[SECC] Phone SS comments+ MFJ 434

[Ed Sleight]

Want to add a couple of comments to Dave's, K4JRB regarding my voice
keyer. Think K4BAI mentioned this also.

After 2 days of calling MFJ, posting on the internet, some kind soul
finally sent me the color coding for the output line to the rig. MFJ was
supposed to ship the unit with a plus installed, but mine got here with
a spare 8 pin plug and the cable cut off. Spent 1.5 hours on the phone
with their Tech Support to no avail. They did not know the color coding.
I kept asking, "Take one and remove the mike shell....but they said that
was not a practice.

Incidentally, for the kind soul who did send me the info, green is NOT
the PTT line. It is Black. White is the audio hot and the bare stranded
wire is ground. Since it's obviously working for him, can't say much
except Green might be the VOX wire. The OMNI VI+ has a 4 pin mic
connection for hot audio, PTT, ground, and +4 vdc for those mics that
need voltage. MFJ in the manual specifically said not to use the chassis
ground for the audio in ground, but I didn't have a choice. Anyway, in
testing the unit with "CQSS K4SB" before the contest, my several
contacts were unable to tell me which one was me and which was the
keyer. Absolutely no hum or other problems. I had the above in the #5
slot, and "B K4SB CHECK 55 GA" in #4. The unit has 5 messages capability
and I could have used 1 and 2 for it. OK, for remote control the thing
has an 8 pin connector on the back, and of course, MFJ does not supply
the male connector. But, I discovers that the small power supply cable
used to power the floppy drives is an almost exact match. You have to
file down the ears, but once that is done, 2 of them will give you wires
off all 8 pins. Spent about an hour destroying an old 3 button mouse I
had laying around, and wired the left button to #5 message and the right
to #4. It's simple, just cut all the pcb leads from the center contact
on the mouse, and hook your mouse wires to the message you want + a wire
from the common ground in the mouse to the GND of the 8 pin socket.

MFJ is on my s*** list right now. I bought a brand new T2X from them,
the thing didn't work, I opened up the rotor and it looked like someone
had dumped a trash can in it. Filthy with small bits of left over wire,
dirt, and dust. Plus some of the bearings had rust spots. Needless to
say, a call to the VP of Hy-Gain ( they are still running them as
separate divisions ) got me a completely new set of bearings, grease,
and a new control box the next day. Cleaned it up, put it together and
with the new box, it took off like a bandit. Incidentally, I wound up
not using it ( repaired an older one which needed a new drive gear, so,
it's brand new in the box, never used, and available at a substantial
discount if anyone's interested.

All in all, I would recommend the 434, but make sure it's got a mic
connector on it. Internal jumpers let you select Yaesu ( default ),
Kenwood of Icom. Takes about a min to set them.

If nothing else, the very fact I never once called CQ except with the
keyer made it worth while.

Hope this helps

Nice going guys..

73
Ed

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