[Lowfer] HIFER and IC-746 Problem

[John Andrews]

Dale,

> Can you give me more info on your RY? TX, pwr antenna (end fed 1/2 wave?)
etc?

The transmitter has an AD9850 DDS chip, with a microcontroller, keypad and
display. Unfortunately, I used a cheap 50 MHz clock oscillator to run the
DDS, and the thing is very temperature sensitive. I do have a little heater
for the oscillator, and it helps a bit. The rig is self-contained, and can
do CW, QRSS and DFCW. It should be putting out about 2 mw. The antenna is a
vertical dipole hanging from a tree limb on the east shore of a lake.
There's not much in the way around the whole west side, and I've had good
signal reports as a result.

Your observations on the 136 spur agree with mine. It does drift at warm-up,
much more than the rig itself. Thus far, I greatly prefer my R75 for LF
receiving. But as an HF ham rig, the 746 is wonderful. I'll hopefully get
more time to play with it this summer.

John A.