Ok, its working... now CLEAN IT. 1 - Diamond x50N for VHF/UHF 2 - A 1:9 transformer and 75 foot of speaker wire for HF - internal ATU will manage that nicely on all HF bands. ATU can have a grounding fault where it will not match a 3:1 SWR but if you grasp the right side of the radio and squeeze but bottom cover upwards and then activate tuning again, it finds the right match. This is something to do with the heat transfer pad on the ATU box inside also providing some grounding to the case, but the paint can frustrate it. There's a couple of YT vids that demonstrate the issue and a web blog that documents the steps to attempt to fix it.
"now CLEAN IT" absolutely, you should have seen it at first sight 🙂. Anyway we are getting there. The MFJ could have tuned up but my problem was the tuner and the radio weren't in the same place for this quick test. I have since received the modification board I need to bring the I.F. out to the rear panel for a SDRplay and a Bandscope. Its a mod I have done on my FT897 in the past and works really well. Might do a video on that when I do it.
Great radio. You’ll love it.
Ok, its working... now CLEAN IT.
1 - Diamond x50N for VHF/UHF
2 - A 1:9 transformer and 75 foot of speaker wire for HF - internal ATU will manage that nicely on all HF bands.
ATU can have a grounding fault where it will not match a 3:1 SWR but if you grasp the right side of the radio and squeeze but bottom cover upwards and then activate tuning again, it finds the right match.
This is something to do with the heat transfer pad on the ATU box inside also providing some grounding to the case, but the paint can frustrate it.
There's a couple of YT vids that demonstrate the issue and a web blog that documents the steps to attempt to fix it.
"now CLEAN IT" absolutely, you should have seen it at first sight 🙂. Anyway we are getting there. The MFJ could have tuned up but my problem was the tuner and the radio weren't in the same place for this quick test. I have since received the modification board I need to bring the I.F. out to the rear panel for a SDRplay and a Bandscope. Its a mod I have done on my FT897 in the past and works really well. Might do a video on that when I do it.