[NLRS] FT-817 as IF radio

[Glen Overby]

John P. Toscano wrote:
> I just picked up a used FT-817 for use as an IF radio to some of my 
> transverters. I am shocked at how vague the operating manual is with 
> respect to the jacks on the back that I would use for interfacing to a 
> transverter.

I use PTT OUT (PTT to ground) on the ACC jack.  It's output only, driven by
a low current transistor.

I only sequence my 10ghz and 902, and I switch the transverter from RX to TX
right away so I just let the radio transmit.  You could use Tx Inhibit as you
described.

> Any other advice on good or bad features of the FT-817 as an IF radio 
> would be appreciated.

I've found the CW filter useful up through 3456 (but not turned on all the
time), but not so at 10ghz.

Change the FM step to 5khz, then you can find people more easily than with
25khz steps.

I use a bias-T to feed a PTT-H signal over the RF line, through a 4-way or
5-way RF switch to my transverters.  The DEMI transverters already have a
blocking cap, so all you have to add is a a 1uH inductor to the DEMI TTL-H
input and you can key them.  For sequenced transverters, I have the inductor
drive a transistor to get a PTT-L output to the sequencer.  With PTT over the
IF cable, I can have one RF switch to select the transverter, and I can still
drive transverters directly from a radio with PTT-L output wired to the
transverter if I want to.

After blowing the output finals on one of my FT-817s, I found that replacing
the finals board and setting the quiescent current was pretty easy.  The part
cost about $55 including shipping.

Glen, kc0iyt