Ho Lee Chit

[NQ6U]

Those are seriously good professional quality radios, made by JRC.

[N8YX]

Those are seriously good professional quality radios, made by JRC.

I already have one, plus a bunch of the random-wire tuners. It was used as a bench mule for a S/W development place (as I understand...) so this unit had every accessory installed with the exception of the 1KHz RTTY filter. Just so happens I had one laying around.

Pop the case and look inside along with a JST-135 for comparison purposes. The only differences: Many -135 options (BWC, auto-notch, ECSS to name a few) aren't present in the -152, nor are they supported. The rig's Loop1 Unit came standard with an OCXO (optional for JRC's consumer products line) and the front panel along with the Control/Display Unit is different. Function keys instead of knobs.

JRC offered a transceive package (CFQ-3003) for connecting an NRD-525 to a JST-135. There's an RS-232 Sync cable, Antenna cable and a control cable which allows the transceiver to mute the receiver on transmit. I was going to use the -152's RS-232 board to facilitate full (tracking) transceive with a -135/-525 pair but on second thought I think I'm going to dedicate the -152 to FT8 and digi-modes usage. flrig/fldigi already offer native support and I'm pretty sure wsjt-x does as well. If not I'll fork the source and write a protocol driver for it.

The control cable which came in the -3003 kit doesn't offer much in the way of extra connectivity to the outside world for either the transceiver or receiver so before I packed my lab/shack up for the move last year I built a couple variants. One has an interconnect for a Kantronics KAM. The other is more genericized but permits connection to an external TU and other station peripherals. That one I'm planning to use with the -152 as it'll interface directly with a Signalink. There's an NRD-525 w/ EdVis PLAM board and optional filters specifically tailored for SWBC reception that I'm planning to pair with the Raytheon and connect via this cable. Marine radios typically get a thumbs-down for the audio quality of their onboard speakers but the -152's is actually pretty decent. So much so that I'm going to route the companion -525's audio to it via that custom cable. I can tune around HF with it and let the computer control the -152, and a Mute key on the front silences the transceiver if desired.

Back to the QDX: Are you planning on using an external antenna tuner with it - and if so, what?

[NQ6U]

I already have one, plus a bunch of the random-wire tuners. It was used as a bench mule for a S/W development place (as I understand...) so this unit had every accessory installed with the exception of the 1KHz RTTY filter. Just so happens I had one laying around.

Well, yeah, I mean, who doesn’t have a 1KHz RTTY filter laying around the shack, right?

Back to the QDX: Are you planning on using an external antenna tuner with it - and if so, what?

I am planning on an external tuner but I haven’t decided on which one yet. I enjoyed building the QDX so much that I’d like to build another kit but so far I haven seen one that really tickles my fancy. They are simple enough to design and build from scratch but I don’t much enjoy gathering parts from all over the globe via mail and the San Diego HRO closed last month.

I have a NOS Icom AH-4 automatic tuner up in my storage locker but there’s no way to interface it to the QDX as far as I can figure, at least not without some fancy intermediary circuitry (see above, re: gathering parts).

[N8YX]

Well, yeah, I mean, who doesn’t have a 1KHz RTTY filter laying around the shack, right?

I bought out Rob Sherwood's 525/535 inventory. Many, many things came along with that haul. If Islanders need a part or board for one of those rigs I may have it.

I have a NOS Icom AH-4 automatic tuner up in my storage locker but there’s no way to interface it to the QDX as far as I can figure, at least not without some fancy intermediary circuitry (see above, re: gathering parts).

You are correct. In addition to the Tune command, the AH- series random wire tuners use a serial data interface between rig and tuner to set the band/memories. As do their JRC equivalents.

One that doesn't is an SGC Smartuner. Just apply RF and it figures out the rest. Might sell/swap your AH-4 for the SGC version.