Well i couldn't resist it. What with a TH-D7 mk2 just out on the market, i had to go dig out an old mk1 from the junk box i bought a long way back. If i remember rightly i had probs with it back then tnc wise. However, once it was in my mind i had to try it.

Basically, all i wanted to do was tx my position so that the nearest repeater would put me about until i appeared on the asps.fi map which i have on my home page.

I found the power supply and manual and even found the pc lead. This surprised me as all were in seperate boxes. Wish i would keep things together *sigh*.

Anyway i got it all configured and connected it to my hb9cv and fired it up, and up, and up. It tx'd ok, but no sign of me on the map. I eventually gave up on that and put it away. Only to get it out again so as to try running my old Ui-View prog. Once again i laid my hands on an old disc that contained not only the prog, but all the files to get Merlin speaking out stations and some maps of my area i used in the past.

Anyway, got it all loaded up and running. Well Ui-View was ok but trying to get it to talk to the rig!. I tried every configuration that i could but it just wouldn't fire up when told to. If both were talking to each other, going into options and reloading the serial port config box should trigger the first beacon message. Unfortunately, although Merlin placed an icon on the map and announced my call sign, this was local to my computer. In other words the rig was not listening to Ui-View and didn't tx.

Had to admit defeat in the end, so there was another couple of hours wasted. If i had made it to Portsdown hill it would have given me incentive to eventually go for the Mk2. Would have been nice to go pedestrian mobile as the reviewer seems to have done in PW. But looking at the screen shot he provided, there is a fixed station only a few streets from his loacation so it's no wonder he was fed to the internet. Would 5 watts on a rubber duck get me from Southampton city for instance, to Portsdown hill i wonder. Being as how tight money is, is it better to play safe and to stick with my original idea of an SDR radio?.

Oh well, back to bc listening. Have to get something in the log.

22:50 and cream crackered. That's it. Night all 73