Thanks for the insight Al. What kind of antenna are you using for 2M and 440? Is this a directional antenna or a dual band vertical?
Joe
Well you had me scrambling to see if I could find the assembly instructions for the beam but I can't, but I think its about a 10 or 11 element 2 meter 430 combo. I think it may be like 5 elements on 2 meters and maybe 4 on 430.
Not very much gain on either but works better on 2 meters. Strangely enough there is a 2 meter 440 vertical on top of the tower that was used when I had a separate 2 meter 430 FM radio. I sold all the FM gear because the FT957-D does all that and I never did much with the FM repeaters. At one time there was a ham who lived across the street from K1WJL and he had a 440 repeater at his house that I used to use. Had fair coverage being up on "Dave's hill". 440 repeaters never had much popularity locally here.
(12-19-2014, 12:34 PM)KC1BAQ Wrote: Thanks, Jim. I've never used a Yaesu 857D, but it looks like a lot of radio in a little package. Do any of our members have experience with these?
The Yaesu FT 857D is the one I use for 6, 2 and 420. Nice little radio, 100 watts on 6, 50 watts on 2 meters and 20 on 430. It interfaces easily with N1MM with the CT-62 cable. You can probably pick one up at Lentini's or order one from HRO. West Mountain Radio also has them, that's where I got mine when I brought the RIGblaster Plus for digital. That little RIGblaster Plus is great as it will do all the digital modes your software does and even has a CW output jack so all you need is jumper cable to the CW key. If you start with one of those then you got all the exciters you need for any 2 meter or 430 amps you have. (Getting a little ahead of things here.)
If you have a paddle for CW its got a built in keyer or you can interface it to the computer for CW with N1MM. There is some CW used in the VHF contests.