Dear all,

I am just back from a vacation to 3B8, Mauritius and want to share my
experience with the FC-40:
I had a small bungaloo with space for an antenna and checked this in
advance with the hotel.
In the back there was an unused metal frame made of scaffolding tubes,
about 10 by 15m in size, 3m high. I had a 12m tall fiberglass fishing
rod like tower (SPIDERBEAM), which I fixed to one of the tubes. A wire
ran from the top of the rod down to 1m above the ground, where the
FC-40 was mounted. The metal frame gave a good earth counterpoise,
however I laid out some 4 radials, between 20m and 5m long. Also found
a metal waterpipe nearby which I also connected to one of the ground
wires.

Tuning the FC-40 was really a charm and done by pressing the TUNE
button for 1 sec. I just had to do this once for the operating
frequencies. Even in receive, the tuner follows the VFO. For tuning,
the output power is automatically reduced to QRP, so you do not cause
too much QRM and high voltages and currents in the tuner are avoided.

The FC-40 did not find a match on 160m and 30m. I think the reasons
were too low resistance for 160m, wire too short and too high for 30m,
wire lenght close to lambda/2. On all other bands, the SWR at the TRX
was nearly 1:1.

I worked mostly 40m cw in the evenings and had great pile ups from
Europe and JA, also VK and US. A sked with DL worked in SSB on 20m and
15m, reported true 59. Overall, I had 676 QSOs.

The combination FC-40/FT-897 (FP-30 built in) and a fberglass pole is
my favorite for travel. No need of finding supports for dipoles and
you can QSY on the fly.

I used a SGC-237 Smarttuner before and was not very lucky with it. It
was hard to find a working wire length and the 237 intended to re-tune
in the middle of a transmission, even if the SWR was fine. This is
particularly not good if you transmit at 100W, it can destroy the
tuner. This can be avoided with an external "SmartLock" circuit, but I
think it should not be necessary. Also, the Smarttuner does not follow
in RX mode, you have to transmit in order to tune and you better
reduce the power while tuning!

I hope this is informative,

vy73, Jurgen, DJ5HD

闯ü谤驳别苍,
Very interesting... I also look forward to test my setup with the FC40, the
Spieth pole and one of the radios FT 857 or / and 897. During summer
vacation. Do you have extension cable for the remote controller? I think the
cable between radio an FC 40 is short. I have produced my own extension
cable 15m and in total I can use 20m with the original one. No prpblem for
the tuning finction, but some HF cause problems for some "automatic"
retuning of the FC 40.
Greetings from Munich


-----------------------------
Hanno Vogels, DK3HV
eMail: hanno@...
phone: +49 8102 729600
fax: +49 8102 729655





-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: YaesuTuner@... [mailto:YaesuTuner@...] Im
Auftrag von dj5hd
Gesendet: Montag, 20. Februar 2006 14:09
An: YaesuTuner@...
Betreff: [YaesuTuner] On Vacation with a FC-40/FT-897 in 3B8

Dear all,

I am just back from a vacation to 3B8, Mauritius and want to share my
experience with the FC-40:
I had a small bungaloo with space for an antenna and checked this in advance
with the hotel.
In the back there was an unused metal frame made of scaffolding tubes, about
10 by 15m in size, 3m high. I had a 12m tall fiberglass fishing rod like
tower (SPIDERBEAM), which I fixed to one of the tubes. A wire ran from the
top of the rod down to 1m above the ground, where the FC-40 was mounted. The
metal frame gave a good earth counterpoise, however I laid out some 4
radials, between 20m and 5m long. Also found a metal waterpipe nearby which
I also connected to one of the ground wires.

Tuning the FC-40 was really a charm and done by pressing the TUNE button for
1 sec. I just had to do this once for the operating frequencies. Even in
receive, the tuner follows the VFO. For tuning, the output power is
automatically reduced to QRP, so you do not cause too much QRM and high
voltages and currents in the tuner are avoided.

The FC-40 did not find a match on 160m and 30m. I think the reasons were too
low resistance for 160m, wire too short and too high for 30m, wire lenght
close to lambda/2. On all other bands, the SWR at the TRX was nearly 1:1.

I worked mostly 40m cw in the evenings and had great pile ups from Europe
and JA, also VK and US. A sked with DL worked in SSB on 20m and 15m,
reported true 59. Overall, I had 676 QSOs.

The combination FC-40/FT-897 (FP-30 built in) and a fberglass pole is my
favorite for travel. No need of finding supports for dipoles and you can QSY
on the fly.

I used a SGC-237 Smarttuner before and was not very lucky with it. It was
hard to find a working wire length and the 237 intended to re-tune in the
middle of a transmission, even if the SWR was fine. This is particularly not
good if you transmit at 100W, it can destroy the tuner. This can be avoided
with an external "SmartLock" circuit, but I think it should not be
necessary. Also, the Smarttuner does not follow in RX mode, you have to
transmit in order to tune and you better reduce the power while tuning!

I hope this is informative,

vy73, Jurgen, DJ5HD






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Hanno,

the control cable from the FC-40 to the FT-897 was a home made, 10m
long. I installed clap-on ferrites at both ends near the plugs, not
sure if they were necessary, but no problem with rf.
Plugs and ferrites were obtained from Reichelt electronic in DL.
My cable is shielded, the shield connected to GND at both ends.
Diameter, if I remeber right 0.14mm, that is the best you can fit into
the mini plugs.

Jurgen

Clive,

an FT-857D is installed in my car and I used the FC-40 with it
stationary. I can not find any functional differences to the FT-897.

The FP-30 is very compact, installed into to the FT-897, one piece
less to carry when you travel. The US version of the FP-30 has a
voltage selector 115/230VAC. Due to stupid european regulations of CE
marking, this switch is not installed in the EU versions. I used an
old PC power supply voltage selector switch and built it into my
FP-30. It is a very easy job to do this.
I used the gear occasionally in W4 and Canada when I am on travel.

Getting the lis in 3B8 takes 2-3 months. Contact Jacky, 3B8CF, he will
help you with the procedure. After arrival, you have to visit the 3B8
officials, pay 1000 Rupies, abt. 30US$ and you get the documents.
Never go on the air or bring your rig into the country without permission!
My callsign from Feb 2nd to 15th was 3B8/JD5HD. You can not get a
native call unless you you visit the country regularely every year, I
was told.

Cheers,

Jurgen




--- In YaesuTuner@..., "Clive T" <l81ker@...> wrote:

hi Jurgen., i'm intrigued to hear more of your experiences with the

897 and to compare with 857D....

I guess you have a key advantage with that built-in power supply.,

does it work in the US (110v?)

Also., how did you get permission to operate in Mauritius? is there

a reciprocal licence? what was yr call there?

Cheers
Clive

_____ Original message _____
Subject: [YaesuTuner] On Vacation with a FC-40/FT-897 in 3B8
Author: "dj5hd" <jurgen@...>
Date: 20th February 2006 3:9:11