IK1IYU

 

 

 

 

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To celebrate my 50th birthday I have done something crazy: I have got an Ebay acquisition on my youngster radio dream, a Kenwood TS-830S.

Very little information except that it was working and completed by the external VFO-230 and speeker SP-230. As acquired everything was rather grubby and dusty internally, having clearly had some use and probably having been abandoned for some time. The radio was cleaned up inside using a dry paintbrush and a vacuum cleaner, outside (cabinets, front panels, knobs, buttons) with water and dish cleaner. With my great surprise, everything inside looked as brand new, even a pair of original japanese S2001A tubes! All contacts has been checked and cleaned up and the radio completely aligned.

 

A new matched pair of 6146B tubes have been installed and neutralized.

 

No additional IF filters were originally fitted, so a YK-88C filter bought from an EBay trader and a very rare YG-455C bought from I1NDB (TNX!) have been installed.

The radio was about 30 years old before it was so treated! The results are, however most pleasing. As my preferred mode of operating is CW, this is a real bonus.
And this is the final results:

 

110/120 watt output on all bands and a superb receiver...and it looks like new!

 

The TS-830S is now my primary HF CW-only transceiver, and she still rocks!

 

Talking about results: not bad for 100 watt and a doublet antenna!

(Note the test contacts on SSB)

 

March 2013: working Clipperton Island TX5K on 30 meter

has been my greatest gratification ever!

 

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My antennas: due to the limited space available and neighbourhood's restrictions can't aspire to much more than this:

A two elements Yagi for the 10-15-20 meter bands and an home-made trap-dipole for the 12-17-30-40 meter.
With these I entered the DXCC HR SSB/MIXED in 1997. Now I am trying to do it again in CW.

Lately, after the 830 line's acquisition, I have substituted the trap-dipole with a doublet antenna (you can see the ladder line in the picture) that performs amazingly well on all bands from 40 to 10 meter with the TS830S running barefoot. I am really impressed from the performances of this kind of antenna, every contact is a big surprise. I am starting to name it "the grandpa wires".
By the way, the station's computer is only for general logging purpose (hei, I'm using a paper Logbook and a pencil!) and for RTTY/Digitals communications.
This is old style DX'ing and I am really enjoying Ham-Radio again!

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Last addition to the line, a rare Kenwood HC-10 World Clock:

One known issue with those is the lack of a battery backup and every time power takes a hit they completely reset.

I have done a very easy modification, adding a 9 Volt battery with a 1N4001 diode to keep the clock on during power outage.

The battery is connected outside the HC-10 cabinet. During power outage you will only miss the display.

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2013 Yaesu 50MHz module for the FTV-700 transverter.

I have been looking for this module for a very long time, and finally I found one on Ebay:
It was listed as "not working, for parts only" but I decided to give it a try.
In reality, it was looking good, but with signs of some temptative of repairs on it.
Installed in my FTV-700 it showed up as being fully functional on the transmitting side with solid 10 watts output, but totally deaf in reception.
All the active components were good except a varicap diode tuning the input coil, but after this repair nothing changed.
I finally found out that the input coil was shorted and I had to rewind a new one using a Toko 10K coil: receive sensivity problem solved.
I am now using the FTV-700 wired to my Kenwood TS940S with 10 watts to an home made single element Delta Loop for the 6 meter band.
With the first E-sporadic openings in May 2013 the first QSO was UT5JAJ, than G8MIA, G3UDA, DL7VEE, DL4HG, YU6MM, YO2DFA, HA7PL, LA5YJ, several LZ's and A45XR Chris in Oman that managed to catch me in the QSB: a QRB of 5000 Km with 10 watt and a very basic antenna, WOW! Looks like this old piece of junk is still working great!

I hope to meet you soon on the magic band!

 

I took part at the 2013 WWDX CW Contest just for fun and to collect some DXCC countries on 40 and 80 meters bands where I have never been active. I was very surprised by the result and to receive a certificate for that! Already you know: TS830S barefoot and doublet antenna.

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2014, May 23: DXCC Challenge 1000.

Second target reached: 1001 DXCC countries confirmed on LOTW!

What's next?

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2014, August 13: RAEM 110 Plaque

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2014, August 14: Worked All States CW

W1AW/1 in Vermont was my last contact for my WAS CW award.

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2015, April 7: ARRL Centennial Points Challenge Award

Level 2, 4507 points, CW only.

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2015, April 19: 120th Anniversary of Alexander Popov Radio Experiments Award

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2015, May 8: International Marconi Day Award.

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2015, May 11: W1AW W.A.S. AWARD

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2015, May 26: It's my yearly DXCC application's day and...

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PLEASE NOTE:  I am using Global QSL service for all my bureau QSLs.

Please drop me an E-mail if you don't receive yours. Thanks!