maxlog M8900

[magnuman]

The recently released M8900's are not prototypes. This is what the production lines are churning out.
Certain purchasers have requested modifications to this basic design and pay extra for this. Consequently you need to buy from those re-sellers if you want the different features. You can't play too much with the basic physical design without incurring big costs..eg..change the display to a single rectangle. Heatsink is an add on, different crystal filter is add on, different quality microphone etc are all possible. Changes in the way the programming works is also possible but involves more time and testing. If the CB crowd cared a lot about CW then that would probably be looked at too but very little return on investment there. The main aim is to maximize return by adding features that users will want to pay more money for.

 

[magnuman]

M8900

The M8900 PBT in receive mode.

Maxlog M8900 10-12 meter Transceiver - YouTube

 

[vkrules]

Good vid Dave . Nice service to. Available for sale Tuesday in NZ Arrived in Brisbane Friday. Spent the last hour having a play. Nice sounding RX TX clean 40 watts ssb. Duster, testing CW, looks ok, what problems am I looking for?.PBT is real sweet in CW.SSb it's good but if you take it to far it introduces some carrier. The separate tx rx function Dave is having programmed in the next lot is a good idea.

 

[mechanic]

Antenna length

Just as a reminder that the 12 meter band is about a foot longer than the 1/4 wave for the 11 meterband. In metric it is 302 cm for 24.85 mHz and 273 cm for 27.45 mHz. Only a 3 inch (~10 cm) difference between 10 meters and 11 meters
This could be a bad time for high SWR on the 8900....

73 mechanic

 

[Mudfoot]

Antenna length

Just as a reminder that the 12 meter band is about a foot longer than the 1/4 wave for the 11 meterband. In metric it is 302 cm for 24.85 mHz and 273 cm for 27.45 mHz. Only a 3 inch (~10 cm) difference between 10 meters and 11 meters
This could be a bad time for high SWR on the 8900....

73 mechanic

Have you tried CW mode yet?

 

[mechanic]

Still waiting on the arrival, should be Monday or Tuesday.... First Item I will check after figuring it out is the CW mode!

73 mechanic

 

[magnuman]

VKrules...crusaders got beat by a point....Go the Tahs...
Have you tried the CW yet?
Cheers,
Dave

 

[vkrules]

Yes It seems to work fine on CW I sent several CQS as fast as I could as well as several dozen dits high speed while also listening on my 746 pro, all sounds good. The pbt works well on CW I spent a bit of time going up and down the band listening to the beacons and the PBT was a big help.Dont get me wrong the rx is to wide for any serious CW and the cw side tone is a little loud on tx,but for the casual user it's fine. I would appreciate a second opinion from a real CW op though.

 

[Mudfoot]

That sounds encouraging. I appreciate you taking the time to check it out. I wonder if the sidetone adjustment is labeled on the board?

 

[magnuman]

I think the side tone volume and perhaps the tone is in the menu somewhere

 

[mechanic]

Yes It seems to work fine on CW I sent several CQS as fast as I could as well as several dozen dits high speed while also listening on my 746 pro, all sounds good. The pbt works well on CW I spent a bit of time going up and down the band listening to the beacons and the PBT was a big help.Dont get me wrong the rx is to wide for any serious CW and the cw side tone is a little loud on tx,but for the casual user it's fine. I would appreciate a second opinion from a real CW op though.

I wonder if the PBT on receiver side will help narrow the CW?

73 mechanic

 

[mechanic]

Still waiting on the arrival, should be Monday or Tuesday.... First Item I will check after figuring it out is the CW mode!

73 mechanic

Tic Tock!

Hurricane hold up.....

 

[vkrules]

Found the sidetone vol item 24 (17 in the other version) in the menu BU, marked in the manual as prompt voice vol . Strangely, if the radio is already in cw it wont set ,have to change mode before entering menu ( this function only). sidetone frequency is item 16 (or 12 in the other version).The mic gain is set for each mode separately I raised mine slightly for AM and SSB and left fm at the default 28. It's trial and error, if you hit the tx you exit out of the menu you cant adjust while talking.

 

[vkrules]

A few more things I found. Straight out of the box my radio did 42 watt on 29 mhz and 55 on 24 mhz. Thats way to hot for this little radio. Turned mine down to 32 on 29 mhz. Dave's next batch I believe will have larger heat sinks .An other interesting thing there are 5 bands you can access by turning radio on while holding rb button .
band 1 freeband 10 x 40 ch d = us 40 . 25.615 to 30.105 in 10 kc steps
band 2 10 meter 9 x 40 + x1 5 kc steps, the +1 is good for stepping around the band without upsetting the chs( vfo style) 1,10 ,100 hz, 1kc or 10kc using the clarifier.
band 3 24.5 to 26.495 5 kc steps.
band 4 24.890 to 24.990 12 meter band. 5 kc steps
band 5 multi nz uk eur de us ut .de is interesting 80 chs
The clarifier can be used to change frequencies and off sets on all chs and will remain until you change it.
If you stuff up the ch plan while stepping around just reset the radio and it defaults back. Now for those of you who use echo ( I don't) bad news ,it's preset in the radio you can turn it on or off only. Wish they would do away with it.

 

[magnuman]

A few more things I found. Straight out of the box my radio did 42 watt on 29 mhz and 55 on 24 mhz. Thats way to hot for this little radio. Turned mine down to 32 on 29 mhz. Dave's next batch I believe will have larger heat sinks .An other interesting thing there are 5 bands you can access by turning radio on while holding rb button .
band 1 freeband 10 x 40 ch d = us 40 . 25.615 to 30.105 in 10 kc steps
band 2 10 meter 9 x 40 + x1 5 kc steps, the +1 is good for stepping around the band without upsetting the chs( vfo style) 1,10 ,100 hz, 1kc or 10kc using the clarifier.
band 3 24.5 to 26.495 5 kc steps.
band 4 24.890 to 24.990 12 meter band. 5 kc steps
band 5 multi nz uk eur de us ut .de is interesting 80 chs
The clarifier can be used to change frequencies and off sets on all chs and will remain until you change it.
If you stuff up the ch plan while stepping around just reset the radio and it defaults back. Now for those of you who use echo ( I don't) bad news ,it's preset in the radio you can turn it on or off only. Wish they would do away with it.

Hurry and get a FAN ON THAT HEAT SINK!!!