Author: Kris – KZ7K

  • Worked All States (WAS): How to Track and Claim It

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. Worked All States, usually just called WAS, is one of the most approachable awards in the hobby, and it is a genuinely satisfying long-term goal for anyone who operates HF regularly, without needing rare DX or contest-level effort to complete. What the Award Actually Requires WAS requires…

  • FTX-1 Optima vs IC-7300 Mark II: Which One Should Live In Your Shack

    I run both the Yaesu FTX-1 Optima and the Icom IC-7300 Mark II. Here’s how they actually compare on connectivity, heat during FT8, portability, and VHF/UHF coverage.

  • LoRa APRS: A Different Take on Long-Range Tracking

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. LoRa APRS blends two technologies that most hams already know separately, traditional APRS and LoRa radio hardware, into something that behaves a bit differently from either one on its own. How It Differs From Traditional APRS Standard APRS runs on 144.390 MHz in the US using AFSK-modulated…

  • Getting Started with JS8Call: Setup and Your First Contacts

    Part of our Getting On The Air guide. JS8Call takes the weak-signal decoding strength that made FT8 popular and points it at a completely different goal: real keyboard-to-keyboard conversation over HF, not just a quick exchange of signal reports. How It Differs From FT8 FT8 is built around a rigid, automated exchange format, callsigns, grid…

  • MARS/CAP Mods on the Yaesu FT-857D: What They Actually Do and Where the Legal Line Sits

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. What a MARS/CAP Mod Actually Is I cover what a MARS/CAP mod actually is, the DoD and Civil Air Patrol programs behind it, and the legal reality of transmitting on the frequencies it unlocks in What Is a MARS/CAP Mod? The short version for the 857D…

  • The FT-857D as a Shack in a Box: Why It’s One of My Favorite SHTF Radios

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. One Box, Every Band You’d Actually Need When I think through what a grab-and-go radio needs to do in an actual SHTF scenario, the list is short: reach the local repeater network, monitor and work HF for anything past line of sight, and do it all…

  • Taming the FT-857D’s Menu: A Practical Cheat Sheet

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. Why This Radio’s Menu Fights You The 857D packs a genuinely deep set of features into a single-line display and a numbered menu tree, which was a reasonable design in its day and hasn’t aged gracefully. Settings are grouped by number rather than by plain-language category,…

  • Getting the Yaesu FT-857D on FT8 with WSJT-X

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. What You Actually Need The FT-857D predates USB audio interfaces, so getting it onto FT8 means bridging two separate connections: a CAT cable for rig control and a sound card interface for audio in and out. A USB sound card interface like a Digirig handles both…

  • FT-857D CAT Control Setup with Ham Radio Deluxe

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. The Physical Connection CAT control on the FT-857D runs through the Mini-DIN CAT jack on the rear panel, not the DATA jack used for digital mode audio. You’ll need a CAT cable with a USB-to-serial adapter on the computer end, since the radio predates native USB.…

  • Common FT-857D Problems and How to Fix Them

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. ALC Clipping and Power Foldback on 40 Meters This is the complaint that comes up most in FT-857D circles: power output drops or the ALC meter spikes and clips specifically on 40 meters, even though other bands sound fine. It’s a well-documented calibration drift issue tied…

  • Buying a Used FT-857D: What to Check

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. There Are No New Ones Left Yaesu discontinued the FT-857D in 2020. Every unit on the market today, whether it’s a dealer’s used listing or a private sale, is coming from someone’s shack or go-bag, not a warehouse. That changes how you should shop for one.…

  • Yaesu FT-857D vs FT-891, G90, FTX-1 Field, FTX-1 Optima, IC-7300 Mark II, and FT-817: Where Each One Actually Wins

    Part of our The Yaesu FT-857D: The Complete Guide. I get asked constantly how the FT-857D stacks up against the rest of the radios in my shack and go-bags, so here’s the honest rundown of where each one wins and where it doesn’t. Quick disclosure up front: I own and regularly use the FT-891, the…

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