Need Help Setting up My New Shack

[Timothy Sagear]

Elmers!
I’m trying to get back into Amateur Radio after forced decades of abstinence.
My experience is from Ham radio in the late sixties..

I would appreciate.. I mean really appreciate some patient hand holding on a few topics dealing with today’s technology…

Specifically…

1) How to get my Icom 7300 –> MFJ998 —> AL-811H —> Dipole Antenna tuning complete (without damage) is not intuitive to me….

2) I’ve a Baofeng UV-5R.. and I’m having trouble getting it to work simplex as well as how to get into local repeaters, tones, offsets, xmit/rx freq.. etc.

I’ve been reading and watching numerous youtube videos. Each one brings me closer.. but none are specific to my configuration.

It’s been so long since I operated and I have no Ham “friends” to call upon.
Thanks to those who understand,
Tim WA1SLO

Brookline, NH

[Fred Kemmerer]

Hello Tim,

I am glad to hear that you are putting together your station! Here are some initial thoughts about your questions.

1) How to get my Icom 7300 –> MFJ998 —> AL-811H —> Dipole Antenna tuning complete (without damage) is not intuitive to me….

>> The best approach is to begin with your antenna and feedline and work back. It would help to know more about what sort of dipole you want to put up. Take some time with an analyzer to adjust your dipole to be resonant on the band that it is intended to work on. I like a basic 20m vertical dipole to start or perhaps a quality off-center fed dipole from Buckmaster if you want a multi-band antenna. Install a good ground system and choose a low-loss, high-quality coax feedline, and work from there. If you do this, you should not need an external tuner (or a tuner at all).

2) I’ve a Baofeng UV-5R.. and I’m having trouble getting it to work simplex as well as how to get into local repeaters, tones, offsets, xmit/rx freq.. etc.

>> I’d suggest that you purchase programming software and a cable from RT System for your radio. This makes all manner of programming including setting up simplex channels, satellites, Foxes, etc easy to do. If you decide to go with RT Systems, I have a program for the UV-5R that you can start with.

I hope that this helps you!

[Timothy Sagear]

Thanks very much Fred!

I’ve not checked this forum in a while thinking that I would get an email if a response was entered….  So I really appreciate your guidance.

I guess I should’ve started with a vertical, but at this point I’ve already put up a few dipoles for 80, 40 and 20 so I’ve got a good start on the antennas…   All are below 1.4:1 so I think I’m good with those.

I’ve also been using the programming cable you suggested and can now scan known/desired frequencies… with the UV5R.

So thanks for that… and most exciting is that I’ll be attending the boot camp  next week so that should really get me going..

Much appreciation for that as well!!

Thanks and stay safe,

Tim Sagear

WA1SLO

[Fred Kemmerer]

Hi Tim,

I’m glad that the previous post helped you. We’ll be covering some wire antenna topics and radio programming at Bootcamp next Saturday so you should get some more useful information there.

Next time you post in our forums note the checkbox that says “Notify me of follow-up replies via email”. If you check this before you submit your post, you will get an email when someone replies.

[Anonymous]

Hi Tim,

You are getting sound advice from Fred. I run the 7300 and the 7610 here along with the Ameritron 811H. One thing you didn’t mention was having the ARB-704 interface. This is used to interface the newer radios with the older amplifiers. The older amps usually have a higher keying voltage and current than the newer radios can handle. I know this because I hooked my amp to my FT-820 and blew the antenna relay. So with all the newer stuff and some of the older stuff like my FT-1000MP I always use the ARB-704. I have several in my shack as I have several stations with multiple amps. This is a great investment and protects your expensive newer radios. I hope this helps. de Dennis KL7HRO

[Author]

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