Members were greeted to a friendly message on the whiteboard thanks to Paul VK7FPCL – our wonderful Clubroom’s Officer who has been ensuring that everything is wiped down between meetings and keeping us COVID -safe with supplies. A huge thank you to Paul.
Last Wednesday night was a joint welcome back to the club rooms and Presentation Night on the ICOM IC9700 Experiences and Learnings. We had about 20 people along to the presentation in person and had over 20 on the streaming channel. It was a group effort with input from Rex VK7MO, Richard VK7ZBX, Hayden VK7HH, Alan VK7KAJ and Larry VK7WLH all of whom have IC-9700s.
A video of the presentation is available to the REAST Youtube channel – https://youtu.be/nYM5kgTF4SA.
Rex started with an outline of the IC-9700 functionality and comparison with the IC-910H. This led to whether you could effectively operate the rig out of the box. Some impressions where shared, the question of frequency stability was explored and the various GPS Locking options were explored with Rex, Alan and Hayden. Then Rex continued with 23cm operation, Digital/EME operation and Linear/Transverter operation.
Richard then took the audience through a comprehensive outline of using the IC-9700 for satellite operation including a recording taken of a contact with VK4MIR.
The presentation then moved to key configuration items that can be/need to be tweaked to improve including – Rex outlined the HM-36 Mic Mod and Hayden did a promo for his digital modes setup and firmware update videos.
Hayden then took the audience through the Remote Operating Software from ICOM – RA-BA1.
Larry finished up with a description of the WIN4ICOM software which also has remote control capability.
We then took questions from the audience and stream and retired to enjoy the clubrooms again!
Thanks to Rex VK7MO, Hayden VK7HH, Alan VK7KAJ, Richard VK7ZBX and Larry VK7WLH.
A great return to the clubrooms.
73, Justin VK7TW on behalf of the REAST Committee