This is the second in a series of articles that I’m posting that will describe the process you need to go through to configure different programs to work with the Yaesu FTDX101D transceiver. I’m doing these articles because I just recently went through the setup process on my own system and found while there’s plenty of information out there, it’s sometimes confusing and often doesn’t fully describe what is happening during configuration process. I hope that these articles will simplify things and help other users that might be intimidated by the complexity of setting up their hardware. Before starting the process, you should review my previous post, ‘Installing and Configuring Device Drivers for the Yaesu FTDX101D’ to make sure your …
Al
I was looking for a movie to watch the other night and after doing a bit of searching, came across Barry Lyndon. The movie came out in 1975 and was directed by Stanley Kubrick, a man whose movies are almost always interesting. I’ve seen a lot of Kubrick’s movies such as Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, The Shining and Full Metal Jacket and found all of them worth watching. Somehow though I had missed out on Barry Lyndon. I was aware of the movie but I just never thought it looked interesting enough to spend time watching. I checked out its IMDB rating which was …
Overview This document is an attempt to explain the connections that are needed to interface a computer with the Yaesu FTDX101D, what each of those connections does and what you need to do to get your computer talking to your rig. While it’s written for the FTDX101D, I suspect the same information will apply to any modern Yaesu transceiver and with some minor changes could also be used to set up non-Yaesu rigs. Connecting your computer to your transceiver allows you to do all sorts of interesting things. You can control your rig from your computer, automate the logging process, run software that allows you to communicate with others using the various digital modes and many other things. While researching …
I just upgrade my amateur radio setup with a new FTDX-101D and was trying to understand how VC tuning is accomplished on the radio. The manual didn’t really explain why two buttons of the same name were used and a search on the Internet found no information. Even AI didn’t have an answer. So I dug in the old fashioned way and started experimenting. I’m sharing what I found out here, hoping it might help someone else. VC-Tune (Variable Capacitor Tune) – it can attenuate interfering signals directly at the receiving frequency. It can be turned on to attenuate the strong jamming signals that cannot be removed even with BPF (Band Pass Filter). If there is no interfering signal, turn …
I purchased some Lemon Oreos yesterday and when I opened them today found that each row in the package was missing either two or three cookies. (See above photo) I don’t know if this was a packaging mistake or just the way they sell them. It’s possible that they share packaging between the different types of Oreos and that the lemon version are more expensive so they put in less. It’s also possible that they just started including fewer Oreos to keep from having to raise the price as a consequence of Biden’s inflation. No matter what, it doesn’t give the customer a good first impression of the product when you open the package. On the same store trip, while …
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I was going on a job interview. I did and was actually offered the job but ended up turning it down. The process had started with a recruiter contacting me and telling me about a job that had come up that was a close match to my skillset. Usually, I just ignore these calls because more often that not, they’re not even close to matching what I do. This time though it was a good match so I decided to pursue it. Before going too deep into it, I told the recruiter my salary requirements. I’ve run into situations before where a company wants to hire an experienced engineer but wants to …
Improving the Music Inventory Example from Head First Object Oriented Analysis and Design
I’ve been refreshing my knowledge of software design by working through the book, ‘Head First Object Oriented Analysis and Design.’ One of the examples that they use to show how designs can evolve and be improved upon over time is an application that is used to track musical instruments inventory. The initial design of the app is poor in that it lacks maintainability and requires modification of existing classes (one of the no-no’s of SOLID design principles) and the addition of many new classes any time you want to add a new instrument type to the application. In chapter 5 of the book, they improve the design considerably by replacing unique classes for each instrument with a single class, InstrumentSpec …
Yesterday, I was thinking about how much e-mail is like regular mail. When I was a kid, during summer vacation, I couldn’t wait for the mail to arrive, always believing that today would be the day that something really cool would appear. It never did. Mostly the mail consisted of ads and bills. I do the same with e-mail now. When I’m working on my computer, every time the e-mail chime goes off I’m immediately checking to see what came in, expecting it to be something interesting. It seldom is. Like regular mail, it mostly contains ads and bills. The only difference is that now I get to pay those bill instead of my parents paying them.
I purchased a Husqvarna 525RC Brushcutter at the local Lowes today. I mentioned in a previous post how I had replaced the carburetor on an old brushcutter that I owned and was still having a few problems with it. I planned on troubleshooting it and hoped to find out what was going on with it but decided I really needed something now so I ended up buying the Husqvarna instead. The unit is solid, well built and a lot more powerful than the previous brushcutter. It vibrates a whole lot less than the old brushcutter and because of that it’s a lot more pleasant to use. Assembly was relatively easy but the instructions weren’t all that great. Lots of little …
I had an onsite job interview today. This was a follow up to a phone interview that took place last week. After completing the phone interview I was pretty sure that I had done well and was under consideration so when they called me in for a face to face I wasn’t really all that surprised. What did surprise me is when I got there, it appeared that they had pretty much decided they would already hire me and that this second ‘interview’ was more a chance to see the place than it was additional vetting. I was also surprised that it looks like if the details can be ironed out, I’ll be starting next week. The new place is …
