More Ground Radials for the Vertical and Inrad Filters for the FT1000MP V

Added a few more ground radials to the vertical, I figured any spare wire I have I just add, including the disused moxon that is lying in the back garden, I just laid it out flat and connected up a ground radial! Listening out last night before going to bed I heard my first VK on 30 meters so something must working because I’ve never heard a VK on the inverted V.

10 and 12 meters opened up for a short period over the weekend and I had some fun contacting Japan using the cobweb, only a couple of stations but at least I was getting out.

As the vertical is now working well, the spare 30 meter inverted vee has been sitting around doing nothing except for comparing against the new vertical, so I did a quickie experiment by trimming it down to the 12 meter band to see how it compared against the cobweb. Interestingly the background noise was much louder, but no real noticeable difference.

I’ve recently felt that the cobweb is somewhat lacking in performance and may need a tweak here and there, especially on 20 meters where the swr is slightly up (2:1), it doesn’t provide a problem because the tuner on the radio corrects it, but I’m still going to take the cobweb down in the near future just to give it a clean and a check-up as it has been battered by the winds over the winter period.

With more experience I’ve noticed I am definitely lacking with regard to filters when it comes to CW. For SSB I have an NSDSP 1062 amplified module which is a great DSP kit that fits in my Yaesu SP2000 speaker. I bought it sometime ago after hearing my Brother in Law using it with his FT1000, you fit yourself and it certainly does work, I would highly recommend it especially for crowded SSB/noisy bands, unfortunately though as stated by the manufacturer, it's no good for CW.

So what about CW filters for the FT1000MP V? Well you can purchase the Inrad filters or the Yaesu filters if you can get hold of them, both sets of course are expensive, £200 for the Inrads! After doing a thorough search I have ordered the Inrad filters, YF-110CN and the YF -114CN which from what I have gathered should give me the necessary filtering that I require. Evidently they take about 3 weeks to arrive so I’ll let you have updates when I get them especially on the fitting process which should prove interesting.