New to me ICOM IC706Mk2 to HF + 2M radio pt2

New to me ICOM IC706Mk2 to HF + 2M radio pt2

I have been in contact with Steve from XGGcomms, who understood my issue perfectly. The 706MK2 uses different pins to PTT HF and VHF. Pins 3 and 7 consecutively. He provided the below chart and advised me to ‘get out my soldering iron’ and insert a jumper connecting the two pins inside the plug covering and thus PTT will trigger regardless of band now - and that’s just what I did

I placed a short jumper about 10mm long connecting the pins

Time for a test!

While still getting to know the radio, I broke out mu portable pi and set about getting direwolf talking to the radio on 2M FM with PTT via RTS signals. Worked.

Lessons learned for others:

1. Digital modes (normally conducted on USB) should be set to RTTY mode on the 706MK2, while FM modes such as APRS/Packet should use FM. Again using RTS for PTT signal.

2. The radio is a thirsty beast drawing around 2A - make sure your power source will last long enough for testing, my small 1S 4 Cell LIFEPO4 battery was nearly dead by the end of the testing.

My QRO portable digital setup

The picture above shows my full set up now: IC706Mk2, GPS for location and timing, CAT, AUDIO, PTT interface from XGGCOMMS, and a small usb sound card to feed to brain of the whole thing - a raspberry pi 3B+ - A far cry from its first iteration: http://wadeabout.com/blog/portable-pi-update-new-capabilities

New to me ICOM IC706Mk2 to HF + 2M radio

New to me ICOM IC706Mk2 HF-2M radio

I have been playing with my new to me IC706Mk2 with a primary view to use as my high power portable station, including digital modes using the raspberry pi set up.

So far I have got the sweet light weight XGGCOMS ICOM interface with CAT (which is my preferred supplier for portable set ups) talking with the radio with PTT on HF, but I can't seem to get the radio to PTT on the 2M side of things.

Also I have managed to snap the tongue off the RJ45 connection on the mic, so I have ordered another from QSL Comms in Queensland.

Plans for the 706MK2

A fully capably high power portable rig (HF 100w, 2M 20W), that I can take on car camping and shorter summit hike activating that will give me full HF and 2M access for SSB and Digital operation. My normal Pi set ups give me WINLINK (email over RF), APRS (40m HF and 2M FM), JS8 for keyboard QSOs

References:

http://wadeabout.com/blog/js8-and-its-use-in-the-field-a-presentation-i-gave-to-my-local-radio-club

http://wadeabout.com/blog/satellite-aprs-for-the-backpacker-pt2

http://wadeabout.com/blog/a-vhf-winlink-g