I have had Yaesu System Fusion radios since 2015, along with switching our club repeater W2XRX from an older GE analog system to a Yaesu DR1X in 2015, and then in 2020 a DR2X. I have had a Wires-X node online since November 2015. I obtained a Shark RF Openspot (a digital hotspot) when it first came out, maybe in 2018 or so. System Fusion is Yaesu’s implementation of digital voice. It is not proprietary, it’s specs have been published. So far, no other manufacturer has developed radios for it. Since then, I have acquired 2 FTM-400s, one FTM-100, one FT1XD, HT, one FTM-300, and one FT5DR HT. I use one FTM-400 as a PDN node, and the other is in my car. The FTM-100DR is dedicated to the W2XRX Wires-X node and the FTM-300 is my base station radio. What is a hotspot? Think of it as a small repeater that takes your signal and connects it to a digital voice network on the internet. So I have some experience with System Fusion/C4FM digital voice. I hadn’t experimented too much in cross-mo...
Having Two HRI-200s at Same QTH K2AS July 12, 2025 I have had a Wires-X Node at my QTH since November 2015. I use it to provide Wires-X access for our 2 meter repeater. It uses an HRI-200 (the only way at the time), a FTM-100DR, and a Windows PC for the software. The FTM-100 runs medium power, as I am 39 miles from the repeater site. I have had the Yaesu cooling fan installed for probably at least 6 years. A 7 element yagi in my garage rafters helps. In May 2024, I stood up an XLX reflector using a cloud server. I also added a transcoding server on a Raspberry-Pi . I bridged the XLX module B to Wires-X at my shack, with a MMDVM hotspot and a FTM-400DR PDN node. It all worked, but there was about a 4 second delay for the XLX traffic to finally get to the repeater. Based on info from K9EQ, I understood that PDN nodes use TCP protocol and has to go through a Yaesu server in Japan. I thought maybe this was a big part of the delay in my sy...
I don’t operate CW as much as I used to, so my skills have diminished a bit, though I am pretty good at 18 wpm or so. My weak point was often copying all to paper, especially over 15 wpm. So I have started to do it all in my head, which sometimes works and sometimes does not. Practice makes perfect, but finding time is an issue. CW Decoders have probably been around for 30 years or so. I tried a PC based one in the late 1990s, which was not great. My FTDX-101D has a built-in decoder for CW. It works pretty good, not great, but you have to adjust your keyer speed control to get proper decoding, not an ideal setup. A year or two ago, I saw mention of a new one in QST, and downloaded it. It is PC based, and you need audio from the radio getting to your PC soundcard. If you do PSK or FT8, you are all set. It was created by Grant Connell WD6CNF, and can be found at https://wd6cnf1.software.informer.com According to the QST article, the WD6CNF CW Decoders adapts to the oper...
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