Yaesu FT-857D: The curious case of… the PWR OUT bars

Recently, also to test a new 30 Ah LiFePo4 battery (but that’s another story), I dusted off the rig that is normally kept in the backpack for portable activities, ready to use (and I emphasize that it is ready, not that it is used).

After turning it on, I connected the trusty Bird wattmeter with the dummy load and tested the various output powers on all bands.

The powers were all within specifications, but I noticed that on the HF frequencies from 14MHz and above, the bars indicating (more or less…) the power emitted by the radio only showed a couple of notches even though the radio was actually set to 100W.

Continue reading “Yaesu FT-857D: The curious case of… the PWR OUT bars”

Icom IC-7300 repair: no transmission

I publish this article now even though I wrote it in december 2018.

Here we are, again.. murphy’s law strikes back!

Some time ago I got, together with some fellow ham radio friends, this Icom rig.

This is the first time I buy something “non Yaesu” because I was attracted by a multitude of positive reviews (most of all coming from our uncle Sam colleagues); furthermore for the appetite for hybrid SDR  technology and because of the hardware maturity of the model.

Continue reading “Icom IC-7300 repair: no transmission”