6600M Arrives in the Granite State ( WQ2H)

WQ2H - Jim Poulette

Unit delivered Saturday afternoon. Set-up (especially using DAX) and getting on the air was infinitely easier than I had anticipated. After a few hours on Sunday, I had updated the software, created and tested 4 slice receivers, set-up and tested both Fldigi & HRD, and set up a Rx antenna with a DX Receiver Guard. I updated the software at the router, then carried the radio back to the shack, so latency has been a pretty steady 1ms. Very pleased with the system and performance so far.

I have a 75m WL2K gateway on a separate radio here which runs pretty much 24/7/356 at 50W on a full wave horizontally polarized loop. As 80/75m is pretty much where I like to be, the Rx antenna (a folded dipole about 50' away from the loop) and front end protection seemed like a prudent idea. It was tested repeatedly yesterday (mostly Pactor) with no issues so far. Eventually I would like to switch over the gateway to the Flex - but we'll take that one step at a time. (The Farallon cable is also in hand).

Next step is to build and test the Ameritron ARI-500 / Flex interface cable (all materials in hand) for auto-band switching on the amp. Once that's completed, I'll run a Cat line from the router to the shack and put both the computer and the radio on the gb-switch. Also waiting for the Yaesu adapter cable which I ordered after the radio. Although I honestly don't do much phone, I do like my "clunker" MD-200 for nets.

I would have done more (seriously).......but I had to cut that grass. Ces't la vie.
73 Jim, WQ2H