Icom IC-7200 & Kent TP-1B Twin Paddle Settings

I will share the settings on the Icom IC-7200 to use the Kent TP-1B Twin Paddle (Iambic keyer).

These are for practicing your CW without transmitting, the audio will come out of your IC-7200's speaker at 20 wpm (words per minute, you can adjust down/up as needed).

Key SPD 20
CW Pitch 60 (hz, set to the tone you like to hear and eventually transmit)
Side LVL 70 (seventy percent speaker level, additionally controlled by volume/SQL knob)

CW Norm L
BK-In of (this prevents transmitting)
BK-Delay 80
Key RAT 30
Key Pol n
Key Type EL

The above settings will, along with wiring your Kent TP-1B keyer to the 1/4 phone jack that came with the radio, will permit CW practice.

73, David kk4zuu

CWOPS - learning CW (a.k.a. Morse code)

I am privileged to be in the fall session of the CWOPS, consisting of an online class of fellow hams that want to learn and improve on CW (Morse code).

I have purchased a Kent paddle (twin key), it's connected to my Icom IC-7200 via the CW 1/4" jack in the back of the rig. I can hear the dit's and dashes over its speaker.

I am learning CW because I want to learn it, it will be neat to be able to carry a super small HF kit when doing outdoor activities. It will motivate me to get outdoors more, exercise more, etc.

We have our first meeting this afternoon to check out our setup, our classes are two nights a week (Tue & Friday evenings, 7pm EST to about 8pm EST). We are given lesson plans and asked to study 30-45 minutes a day (about 10 letters/words to remember per session).

I am looking forward to the course.

73, David kk4zuu

13 Colonies as K2B

I operated as K2B on digital modes during 13 Colonies, QSL to:

https://www.qrz.com/lookup/K2b

David

TYT TH-9000D Mobile Car 60W Amateur Ham Radio Transceiver, 220-260MHz, 200CH +CHIRP

TYT TH-9000D 220mhz Amateur Radio [Amazon link]

I purchased this mobile radio over a year ago, it was used for the Virginia QSO Party last year.

I started looking at how to use Chirp to query the radio, I am happy to report that it works!

cable used:Yaesu Vertex Cable [Amazon link]
CHIRP version used: chirp-daily-20170222-installer.exe

Procedure:

• Connect the cable to the TYT radio in its front data port (radio should be OFF)
• Connect the USB connector to the computer, notice what COM port the computer assigns, you need this information for CHIRP
• Turn on the radio
• Open CHIRP, proceed per instructions for CHIRP to pull the current config from the radio
• Once you have downloaded the radios config save it to a .img file somewhere safe

You can now use CHIRP to read the current configuration and to query the internet to add additional frequencies or to manually add them per current CHIRP instructions available on the internet.

* If the radio's (silly) alarm turns on when connecting the data cable hold down the power button for two seconds to turn the radio/alarm off, press power button again to turn the radio back on.

VaQP 2017 KK4ZUU/M

Well, the Virginia QSO Party is coming up and this year I planned to be mobile again but a small health issue will prevent plans to rove SW VA. This will be year three for me as a licensed ham in this event, not sure how or how much I will participate.