig control (frequency etc.) yet, but that's not really necessary for simple Digimode QSOs.
-I'm making progress...
-{{tag> radio aprs cw hf dmr selcall ic706 fldigi}}