DIY Rig control CI-V Cable for Icom Transreceiver.

Hello, every one this is VU3EFL.

After making 20/40 meter antenna for my icom transreceiver 746pro, I plan to make DIY CI-V Cable to control my rig using my Desktop pc.

For controling rig we need FTDI USB Icom programing cable, You have a option to buy new one from the online market place. But as a hobby i always try to make it by my self so that it saves money, enhance knowledge and when its works – “Give confidence and feeling of satisfaction” that yes i make it and its works :P.

I made DIY rig control cable in just About ~3$ only (INR.200 only).

So lets come to the points.

Things Needed :

  1. FT232RL – USB to TTL Converter/ Adaptor : For India – You can buy from online USB TO UART TTL 5V 3.3V FT232RL It’s just cost me Rs.130 only (~2$).
    FT232RL USB to TTL
  2. USB Mini B to USB Mini A Cable: It’s use to connect TTL converter to your PC. In my case, i already have it. You can buy online or offline as per your convenience.
    USB mini b to usb a cable
  3. 1 Resistor of 10k and IN4148 Diodes (Both Cost me about 3Rs.)
  4. 3.5 stereo jack plug.
  5. Sheilded Wire (TLL converter to 3.5 Stereo jack plug) – I use CCTV inner core wire.

Diagram:

diy icom civ cable for 746pro

Images of my DIY Project, Ignore mistake as i am not technician, just following the charts :-

While connecting your RIG using cable make sure you installed driver for FTDI, you can find it using this link

For controlling a rig, you need a software HDR (Ham Radio deluxe) is the best software that i am using at presnet.

I reffers following URLS :

  • https://www.maniaradio.it/forum/showthread.php?tid=458
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq5OjbegKPQ
  • Special Thanks to VU2KYZ – Ashok Khacharji for being mentor.

DIY Dual band “Inverted V antenna” for 20m and 40m.

If talking about HF and not talking about 20m and 40m band then the talk is said to be incomplete. Especially in India 20m and 40m are very popular, most of the daily nets are operated on both these bands. As a beginner in ham radio.

I was regularly listing those nets and conversations on my USDX QRP set. I got the inspiration to build my first HF antenna from listening to other ham friends on USDX. Latter I bought ICOM746Pro.

Being an amateur radio license holder and do not interact with them using transmitter, gives the feelings of incompleteness. The desire to talk with them is motivating me to make this antenna today. After building an antenna, soon I am going to talk to everyone the frequency.

I had the option to buy a ready made antenna but I believe that ham radio is a hobby, the more we do things ourselves, more we learn and experience how science actually works.

I have seen the antenna of VU2JRT, VU2TPF and VU2KYZ from Surat and many ham friends from Gujarat (Specially though the whatsapp sharing) and I have tried to make an antenna accordingly.

As a VU3EFL, I always see the things that are useful for my hobby. At my factory i have found following things which can be helpful for building an antenna. Its a scrap for the factory, but not for the hobby – Its like “best from the waste”.

  1. Waste switch of air compressor.
  2. Over stocked – yarn ceramic.

I bought new SO239 connector. I plan to make a hole in metal plate using CNC machine, But latter I drill the hole using lathe machine. Using a glue ceramic attached to the plate.

1 ceramic so239 air compressor plate for invereted vee

Now its a time to Solder SO239 connector to this plate.

Yes, I know solder is not proper one, but latter i have done it proper with help of VU2JRT. I use regular solder to do that but it’s incomplete. Latter, I went to QTH of VU2JRT and he helped me to solder it properly. Its show “How am i new to this!”

Now It’s time to think about the antenna wire. I bought 2.5SQ electrical wire with two colors Red for the radiator and Black for the Ground (Colors doesn’t matter, its just to set radiation leg as red one). At present for testing purpose I am making 20m antenna only, latter i will make 40m too after getting positive result from 20m. length of both leg is about 16.5 feet.  I used an antenna calculator for the same, we will talk about that in upcoming post.

 

I need End point insulator for the antenna cable. I use spare TFO Hose pipe holders from my manufacturing unit.

After soldering to SO239, my antenna is ready for mount on mast. While soldering due to heat , some of wire got shorten so SWR for 14.200MHZ is about 1.5 I made a mistake of cutting sorter wire, Next time i will take care of that too. Only by making mistakes we can learn something that we never make the same mistake again.

I made a lot many long distance DX QSO using this antenna, you can check it out my profile on VU3EFL’s QRZ.com page. At present on 4-sep-2023, I had the longest distance QSO is with Italy station – IZ0PAU.  its about 6023 KM from my QTH.

On Feb 2024, I upgraded my antenna to dual band 40m and 20m, both SWR is set as 1:1. I have photos and video of my antenna, which i will share latter on this post.

Warning: Before experimenting anything, you must need ham radio license from the government, dont try anything without license.

My objectives behind writing on Amateur radio.

Objective on writing amateur radio

Welcome to the blog of VU3EFL. First and foremost, I’d like to welcome you to the world of amateur radio. I am new to amateur radio, and, also being a blogger and writer, I got the inspiration to write about my amateur radio journey and share my experiences, knowledge, and understanding on this blog.

So the first question that must arise in your mind is, “Why should we read this blog or why should we follow you?”

So my response is that if your and my motivations are similar, we can learn something together; if our motivations are different, there is no need to waste time. I’m sharing my motivation for writing this blog; read it and, if you find it useful, subscribe to it.


I am writing this blog with three main motives in mind.

  1. Introduction to Amateur Radio (HAM Radio)
  2. Appearing of ASOC exam.   (Theory + Morse code practice.)
  3. Being active on the air

Amateur radio: on this blog, I am going to introduce to you one of the most interesting and expensive hobbies: amateur radio. I took the amateur radio ASOC exam in December 2021 and received my license in February 2022. My license number is 43271; since amateur radio became legal in India, approximately 45000 licenses have been issued, with the majority of holders becoming silent key (they are no longer). Out of the rest of the license holders, only about 5,000 to 10,000 are active. This is a very valuable hobby, and I am honored to be a part of it. I’ll go into more detail about amateur radio in a future blog post.

Appearing on the ASOC Exam: You read that correctly. You must pass an exam administered by the WPC wing of the government of India. If you are from another country, you must also take an exam to obtain an amateur radio license.

Being active on the air: after all these efforts, what is the use of a license? Obtaining information and acting on the information obtained is a sign of a good learner. My motive in writing this will be incomplete if you don’t reach this level. I will give my all; are you willing to give your all in order to achieve this goal?

If your answer is yes, then let’s start the journey. Follow my blog on social media, which is below this post, and stay connected with me. We will grow together.

My name in the news of Times of India…(12 Feb 2023)

Recently, I got the opportunity to be a part of an interview on the occasion of World Radio Day by The Times of India. The interview was taken by Mr.Yagnesh Mehta and Mr.Gaurang Joshi (a photographer). Both have very sharp and deep knowledge of the news media industries.

VU2JRT, Jagdish Maheta, one of the senior ham from Surat city, He is my guru as he and other ham helping me a lot to understand ham radio. One day he called me and told me that reporters from the Times of India is coming to their home, are you interested to join us. I initially refused to join them because of my business obligations. And suddenly, after taking his call, I called him again and informed him that I was coming to join it.

We had a very good conversation, and VU2JRT demonstrated on 20 meter and 40 meter band of H.F., We also looked at his antenna setup too. and after taking ice-cream interview was over.

I found really helpful amateur radio operators in Surat. Rather than calling him a friend, I referred to him as Guru (Master), as they were all my father’s age.As always, I am learning from them.
I joined ham radio just a year ago. Experiencing an interview by The Times of India was my first such experience. It was really a memorable experience.

Thanks to VU2JRT – Mr. Jagdishbhai Maheta, Journalist Mr.Yagneshbhai , Photogranpher Mr. Gaurangbhai Joshi.

Mr. Yagnesh has share the link of times of india with It’s ‘friends like ham-ily’ for this GST consultant

He mentioned my name on website and news paper hard copy too. Below is the image of new paper.

Times of India - Umesh Tarsariya

Ham radio – Coax Loss Chart dB / 100 feet.

h radio coax loss chart

Coax Loss chart dB per 100 feet on diffrent frequency like 3.5 mhz, 7 mhz, 14 mhz, 28 mhz, 50 mhz , 144 mhz, 440 mhz and 2400 mhz.

 

Above charts is by qsradio and shared here.

In ham radio, we always try to get the best result out of limited resources. A power used for radio equipment and power output must have a lowest loss for that diffrent frequency has diffrent power loss as per our cable selection, its all about science and experiments..

above chart represents the study data for the effective selection of coax cable..

 

De

VU3EFL

Umesh, Surat, Gujarat.

Eyeball QSO with VU2DWA & VU2TPF at Surat.

VU2DWA, VU2TPF & VU3EFL meetup
Eyeball QSO with VU2DWA, VU2TPF & VU3EFL

Yesterday (6th Feb 2022), We had a eyeball QSO with VU2DWA/ KC2ZND – O.M Sir Digvijayam Parchara, VU2TPF – O.M. Sir Jigneshbhai and VU3EFL – Me at Surat city.

I have just joined the Surat team of Ham Radio.Till that date I had an Eyeball QSO with VU2KYZ – O.M Sir Ashok Khacharji, VU2JRT – O.M Sir Jagdish Mahetaji, VU2TPF – O.M Sir Jigneshji and VU3HJL – O.M Hardik Tejani.

O.M. Sir Jignesh doshiji (VU2TPF) is one of the active ham operators in surat city, he told that one of HAM VU2DWA/KC2ZND from South India is in Surat for some event purpose and we have decided to meet him.His name is Mr. Digvijayam Paricharlaji is basically from south India, Click here for his qrz.com detail page.

We had a healthy discussion about Ham radio and I got experience of first Eyeball QSO in surat city with an outsider.Amateur Radio is the only reason for this meet.For me south indian people helps me a lot to have a ham radio license and also a knowledge too.As a result, A level of respect is raised in my mind.

I really thanked a lot to VU2DWA as he given his precious time for QSO.He also invited us to have eyeball QSO at Mumbai.

Become licensed ham operator – VU3EFL – Surat

Namaste,

CQ.. CQ..  CQ.. This is VU3EFL…

VU3EFL surat ham radio operator

Today, I got my license to transmit and receive on amateur radio frequency.  Yes, I had shared a post that i cleared amateur radio exam. It was a since 29th Dec 2021 to 1st Feb 2022 was a long waiting period for me but if we compare this time with late 90’s then you may say that this waiting period is nothing as on those days license issue were taking 3 to 4 years.

So, lets jump to the good part of today’s post. I have got my amateur radio operating license today from Telecommunication ministry of Indian government. my unique call sign or you can say my universal identity in wireless network is VU3EFL. VU represent India, 3 Represents  Restricted Grade and last three words EFL is my identity number. This call sign is valid in entire world.

So, what’s next.

I started making a 5 element cubical quard antenna for my radio too, I have UV5R radio set.  See with restricted grade we have limitation of usage of power and emmisions, so my plan is to prepair for the general grade . Meanwhile i will start using my restricted grade and i will share the stuff, QSOs and learning on this blog.

Finally, ASOC exam is cleared..

As you all knows previously i had shared a post – The begining a new journey as a ham radio operator. Now It’s a good news that i have cleared ASOC exam and got result on 28th Dec 2020.

Still i am not authorized to use ham radio as i need to apply for the licence. OM Sasi – VU2XZ from hyderabad helped me alot during this entire process of getting cleared my exam. Now again i got guidelines from him to apply for license too.

I have applied for restricted and general grade. and i got a restricted grade. so the call sign will ne VU3 and the suffix will be any three latter which i have choise to select 3 options for the same. if it’s available then they will provide any one out of it or else they will give random latter.

So, at present i am processing for licence and hopefully withing a month i will get my call sign.

I want add one more point, here in ham radio every one is sharing their expertise without selflessness and without expecting in any kinds of benefits. So i got a guidelines at free of cost and i will also provide the same for those who needed.

If you have willingness to have a ham radio license feel free to drop your comment below. I will be happy to help.

A new journey as amateur radio operator (HAM) is about to begin.

Hello, friends…

Every body keep progressing and keep going in their life. From the my childhood i always prefers the way which differentiate my self from others. This is clearly visible by this blog, in my entire educational and social life have never meet a single person who do blog like me. May or may not be i am not that much efficient blogger but what ever i do it’s creates a memory in the mind of people.

And the journey of my life keeps going and i keep adding feather to my cap. Now the feather call HAM radio operator is about to embellish me.

If you don’t know what is amateur radio or HAM radio means i am simply attaching one of the famous documentary that will gives you some idea about the same, Just take a look on following video.

It’s about a 3 to 4 month i am continuously accruing  knowledge and information about the same and got too much insides as a beginner. With the help of my friend Mr. Jignesh doshi (VU2TPF), i was able to attain ASOC exam on 10th Dec 2021 at Hyderabad and followed by LARC-4 – Lamakaan Anual Radio Convention that is held on 11-12 Dec 2021. both convention and exam held at same  location , Gulham Azad Hall, Muffakham Jah College of Engineering & Technology (MJCET) Mount Pleasant, 8-2-249, Road No. 3, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, Telangana 500034.

Here is a some photos i have taken for my memory about the event and exam.

Becoming ham is a hobby that very few people have it, As per my research their is hardly near by 35000 licensed issued till date i am writing this post. Out of 138 crores people only few knows about it and out this few only some numbers of people takes interest about this hobbies. I am taking interest to this as i already mentioned that i love to differentiate my self from others.

Their is two type of license – 1. Restricted grade and 2. General grade. I have applied for the both and hopping for getting license of general grade as it allows me to use more power and more emission. I am now waiting for the exam result, once i receive the result i will begin my journey from SWL (Shortwave Listeners)to My own Call sign that might begin with VU2 or VU3, (VU- is represent India).

I am planning to share not only blogs but also a YouTube channels where i can share what ever i am leaning through this. I don’t want single topic to be missed on my blog or my channel. I want to grownup with my blog and I hope you guys are also with me. Thank you.  I will be right back after my result declares.

Now onwards, This blog will be in english only.

Hello there,

I am associated myself with blogging since 2009 its almost more than 12 years. Initially i have started blog like how to blog, widgets for blog, SEO and SMO. However with the life goes, my hobbies were stated moving on side and setting  up life gets on track and as a result, I was detached with hobbies but as like slow breathing, umeshkumar.org was a supporting system for it. Somehow I keep doing it in Gujarati language, Some of my previous blogs gets sold and some are got expired. But hobbies remains the same. All previous blog either about guided articles or event base blogs.

This blog is all about my life and my experiences. I stared this blog with the aim to write down everything that i see, learn, experience and thing about this world.  It’s like a mirror of my life. But words have a limit we can’t write everything as some time we don’t have words to explain or a time that don’t permit us to write everything.

So, Now let’s come to the point of this post that is I started writing this blog in English language.  In this world, we as a human being always gives priory to knowledge that we have got by our intellectual capabilities. You get much attention or say much higher respect if your knowledge helps to differentiate our self from others. and this knowledge gets sharpener as much as we try to be with it. I personally thinks English language is having more reach then Gujarati. I have started this blog before 4 years (it’s 2021), but noticed that reader are quite low.  There is not meaning of this blog if not a single person read it, So my primary motives behind this blog will not get finished until I found single person to whom I may help.

With this reason only, I am publishing my understanding about this world and lesion that I have learned. Human nature are so much complex that you must need some set of mind to deal with them or else you will be gets rerate at end after falling in to pit.

So, There is nothing like state forward math’s in the books of life. As the life changes my decision too gets changes. Now onwards all the blogs will be in English only.