Season’s greetings

Merry Christmas & a Happy 2026!

Radtel RT-950 Pro - Focus on APRS functionality

A radio that's currently extremely popular is the Radtel RT-950 Pro. In addition to 2 meters and 70 cm, this radio also transmits on 11 and 10 meters, and can receive all modes from long wave to 1 GHz. Of course, you'll need a suitable antenna. The price-performance ratio is excellent. Currently around €60, including shipping.

The display with its triple VFO/memory channels is large, making it a substantial radio. Radtel is also very active in releasing new firmware. This radio also has APRS on board; I tested it and it works fine. In the APRS menu, you need to specify which VFO you want to use APRS from. If you've done this correctly, you'll see the letters APRS appear on the right side of the display for the VFO in question (A, B, or C). I did discover a missing APRS functionality; receiving and sending messages is not possible. Hopefully, this will be resolved in a future firmware update. The TNC also doesn't work in KISS mode.

APRS mode is on, with APRS in yellow letters on the left, and the red icon means APRS Mute. This can be turned on or off in the APRS advanced menu.

Website up and running again!

 Last months i encountered a strange phenomenon on this website; it looked it was in a kind of loop.

No matter the type of browser; the issue looked the same.

Today i removed one of the configurable gadgets / widgets which was based on Java and xml.

That did the job, for now site is working as it should be.

Season’s Greetings.

 Wish you all a healthy 2025.

 PA0FRI SK

This weekend i heard the sad news that Frits PA0FRI passed away at the age of 83 years.

I knew Frits from early nineties and remember him as a real friendly ham operator willing to help many hams not only in the Netherlands but all over the world.

His famous website www.pa0fri.com with a lot of Frits’ knowledge will stay online as promised by his son.

Frits Geerligs PA0FRI is silent key. r.i.p.

 

APRS 144-145 MHz transceiver v2

 Designed by Robert PA2RK and published on PI4RAZ 

This transceiver can be build with a DRA818 and ESP32 as basis.

Locater via build in gps 

Contains preprogrammed repeater frequencies for the Netherlands

Configuration can be done via build in webserver, a quite easy and flexible way to change settings or parameters.

The aprs beacon works via rf and if availble wifi as well.

Nice and easy kit to build, see www.pi4raz.nl where you also can order the 2 pcb’s.

Touch display and DRA818 can be ordered at several Chinese webshops or ebay.

Updates from the shack.

Last year i sold my nanovna and replaced it with this nanovna-F v2

This unit has a solid enclosure, very clear screen and range till 3GHz.

A very nice pice of equipment for an affordable price.

From an estate i got this famous Yaesu FT-7 qrp transceiver from the seventies.

It’s still working fine, but i decided to perform a mod on the rx amplifier in order to reduce the gain which was too high. Mod can be found on PA0FRI website : www.pa0fri.com

Since this transceiver is modular build, it’s easy to take out pcb’s for service purposes.

 Also from the same estate i got this Bird 43 wattmeter which is almost like new.

Several slugs to swap for other power and or frequencies.

Very nice additions to my shack!