Yessss! Rotator and 2m/70cm WIMO X-Quad yagi’s up and running. Receiving the 500mW cappana margarita IQ2MI/B beacon on 144,415MHz roughly 60km away at S9+14 / -77 dBm. This with 1 dB signal loss in the 25m coax and antennas configured for RHS circular polarisation. Happy camper.

New Year’s resolution, picking up CW where I left off in 1999 when I passed a pilot Radio Telephony CW exam so basically starting from scratch. Please have mercy.

Small rant, please ignore. Ok, so far my #Yaesu #g5500 and I have not become friends. I ordered the the original cables with 6 pin Molex connectors on the back, but the controller only has screw terminals. hmm. I cut off the molex connectors and crimp fork connectors on the individual wires. Nope, the screw terminals now short circuit. Also with some electricians tape applied as the terminals have sharp edges. So ok, I cut off the fork connectors, just tin the individual wires. Reliability zero.

Still waiting for the icom 9700 and WIMO X-Quads to arrive, but already received this little doodat. It’s controlling both the 9700 and the 5500. Tracking, Doppler shift, logging, the works. Things to nitpick, sure. Barrel or USB-C connector for power woud have been nice instead of micro USB. And no power adapter included. But overall absolutely *brilliant* in what it does.

Yaesu G-5500 rotator arrived! Is there a generally accepted toque value when assembling mechanical parts like these?

@kr1st @vfrmedia Hi there, I did it last year. First got my Dutch call PH1NB, then requested the HAREC letter which was good enough for the Italian regulator to give me my Italian call IU2THY. Italy charged me €50 for 10 years, just received the invoice from the Netherlands for €56 for 2025.