Have you ever tried Band Stacking before? This is where you have three options per band every time you go to that band. For example, you may have one set up on SSB, one on CW and another on Data, all on the same band. You can easily switch between them all.
For example, if you are on 20 metres, press band and 14 again, and if band stacking is on, it will keep you on 20 metres but to the different stack. This different stack could have a different mode. You usually have three per band.
Have a look at the video for more on how to use it and turn it on:
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As per the Yaesu FT-710 manual, the Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) system is designed to reduce the level of ambient noise found on the HF and 50 MHz bands. The (DNR) system is especially effective during SSB operation. Any of 15 different noise-reduction algorithms can be selected; each of these algorithms was created to deal…
Have you ever tried Band Stacking before? This is where you have three options per band every time you go to that band. For example, you may have one set up on SSB, one on CW and another on Data, all on the same band. You can easily switch between them all. For example, if…
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On the 10-metre band, 28.490 is the unofficial calling frequency for Australia and New Zealand. This is interesting as the Band plans state it is 28.390 as the recommended intra-VK calling frequency.
That said, 28.490 is more recognised as the unofficial calling frequency down under.
Most amateurs down under will listen to 28.490 on ten metres and put out a call there, but then QSY to another frequency 10 or 20 kHz away either after making contact, or before contacting another station by announcing where you plan to go.
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As per the Yaesu FT-710 manual, the Digital Noise Reduction (DNR) system is designed to reduce the level of ambient noise found on the HF and 50 MHz bands. The (DNR) system is especially effective during SSB operation. Any of 15 different noise-reduction algorithms can be selected; each of these algorithms was created to deal with a different noise profile. You will want to experiment with the DNR system to find the best setting corresponding to the noise currently being experienced.
The DNR function can be operated individually for VFO-A band and VFO-B.
But have you ever tried this trick with the RF-Gain. Have a look at this video to see more:
Press the [DNR] key to enable the DNR operation. To disable DNR operation, press the [DNR] key once more. If you turn your RF gain back to 12 o’clock, it will sound super.
I would love to hear your views on this, and how you have used it. Please like or comment below.
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I recently got my hands on a new Baofeng UV-17R Plus Series radio. It didn’t take long at all to arrive and was not expensive at all. People these days pay more for a UHF CB radio than a radio that does all this can do.
My last Baofeng radio is a GT-3TP which you can still purchase new. It also works well and have always received good reports from it.
The UV-17R Plus is an upgraded version of the UV-17R handheld with the following: extras
an expanded receiving frequency band (encompassing aviation and police bands in the US),
an extended battery boost from 1800mAh to 2500mAh (that works out to about 40% more charge),
a quick USB-C charging plug and cord, and
it also has a new voice scrambler function.
Some of the things I liked with the new UV-17R Plus Series includes:
The look and feel of the radio. This includes the bright display, feel and position of the buttons, large LED lights, and easy antenna swapping as the area is wide. I also like the speaker behind the keypad, this saves room and is an area you never cover with your hand either. The text on the display is far easier to read than older models inside and in the sunshine.
The new USB-C charging is so much better. You don’t have to bring a charging cradle anymore when you leave the house, and can even charge it in the car easily.
Customising DTMF is easy via the # key. It will also search for a used frequency then will display what CTCSS or DTMF is used. This can quickly be saved as a channel also.
Secure conversations – I couldn’t test this as I only have one radio, but agree this is a good feature. However, I did talk on it myself and my digital scanner couldn’t decode it.
The weather feature would be good if you are in a country that uses it. Australia does not. I could see this being a great radio in an emergency with the LED lights.
The user manual is well put together and entirely in English. A PDF version is available online also.
The radio can be programmed directly, or your PC via several different software options. I have done a video on this below if you want to see this.
It comes with an 18-month warranty.
Here is a video where I unbox the radio and show what is included in the package. If it is helpful to you, please press the like button.
The video below is an overview summary of this radio. I’d recommend watching it as it has more details than posted here.
Below is another video showing some of the features that the radio has. While I don’t show you them all in action, it will at least give you an idea of how the radio works.
If you want to get connected into the Baofeng community, have a look at this groups id where others comment and are there to help. https://groups.io/g/BaufangRadios
This is a great radio for the price. It does far more than I thought it would and I am sure will get a lot of use out of it. I was initially concerned it may be hard to use because of the price, however, was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to program.
Below is a video I did showing you how to program the radio via a PC using Chirp-Next.
Programming Tip
Did you know you can program this radio via chirp? Here is a tip you may like.
Hope you have got something from this to help you in the hobby. If you go via this link, you will get a discount: for this radio and anything else on their website https://radioddity.refr.cc/bensangster
If this has been helpful, please let me know. Perhaps you have one of these radios and have thoughts of your own, I would value your commitments below.
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After using this radio for years, this is my summary on how I find it.
While I want to replace it to a base station that puts out more power, I don’t want to lose the OpenGD77 firmware. Can you suggest a radio that would work for me where you can manually type in any talk group? It would be a base station radio that puts out 10 or more watts.
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The Retevis RT73 and Kydera CDR300UV are identical radios. They are a DMR/FM duel band radio for Amateur radio use. This is great, as most of the early DMR radios available were commercial radios that were used for Amateur operations.
At time of writing this, the radio is one of the smallest dual band DMR mobile I’ve seen, about the size of a handheld.
Some of the features include:
DMR / Analog
Dual Timeslot (MotoTRBO compatible)
VHF / UHF Dual Band
Size: 121 x 76 x 43mm, 4.75 x 3.0 x 1.7″
Weight: 329g, 11.6oz
136-174 400-480 MHz
5W-20W transmit
FM radio receive
300,000 DMR DB IDs (w/ Latest FW/SW)
20,000 call groups
4000 channels
Analog APRS
16 zones (250 Chan / zone)
Built in GPS
DMR roaming
Included with the radio in the box are:
Microphone (DTMF currently doesn’t work but may be fixed with a future update)
Mounting bracket and screws
2m 12V power cord
60-page user guide – 6 languages
GPS antenna
Programming cable (optional – but you may already have one)
There are three programable keys along the top along with other buttons. These buttons respond differently to long and short presses. The speaker is on the front making it easy to mount, however the speaker microphone can also be a speaker if you want it to be. There are two power levels, 5W and 20W.
The display is small, but it is a small radio. However, the 2″ screen is bright and colourful. It is easy to navigate also with icons on the main menu.
Programming can be a bit tricky if you use the normal software, however there are a few alternatives. The good news is the software is free. Some do not allow you to export or import, and when you want to add a channel, it has to be added to the end, not between.
I would recomend Codeplug Editor by David MM7DBT as it has an easy tabulated menu system that guides you through each step of programming this radio.
Some other things you should know:
Listen in single channel or dual channel mode
Has promiscuous mode for DMR, however it is only on the one timeslot even in dual mode which is a pain.
You will need to make sure you are on the latest firmware for everything to work correctly (eg APRS).
You can adjust the TX audio for DMR and analog. This may need adjusting when you first get it.
Colour display that is easy to use, but can be hard to see from a distance or in a car.
You can program in zones, which is great. So you can turn them on or off.
Small design so easy to mount in the car
It is clear from other reviews that this radio had and has some bugs. But as more firmware updates gets pushed out, the better the radio becomes. This is mainly about GPS and APRS making the radio slow or even take over. However, most reviews admit with the latest firmware, the problem has been fixed.
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The S-meter is an instrument on most radio receivers that measures the strength of the signal being received. It uses a unit: the S-point. HF radios usually have a needle scale, whereas other bands often have LEDs displaying the S-Points.
S-Points is the common method of measuring signal strength between operators, however many programs like WSJTX use dB. So how do you convert between dB and S?
S-points go from S1 to S9, and each S-point is defined as a 6 dB change in signal strength. Therefore, each time the voltage is halved (–6 dB) the signal strength decreases by one point. S9 is already a very strong signal, but to describe larger signals, steps of 10 dB are used instead of 6 dB, noted “S9+20” meaning 20 dB above S9.
S-points for frequencies below 30 MHz
Signal strength
Relative intensity
S1
–48 dB
S2
–42 dB
S3
–36 dB
S4
–30 dB
S5
–24 dB
S6
–18 dB
S7
–12 dB
S8
–6 dB
S9
0 dB
S9+10
10 dB
S9+20
20 dB
S9+30
30 dB
S9+40
40 dB
S9+50
50 dB
S9+60
60 dB
S-points for frequencies above 30 MHz:
Signal strength
Relative intensity
S1
–48 dB
S2
–42 dB
S3
–36 dB
S4
–30 dB
S5
–24 dB
S6
–18 dB
S7
–12 dB
S8
–6 dB
S9
0 dB
S9+10
10 dB
S9+20
20 dB
S9+30
30 dB
S9+40
40 dB
S9+50
50 dB
S9+60
60 dB
Hopefully, this helps answer the question how to convert a dB signal strength to a S1 to S9 signal strength.
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Ever heard this sound on HF / VHF / UHF? I know I have more and more recently.
Listen to the strange data sounds you can hear
After a bit of research, someone told me it was VARAC. https://www.varac-hamradio.com/ As I understand it, the project started with Irad Deutsch 4Z1AC. It is free of charge for amateur radio operators.
This software provides text base communications over HF / VHF / UHF bands (and a few more also!). It is a bit different to FT8 FT4 JT8 etc as this not only gives you a signal report, but you can do a lot of cool things and really make some good friends in the process. I know I have in just the first 2 days. You can type in real time via your radio, and even see when the other person is typing. You can send files, and emails also and send out a beacon every 15 minutes to let people know you are there or see who can hear you on PSK. The software will also let people know when you hear them automatically.
You need the software VARA HF to decode it. VARA HF is essentially a software modem. Whereas VARAC is the chat-based software.
Downloading
Simply go to the address https://www.varac-hamradio.com/download and download the appropriate version. You can download HF or FM depending on what mode you will be using. Down the bottom of this page you can put in your email address and they will send you instructions.
Setting Up VARA HF
VARA FM is also available to be used with UHF and VHF. There is also VARA SAT for geostationary Sat.
VARA HF (as well as VARA FM and VARA SAT) is essentially a software modem that connects your radio to the VARA AC software. VARA HF is for HF only and this is the one I am using and talking about here. Though I understand the others are the same concept, just different radios.
Once installed, select settings, then sound card and update to the settings you use. If you are not sure what device to add, then have a look at windows device manager. Then put in your call sign and registration Key. If you don’t have one, you can just use your call sign for a period. This part of the software you will have to buy at some point, but you get a while to try it before you have to and it really isn’t expensive. There are updates all the time by the look of what is posted on Facebook.
Setting Up VARAC
Go to settings then Rig Control and VARA configurations. Here we need to set the PTT configuration up the top left of this screen. This will be how the software connects to your radio. You also need to setup the frequency control section. Once setup, press the save and exit button.
Using VARAC
Each band has a calling frequency, which you can select up the top left of the default screen via the drop-down box. On the calling frequency, you can receive calls which will be shown on the top blue box. While on the calling frequency, other users can get an automatic signal report from you, or even ping you to see if you are there.
The above picture is the main screen in advanced mode (you can see I have it ticked up the top right). The lower blue box shows that I have sent a beacon, and about to send another one. Prior to that I had a 15min conversation with VK3FFB.
The box up the top right shows anyone currently calling CQ (currently none in the above example, but the band was a bit dead), and the box next to that is the two beacons I can pick up with their signal strength. You can see on the top left I am on the calling frequency of 28.105 Mhz.
If you click on someone calling CQ, VARAC will attempt to connect with that station via the same slot that they are on. The slots are just a different frequency to the main calling frequency.
When calling CQ yourself, you press the purple CALL CQ button then check which slots are available. Select a slot then press the sniffer button and listen to your radio to check no one is there. Remember to turn the volume up for this! If there is traffic on that selected slot, select another slot and sniff that one. Once you have found one, you can press CALL CQ on that box.
VARA AC will now call CQ on the calling frequency then receive on the chosen slot. Should someone join you, you will see it on the bottom blue screen. You can type whatever you want in the bottom new message box and press send, and you can do it for as long as you want, it is not like FT8 with just a signal report. You can also see when the other person is typing a message (if enabled).
You can also send files to each other should you want to. I like to send a QSL card. On the right you can see Send VMail, or you can set yourself to away.
Just above the new message box to the far right, are some canned messages. You can edit these via the settings menu. These will send pre-populated information about yourself to the other person, like your name, QTH, Location and your power. This information will then auto populate on their screen in the boxes just above the New Message box. If they send you one back, it will auto populate on yours so you can either auto log or press log to log the contact with all the information received. This logged information can then be used for a variety of logging programs.
If you are logging on QRZ, you will find VARAC under Dynamic mode.
PSK
One extra feature is you can go to https://pskreporter.info/pskmap.html and put in your call sign and then select VARA. Every 15 minutes VARAC will send out a ping and on PSK you can see who heard you around the world on the map. This 15-minute time can be adjusted in the settings window down the bottom right.
VarAC Do’s and Don’ts
Here is a copy of the code of conduct that should get emailed to you if you put in your email address. Make sure you have a good read as you don’t want to be the one everyone talks about for the wrong reason!
The Don’t: Don’t jam the Calling Frequency (CF). Don’t hold it for more then a few minutes or more then necessary.
The Do: Started a QSO on the CF? It’s OK, but QSY as soon as possible. You have QSY UP/Down buttons or a free-form QSY button where you can select your desired QSY frequency.
The Don’t: Don’t use the PING feature for DXCC/Grid hunting. Pings are not registered as QSOs as only one side sends an SNR report.
The Do: Use PING only as tool to check the link quality with your desired destination.
The Don’t: Don’t use 2300Hz BW on the VarAC CF or on any of the slots.
The Do: Use Only 500Hz on VarAC CF and slots to avoid QRM-ing nearby VarAC QSOs. Use 2300Hz only outside of the slot frequencies.
The Don’t: Don’t QSY to a frequency without checking if it is free.
The Do: VarAC provides you with Sniffers. Right-click on the QSY Up/Down buttons will temporarily QSY to the destination frequency (without keying your PTT) so you can listen before QSY-ing. Same goes for calling CQs: Use the CQ slot sniffer.
The Don’t: Don’t try to send large files over HF. And if the link is slow – don’t send files at all. It will never end. And PLEASE don’t send files over the CF.
The Do: Send files up to 5-10K in high speed and no more than 1-2K in low speed and always on non CF frequencies.
Other information
There is a lot more to learn about VARC, but hopefully this helps as a starting point. Please let me know in the comments if it helped you. I do hope to do a video on it soon.
Special thanks to Irad Deutsch 4Z1AC who helped me in answering questions for this review.
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DXHeat.com is a great website that can update you the current conditions on each band. The website has filtering of incoming DX Spots which can be displayed instantly using great graphical tools.
From the main landing page dxheat.com you can do a search by call sign or open DX Cluster. You can also scroll down to see more information.
Callsign Search
By typing in a call sign, you will see a lot of information instantly about that person. Some of the graphs are interesting as it shows how often the selected user does DX Spots by date, by band and what Continent they have been heard in.
It then shows what DX spots this user as submitted by time, band, and Continent.
DX Cluster
This is the best part of the website.
In the middle you can see live data. You can apply filters as required on the left side. On the right is the current UTC time and a lot of other interesting things.
On the right is a Propagation box which is helpful.
Also on the right is a Band Activity box which is great and perhaps the best part of the website.
This graph is powerful and shows you instantly where the bands are open.
Select your area via the drop-down box. I have selected Oceania in the example shown. You can see the band is open on 10 metres to NA, which is North America, and slightly open to NA on 20 metres also.
10 minutes before I took this screen dump, 10 metres was in the red to North America, so it changes live. 10 minutes after this screen dump, 20 metres was in the purple meaning conditions were getting harder, however 10 metres became a solid red.
20 minute later after the above screen dump, I took the following one on the right.
Now you can see 10 metres to North America is strong, and 20 metres is not even showing anymore. 15 metres is also on the graph now potentially growing in strength.
Asia is also starting to show signs of colour on 17 metres which it wasn’t before.
While these graphs are powerful, they are limited to the amount of activity on the band. For example, if no one picks up a microphone, then there is still no one to listen to.
It is a great starting point though and displayed very well. I would love to embed this on my QRZ page if anyone knows how.
The main text in the screen, you can hover over the green boxes and filter according to that box. Up towards the top, there is a mode section on the left side with green boxes, you can filter by them also. You can filter via region and band also.
Login
At the top of the screen is a login/sign up option. I would encourage you to create an account. Simply put in your email and password, then confirm it and you will be able to update your profile. You will then have an opportunity to adjust your display DX-Cluster settings as you like.
Other websites
There are other websites that show similar information in a different format that include:
Solar Flux on VK3FS https://3fs.net.au/daily-solar-data/ This page is well written by a fellow Amateur, Andrew, also living in VK3. He explains a lot and goes to a lot of detail. On this Daily Solar Data page there is a usful graph tha shows the Solar Flux over the last month.
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The Nano VNA-H 4 is my new toy that has just arrived after purchasing via Banggood. This Antenna Analyser is a complicated device, but doesn’t have to be, and can be a powerful tool for the Amateur Radio hobbyist.
My NanoVNA H-4
Charging the device
Your NanoVNA should come with a USB cord. To charge it, simply plug one end into the NanoVNA box and the other end into a USB charger. A blue light should come on near the charging port.
Analysing an Antenna
The main thing we mostly want it to do is to analyse our antennas. So, let’s start off by looking at how we do that.
To analysing an antenna, we need to understand what the three SMA connectors are. There are three of them.
If you look at the bottom of each connector, you can see they are all different.
Open – this one is open and is like an open hole. I remember this one with the route hole which looks like an O for Open.
Short – this one has a short stick sticking out and a shiny surface around it. The shiny service reminds me of short. As in S for shiny and S for short.
Load – this one is usually grey where the others are golden. It has a stick like the short one, but has plastic around it. It should measure as a 50 ohm load.
On your NanoVNA device, there are two SMA connectors. One that says CH0 and one that says CH1. For this experiment, we will only use CH0. The three connectors can be fitted as needed onto the CH0 SMA connection. Make sure you only put it on finger tight so you can get it off.
Turn on the NanoVNA device by sliding the switch away from the SMA connectors.
The display will look very confusing showing you heaps of information. So to simply the display, touch the screen up the top right corner and a menu will appear. If you don’t have a stylis, then you can use the blunt end of a pencil, or on the wrist band holder that comes with the device, is what looks like a guitar pluck, you can use that.
Press DISPLAY, then TRACE, and now you will see TRACE 0, TRACE 1, TRACE 2, TRACE 3 with colours on them. These colours reflect the colours of the graph currently on display. We currently have all four on, so lets turn most of them off. Press TRACE 1 twice to turn that off. If you press it to many times, it will turn on again, so press it again to turn it off. Do the same with TRACE 2 and Trace 3 so there is only TRACE 0 with one yellow line on. Now the display should look a lot more simple.
Now press the BACK menu option to return to the first menu. You can click anywhere else on the screen away from the menu to remove the menu.
Calibrate the NanoVNA
The first thing we must do is calibrate the NanoVNA. We need to calibrate the device to make sure it is right. If we are analysing between a set of frequencies, it will do one hundred calculations between them when analysing your antenna, so we need to calibrate it first between the set frequencies.
Setting up the frequency range
We first need to set up the frequency range we want to calibrate our antenna on.
Select the STIMULUS menu item. If you cannot see it, then press BACK first. Once in the STIMULUS menu, you will see START and STOP at the top of the menu. Select START and put in the start frequency via the numbers, then press either G = gigahertz, M = megahertz, k = kilohertz. The screen down the bottom left should now say START and the frequency you just entered.
Now press on the upper right of the screen and press STOP and enter the upper frequency. You should now see the frequency range you just set down the bottom of the screen.
Now we can calibrate between these frequencies.
Click up the top right to display the menu. You will not see Calibrate on the displayed menu, so press the BACK option. Now you see CAL which is calibrate.
Press CAL, then RESET to clear the device. Then press CALIBRATE to go into the calibrate menu which is listed in the order in which you want to calibrate in.
Attach the open connector (as shown above) and attach it to CH0 (hand tight only). Then press OPEN. It will only take a second and once done, OPEN will go black, and SHORT will go blue.
Now put the Short SMA connector on, then press SHORT.
Now put the Load SMA connector on, then press LOAD.
As we are doing a SWR test only, just click ISOLN then THRU and DONE while the load SMA connector is on.
You can now press SAVE 0 so next time you turn on your device, it will load this settings as you saved it in SAVE 0.
Up the top left of the screen will probably now say CH0 LOGMAG. This is not what we want to test.
Press the screen up the top right to display the menu, press DISPLAY then FORMAT, and then we get a few choices on what we want to display. For this example, we want to display SWR so press that. It should now say SWR at the top left of the screen. If we still have our load SMA connector on, you will see the yellow line is 1 right across the graph.
Take the load SMA connector off and plug in your antenna. You may need a SMA connector converter.
Looking at your screen now, the top left in yellow will tell you how many each vertical line is. For example if it says SWR 10 in yellow then each line is 10. So we need to change the scale. Press the top right of the screen to get the menu, press BACK several times until you see DISPLAY, then press it, then SCALE. In there is SCALE/DIV which is scale per division line. By pressing that we can change the value which in turn will update the graph.
If you change the SALE/DIV to .25 then press x1, it will mean each horizontal line is a quarter of a SWA. The bottom line will be 1, the next line will be 1.25, the next will be 1.5, then 1.75 and the middle line will be 2. So anything above the centre line is bad, but above it is good.
The graph will clearly show you the frequencies that the antenna is tuned for. You should now change the frequency range to these areas to get a better reading for that area and see if you can improve it further.
You can do this by bring up the menu again, pressing BACK until you see STIMULUS, press it, then change the START and the STOP to the new range you want. We do not need to calibrate again as this new frequency range is within the original calibration.
Using the Marking
There is a little marker on the graph. If you move the marker across the screen by either clicking it and dragging it or using the paddle near the on/off switch, you can move the marker across your graph. As you move the marker, the actual SWA will update up the top of the screen.
Just remember the above is the simplest option to use the NanoVNA, there are lots more you can do with it and if you subscribe to my page, you will get them as I learn them also.
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