By Dave Jensen, W7DGJ

Short Takes #3 for “Trials and Errors – Ham Life with an Amateur”

First Look at Mercury LUX

I have had numerous amps in my ham lifetime, and most of them were tube-type products. I switched over to solid-state a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back. I’m writing an “amp article” now for publication in Jan/Feb, but before that I’d like to give you a heads up on one new product that I am testing out now. KM3KM Electronics has just released the Mercury LUX legal-limit, solid-state linear amplifier – and it is a red-eyed beast.

My initial reaction, comparing it to the original amp from the same company and my earlier tube amps, is that this is one very powerful and adaptable product. The company clearly took pains to ensure they listened to their customers, those who wanted to squeak the last few dB out of the legal limit as well as those who wanted many options including CAT control (the company is primarily known as the producer of the 1200W rated Mercury IIIS amplifier). The new design seems driven by customer wish-list comments on the Facebook user group for Mercury products.

My photo below shows an alternative metering system which I discovered as an unannounced "Easter Egg" on the LUX’s 7” KM3KM touch screen. The LUX uses dual LD-MOS and has a ton of headroom. Even on household current, I’ve got trouble keeping it tamed down to 1500 watts on certain frequencies. More on this one soon! Unfortunately, the waiting list on KM3KM products is quite long.

Propagation is weird, right?

The interesting thing about propagation is how it changes so dramatically from day to day. And, just like weather reports, the forecasters can get it wrong. I’m constantly amazed by the things that happen when I look at a “dead” band and do a CQ. Some of my most interesting QSOs have happened because I didn’t take a propagation forecast, or my waterfall display, too seriously.

One near-daily activity for me is to check into the Activity Group and give a few radio reports. It’s a fun group of hams, from all over the States, Canada, Mexico and the world, but without the formal structure of a net. We give signal reports to each other, and you are welcome to join in. The fun begins every day at about 10:30 AM Mountain Time (1730 UTC) on 18157.5 kHz, and the group moves an hour later to 21383 to check band activity on 15 Meters. Often, 30 minutes later they move to 24970 kHz. There is no roll call. If you hear one of the many stations on frequency, simply break in with your call sign, and you will be most welcome to see if any of the dozens of stations on frequency daily can hear you from your location.  There are several core stations with very friendly operators who will remember your name and welcome you back. Budd (W3FF, pictured here) is one of them, and he’s often “bicycle mobile” for the Activity Group!

Don’t Sweat It - Program It/Control It

I’m writing an article about how the lack of good ham software for the Mac computer has eased up recently, and if you are a Mac user you've noticed this as well. I have some cool stuff I’m using right now on my Apple. Did you know that there’s a software program out there that will give you full remote control, with waterfall, of your IC-7300 (or IC-705, IC-7610, IC-9700 and IC-R8600)? Marcus Roskosch developed this interesting software for the Mac (SDR-Control for ICOM) which I discovered in the most unusual place . . . the Mac App Store! I will review its capabilities and any issues I discover in the very near future, but on my first pass I am extremely impressed with Marcus and his commitment to this product. I’ve only had it a couple of weeks and have already seen an update or two. I have also had lightning-fast responses from him on questions.

Another product I've used on my IC-7300 over the last year is the RT Systems software to set up the programming the way I want it and to save my settings. That software was handy, but not as truly essential as another RT Systems product I knew from the past. I’ve just purchased some TYT 8600’s at auction and plan to loan them out to new hams I’m working with. Prior to going back to RT Systems, I was doing this the hard way and dealing with a nightmare programming function one at a time. RT Systems is another software company making both PC and Mac compatible software, some of which have been invalulable for time-saving.

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