New Rig

Here is the latest addition to the shack. An Icom 7000. I did for a while consider the Icom 7100 but it is more expensive and I have to say I didn't particularly like the styling of that rig and I have no need of D-Star which doesn't interest me or a touch screen, so the 7000 was the choice.

The 7000 is mainly going to be on 6metre/2metre and 70cms duty here although I will of course be trying it out on HF but I still have the Yaesu FT1000mp as the main HF rig.

First impressions are quite favourable, the Icom seems a little more sensitive on 70cms than my Yaesu 857 and reports on transmitted audio have been good.

Programming the memories does not seem that easy however and I will be ordering a CAT cable for the rig so I can program it on the PC.

The dealer I bought this rig from (Martin Lynch and Sons in the UK) is advertising on their website that Icom have ceased production of the 7000- presumably the 7100 is replacing it but I haven't seen confirmation of this anywhere else.

Computer problems

I have been beset by computer problems lately. Firstly the machine I operate my SDR receiver on crashed. No real problem, this is my main pc and the important stuff- files, pictures etc was backed up. I just did a reinstall of Windows 7 and all was well. Actually not quite. I can no longer operate my SDR receiver remotely. I think the problem relates to a port I need to open. Try as I might I cant get it to work. Even with the router and the PC firewalls off, nothing seems to do it. So for now I have given up on it, I just don't have the time to spend on the PC.

My other machine in the shack was running Windows Vista. For some reason this machine decided it didn't like working with the interface I use for PSK etc. This interface uses a USB connection to switch the PTT on the rig. I remember having one or two problems first  setting it up due to driver issues (It needs a cp 2102 USB to UART driver which looking at Google seems to cause problems for some.) but I had it up and running fairly quickly . Now try as I might I cannot get the machine to work with it. My other machine accepts the driver and recognises the interface fine, but that's no use as it is on the wrong side of the shack too far away from the radio!! So far I have spent a few hours on this problem but have got nowhere.
The hobby was a lot simpler before we used computers!!