SHACK PIC - IC-7610

I spent my weekend putting the shack back together, having removed the ELAD, replacing it with the ICOM. The shack was a mess on Saturday morning and to be honest, I wasn't really in the mood for it, but after a lengthy amount of procrastinating, I got off my backside and started the work.

First decision was what to put where! In the end, I decided that the IC-7100 was not going to be installed - I was going to leave it on the top-shelf disconnected so that I could just grab it and throw it in the truck for mobile/portable work. That decision made the shack-rebuild a little easier.

I had originally thought of installing it permanently in the truck but I just can't be bothered - after all, I don't do much radio work while travelling - in fact, I don't do much travelling at all unless I'm specifically travelling somewhere to play radio from the side of the truck.

Joining the 7100 on the "storage" shelf is the Yaesu FT-818 with its matching tuner. I love this little rig and will never, ever sell it - not even if I bought a 705. It's just an absolute gem!

In the background you can see the lovely TECSUN PL-680, another fine little toy. I like to take this with me if I can't play TX for whatever reason. It's a fabulous portable, with full HF coverage, (SSB), Broadcast and AirBand.

I then found a spot for the HandHelds and their chargers. Both of these run from HotSpots because there are no Repeaters nearby. The Kenwood D74 uses a DVAP Dongle and the Yaeasu FT3D uses an OpenSpot2. When I find time, I'm gonna run both radios from the OpenSpot (more than likely).

So, back to the main event - the 7610. Unlike the DX3000, there isn't a simple "RF OUT" to feed my SDRPLAY RSP1A.   I thought that I'd be able to connect to the RX OUT BNC connector, but using that results in the Main VFO going quiet. The only way around it is to connect a loop through to the RX IN BNC using a splitter like the MINI CIRCUITS ZSC -2-2+ which is quite expensive and not easy to get here in the UK.

So I decided to share the G5RV antenna between the RSP1A and IC-7610 using an MFJ-1708B which I already had in the shack. You can rely on the MFJ's "RF Sensing" or you can feed it a line from your radio's PTT Out. I chose the latter.

So that meant that I had to run coax cables from the G5RV Switch, to the MFJ-1708B, then to the MFJ-993B ATU, then to the NISSEI DG-503 Meter and finally to the IC-7610. What a pain!

With the horrible bit out of the way, I could focus on connecting the other cables to the 7610 and pushing the radio into its resting place on my worktop, directly beneath the bottom shelf. Perfect fit!! In front of it I placed a Logitech K400 Wireless Keyboard with TrackPad. This worked perfectly as soon as I pushed the little wireless dongle into the 7610. Excellent!

With everything connected, I fired up the radio, pressed the TUNE button and the MFJ-993B almost instantly provided a perfect match and an SWR of 1.1:1 on 20M. I tuned around and found OE17AAW, a special callsign for the 17th Antarctic Activity Week 2020. I made contact and enjoyed a very comfortable QSO with a 59 report each way.

Then I spoke with Fred in Austria (OE8NDR) and couldn't believe how good the signal was. Fred told me that I was a beautiful signal back to him and thankfully, I recorded it (below). What I didn't realise at the time, was that my Mic Gain (the physical adjuster underneath the SM-50) was WAY too high!

> VIDEO <

Unfortunately, Fred had some operating difficulties and went off-air, so I carried on and worked CT1BOL in Portugal (57/57) and DJ0AJ in Germany (59/59) on 40M before switching to 80M to have my first contact on that band with G0ORG in England (58/57).

So I was quite happy with that start, but I now needed to get the rig connected to the PC. I thought it was going well - I installed the Silicon Labs USB Drivers and installed RS-BA1 software (V2). The radio connected to the software no problem and all the 'virtual' knobs and dials activated the same on the rig.

BUT the audio and mic was still in the hands of the radio and NOT the computer. It's obviously some settings in the radio's menus, but I just ran out of time and didn't manage to fix it yet. I also need to get HDSDR working with the USB-3 cable.

Something for another weekend :-) 

.