A detailed pictured of the new Kenwood TS-990
More Pictures of the new Kenwood TS-990 transceiver start appearing on the web.
Just found one and enhanced for better details reading.
Search google for latest Kenwood TS-990 pictures
Also Yaesu present during this period a new product, the Yaesu FT DX 3000, a 100 Watt HF and 50 MHz amateur radio transceiver for the casual dxer and for the contester.
By using new down conversion and sharp edged crystal roofing filter technology, this trasceiver is positioned just under the bigger FT DX 5000.
Along to te FT DX 5000 is the sole Yaesu transceiver with a band scope and full digital display.
Aspect and dimension are very compact.
Price is not yet bee announced.
FTDX 3000 at Dayton by IZ4GWE
Smart SDR - FLex Radio
Rumors were tue about the Flex-6000 Series !
Flex-Radio just announced the new Flex-Radio systems FLEX 6500 and FLEX 6700
FLEX-6500 is an HF only SDR Radio while FLEX-6700 includes 6m band, there is also a FLEX-6700R that includes VHF.
More info and brochure can be found at FlexRadio Systems website or at the Dayton H amvention, while for Europeans probably will be possible to have a first look at these two new SDR radios in Friedrichshafen Ham Fest next month
FLEX 6000 Series
Web rumors says a new Flex Radio System product could be released in the ham radio market… the FLEX 6000
Probably in the next hours at Dayton Hamvention.
Looks like the new FLEX-6000 will probably be the top of the line product, that currently includes FLEX-1500, FLEX-3000 and FLEX-5000.
Clear signals coming from Flex Radio Webiste support this theory.
Let’s see tomorrow in Dayton.
No it is not ! but…while inspecting some hi-res pictures of the announced Kenwood TS-990 I’ve noticed a detail that immediately reminded me to the April Fool’s day….
TS-990
At the top of the TS-990 display, date displayed is 1st April 2012
I’m sure is not a Kenwood late April Food Joke, but it’s certainly a funny detail !
You can display some Hi-Res pictures of the Kenwood TS-990 by searching on Google Images or just in the back cover page of the June 2012 QST !
The only pictures present on the web of the new Kenwood TS990 are the same as the one published on QST, we’ll have to wait for some pictures of the new TS-990 from Dayton visitors.
I’ve been in touch with Silvano’s team from 6O0CW DX pedition in Somalia and as like happened for his previous dx peditions , immediatly after the contact my QSO was listed on the official 6O0CW On-Line Log system, pratically live !
QSL for 6O0CW is available via the QSL Request Service !
Fine Job Silvano and congratulations for a so professional approach to DX Peditioning.
BAOFENG UV-5R Review
I’ve owned this radio since one month now. I ordered this new model at 409shop.com for 45 Euros including delivery and customs.
I’m also owner of a Baofeng UV-200 and of a kenwood TH-F7E.
This new Baofeng products looks like to be a very robust handheld radio, compared to the other two ones I own. Compared to the previous Baofeng UV-200, the UV-5R is completely different transceiver. Much more sensible, and does not suffer of poor selectivity of the smaller brother. It offer a dual watch feature including the possibility to use FM 88-108 and dual watch, so when noone is talking on VHF I can listen to music or to my preferred broadcasting station.
The battery life is very long, and it last much more the the other ones. When it arrives, the Baofeng UV-5R is bundled with it’s desktop charger that is very fast in recharging.
Headphone pin-out is the Kenwood standard one, and I’ve been able to use a kenwood speaker-microphone that I used previosly with the TH-F7E.
Unfortunatly there are no programming cables available now but i know that is possible to home made them. Memory programming is not very easy, and need to spend some time before understanding that pre-recorded channells need to be deleted before rewrite them, and that you must use the upper VFO to memorize frequencies. I’ve produced a short booklet in Italian to program the Baofeng UV-5R, it’s available here
Bundled dualband antenna looks to work smootly and efficiently on both bands.
That’s my short review on thie chinese dual band ham radio transcever !
Kenwood TS-990
The final release date for the Kenwood TS-990S is however Winter 2012 so don’t expect to use it before Christmass 2012 !
Lot’s of curiosity is around the final TS-990 aspect, since there is no real official picture of the product and what is currently available on the net is commonly considered a fake.
What is sure is that the TS-990 or TS-990S will have a dual TFT display and dual receiver and will be an HF+50MHz top of the Line Kenwood Amateur Radio product.
Links:
Price range is expected to be somewhere > 4000 USD
50 MHz Marathon
ARI Section of Florence organizes the marathon dedicated to the band of 50 MHz which is open all radio amateurs. From this page you can access your online logs for the management of the marathon. To Join, request your personal userID and password by sending an e-mail to maratona50mhz @ gmail.com containing the following data : CALL, Operator Name, WWLocator and the category of participation.
The log function is already working, in order to allow users to test it, but log entries will be cleared at the beginning of the marathon.
New Section for 70 Mhz!
With the introduction of the sperimental period of the 70 Mhz band, ARI sezione di Firenze, created a special section dedicated to this band, inside the the 50Mhz Marathon 2012 edition. The main goal is to collect data of all QSOs done within this band by all radioamateurs taking part to the competition. The final database of QSOs made on the 4 meter band will be collected and sent to the Department of Electrical and Information Engineering of the University of L’Aquila, directed by Piero Tognolatti I0KPT, for further analysis on propagation.
All those who wish to participate in this initiative, should send an e-mail containing the CALL, NAME, the LOCATOR, and a description of their equipment at maratona50mhz @ gmail . com. Login credentials will be sent all partecipants, in order to be able to enter their QSO data or upload an ADIFlog file. All contactswill be grouped in the modes Voice, CW and Digital. In order to give a bit of competitive spirit to the event will be drawn an automatic classification based on the total QRB of each participant.
For Rules and Updated visit the 50 Mhz Marathon web site
With Gmail Tap announced today (April 1st) , Google adapted the Morse Code to the new Tap interface integrating a morse code interpreter into their Gmail App for Android Smartphones.
At first while reading I did suspected April Fools and so I still believe it could be a joke, but reading comments on play.google.com looks it’s a real announcement…. Let’s see tomorrow. 😉
Read more on Gmail Tap
By the way, April fools or not, if you want to use Morse Code to replace your keyboard you can already download an iPhone App, that will do exactly the same, Morse Code Email