Biography

Located in Sugar Hill, GA

Currently Amateur Extra Class license, ARRL VE, W5YI VE, GARS (Gwinnett Amateur Radio Society) member, GARS Newsletter (GARzette) Editor.

Equipment: IC-705 with an Xiegu 125B amplifier & built-in antenna tuner, Heathkit HA-202 (2M amplifier) and TekPower TP30SWII power supply. Antennas are an Ultimax DXtreme 32' and a Diamond Antenna X300A for 144/440. I also have an HT AnyTone AT-D878UV-BT V2 that I use when helping GARS events and also for its DMR capabilities. I am a fan of its bluetooth capability. I use a bluetooth headset for both the DMR HT and the IC-705. The headset for the AnyTone is the Q8 AnyTone headset -- it will last all day and it has a button that will initiate the HT transmit from the headset -- a really nice feature to have it all in the headset.

The Icom IC-705 is my newest addition. With Xeigu amp it serves as my base station. It is light on the 2m and 70cm band -- and that is why I added the HA-202 2M amp to get to the GARS repeater for the weekly nets. On HF, it is a big improvement over my previous Icom IC-7000 rig for both noise reduction and especially the waterfall display. However, the integration of the IC-705 and Xiegu 125B needed some additions.

First off was the PTT relay that connects to the Xiegu using the 6 pin data cable. Next is the band switching of the Xiegu (it supports it with voltage level setting to the 6 pin data cable). I was on a several month quest to find a unit to do the automatic band switching -- the Xiegu can be destroyed if it is on the wrong band when transmitting and without the auto-switching it is a manual operation that goes from 160m to 6M one by one -- surprising how often I go in the other direction on the IC-705 and had to cycle thru the list. I found a person (David Gunn, KA5WAM) that built one using an Arduino Nano 33 iot. After many attempts to get the Arduino programmed myself, David did it for me and now I have it between the Xiegu and IC-705 -- it connects via bluetooth to the IC-705 and uses the 6 pin data cable to the Xiegu. It now happily switches bands as I tune the IC-705.

I also use a DMR duplex hotspot that was made by Roy W3BAY -- he did a great job and set it up with my home wWiFi and DMR ID, so it was really easy to get up and using it. I got it in the afternoon, opened it in the evening, and in less than 1 hour, I was using it. I was able (with help from Mark KN2TOD) to get the hotspot to boot from a USB drive insteat of from the SD Card. Still operates the same and I did it to have a more robust drive in case of power failures -- and also to just see if I could do it!

I have my 2m & 70CM antenna mounted on the corner of my backyard gazebo (a Diamond X300A.

The Ultimax antenna's mounting is a little unconventional -- it is strung around about 50% of the gazebo -- thru roof rafter holes that are drilled on the ends but under the roof. So far I am happy with its propagation, and it is there to keep it unobtrusive, not because of an HOA, but to keep Sharon (wife) happy. My shack was outside in a gazebo and just moved inside -- running wires into the house.

My shack shares a guest bedroom, so when we have guests, my ham radio activities are curtailed.

I used a QRM-180 unit to reduce the QRM with my IC-7000 (it was replaced with the IC-705). It is particularly bad on 80 & 40 meters. It was finished in November 2019. With the IC-705, I no longer need it and it is sitting idle.

Some history:

Originally I am from WI and after college went to work at Bell Labs. From there ended up in FL working for Siemens which gave me the opportunity to work in Munich for 8 years. After several other moves, I settled in GA. Most of my background is in telecommunications defining the requirements for systems. My last position was doing the same thing for prepaid gift cards. I joined the group of retired in 2022.

I had my first ham technician license in the 60s and let it expire. I was following in my father's footsteps whose call sign was W9CQO which was taken over by the Ozaukee Radio Club. I decided to get back into it almost 50 years later and was grandfathered into a general license in 2018. I wanted to honor my father so I took my vanity sign that also included the CQO. I still use his phonetics of Charlie Queen Ocean. Not feeling like I was up to date, I earned my extra about 3 months later. The GARS club has been instrumental is my getting involved with the hobby again.

Name: Bob Hoffmann

Equipment

Icom 705, Xiegu 125B amp, Arduino for band switching, AnyTone 878 V2+, duplex hotspot