Back In Time Addition

Thanks to Bert VE7OLR I have some new additions to the shack today.

Bert is soon to be part of our family and he knew that I was active in Amateur Radio. Unfortunately he's no longer active so he gifted me some of the gear he purchased around the mid 90s.

The highlight was this Yaesu FT-530 dual band handheld.

It is very popular with Satellite enthusiasts due to the following features.

• Capable of tuning the satellite VHF & UHF sub-bands.
• Capable of transmitting sub-audible or CTCSS tones.
• Will transmit a tone in full duplex mode.
• Full duplex across bands.
• Cross band memory storage. The ability to store frequencies from different bands into a memory channel. It makes tuning for Doppler frequency shifts much easier.
• Power output of 5 watts. The FT-530 does this with a 12v battery pack or ext 12v supply.

So far the original battery pack is holding a charge but I'll likely need to order a new one, I really like the idea of the larger 12v pack. W&W Manufacturing Company out of New York offers a 12 v 2300 mAh NiMH battery pack for $55.00. They also offer a 7.2 v @ 2700 mAh NiMH battery pack. At the 2 watts radio output that pack might last a week!