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Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark V and NaP3This paper describes in detail the hardware and software required to implement a full-function panadaptor for the Mark V using NaP3.

Issues in using NaP3 with the Mark V

I've tried most of the available SDR software that offers a panadaptor capability and none come close to NaP3 in terms of function and usability. However, there are some problems that must be dealt with:

1. NaP3 doesn't support the FT-1000MP Mark V – only later Yaesu transceivers. The Mark V CAT command set is different from that of later Yaesu rigs such as the FT-950, 2000 and 5000.

2. LP-Pan doesn't reach the VHF first IF frequency of the Mark V (70.455 MHz).

3. There is no first IF output tap built into the Mark V. Some have used the second IF (8.215 MHz) for the source of the panadaptor signal, but the Mark V has a roofing filter in the first IF that limits the bandwidth to approximately 12 Khz and that's unacceptable for my requirements.

4. Tapping the first IF requires some sort of buffer amplifier that isolates the IF stage from the equipment attached to the tap. For years we've used the Z10000B buffer amp from Clifton Laboratories, but as of this writing (12/27/15), they're not currently making the Z10000B.

To circumvent some of these issues, some have used a down converter to get the IF signal down into a

Illustration 1: Panadaptor in operation

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range supported by either LP-Pan or inexpensive SDR kits. I went through that exercise in 2008 and had an operational panadaptor, but the various pieces of hardware and software available at that time proved difficult to keep in working order. I also tried the approach of splitting the Receive antenna output on the rear of the Mark V, feeding the antenna to the Mark V via the Receive antenna input and to an SDR-IQ receiver. While that provided basic function, I found that the SDR-IQ was not as sensitive as the Mark V on 10 and 12 meters, so there were signals that could be heard but not seen on the display. On 20 meters, the SDR-IQ fed a white noise signal back in to the receiver, masking weakersignals. Also, the SDR-IQ and associated SpectraVue software did not support VFO-B of the Mark V.

The Funcube Dongle Pro+

After reading about the recent Funcube Dongle Pro+, I decided to give it a try with the Mark V. That became the basis of a successful implementation and that's what I'll describe here. The Funcube covers150 kHz to 240 MHz and 420 MHz to 1.9 GHz and the sample rate is 192 kHz. It's completely self-contained, with an SMA connector for the input and a USB connector for the output and it's powered from the USB connection. The Funcube replaces LP-Pan and the sound card that you would normally use with NaP3 or other panadaptor software. You can find out more about the Funcube Dongle Pro+ here:

www.funcubedongle.com

The Funcube dongle is completely different from the cheap RTL dongles and they are Not interchangeable. Panadaptor software typically supports one or the other, but not both.

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NaP3 supports the Funcube Dongle Pro+ directly. Note that NaP3 does NOT support the RTL dongles and they are not compatible with the Funcube dongle.

Installing the first IF tap

Some time ago, Jack Smith of Clifton Laboratories provided detailed information on installing the IF tap in the FT-1000MP. Jack's information is still available here:

http://www.cliftonlaboratories.com/z10000-u_buffer_amp_and_ft-1000mp.htm

Illustration 2: Funcube Dongle Pro+.

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Installation in the Mark V is nearly identical, but component IDs changed in the Mark V, particularly the IF transformer numbers. Illustration 1 shows the first IF strip in the Mark V. The signal tap will be made between T1008 and T1009 on the underside of the board. The crystals XF1001 and XF1002 and associated transformers make up the first IF “roofing” filter which has a bandpass of approximately 12 Khz. The IF signal tap is placed before this filter, so we will be able to view the full 192 Khz passband provided by the Funcube dongle and NaP3.

Since the Z10000B buffer amp is currently not available, I searched for a substitute and located a similar unit made by G4HUP, called the G4HUP Panoramic Adaptor Tap Board. You can read all the details about the product here: g4hup.com/PAT.com

Dave sells the boards preassembled and tested at a reasonable price and has an agent in the U.S. who ships the board and associated components. I ordered one of the PAT 70M boards, and it arrived in just

Illustration 3: Mark V first IF strip

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a few days. I also ordered one of his GSIK (generic socket installation kit) which included the SMA socket, associated mounting hardware, and teflon coax cable. Overall size of the board is approximately 1.6” x 1”.

Illustration 3 shows where the signal tap installs in the IF strip schematic.

The first IF strip resides on the RF board, which is mounted on the left side of the main chassis. In order to access it, you must remove the three top cabinet covers and the bottom of the cabinet. You'll have to disconnect the red and black speaker wires in order to remove the front top cabinet piece.

Next, remove the blower assembly (leave all wires connected and move it out of the way) and then remove the final amplifier and heat sink assembly. If you place a thick book behind the heat sink, you can tilt the heat sink backwards and lay it upside down on the book without disconnecting any wires.

Now, disconnect the small coaxial cables from the RF board and remove the ribbon cable from the connector on the right side of the board near the rear. Careful here – the ribbon has no connector itself and just inserts into the board connector. You can pry the top edge of the connector up on each side of the cable and then you can pull the cable out of the connector using your fingers.

The metal shield that runs around the left, front and right side of the RF board is separate from the board and is fastened to the board with the same screws that fasten the board down. Remove all the

Illustration 4: IF tap point. The coax used at the tap point may detune the IF transformers slightly and they must be repeaked as described.

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board mounting screws and you should then be able to slide the board forward enough for the connectors to clear the rear panel holes. At that point, the board is clear and can be removed from the chassis.

The shield closes the space between the board and the chassis and we have to make a slight opening to accommodate the coax cable used for the tap. I used an Adel nibbling tool to cut a notch as seen in Illustration 3.

The next illustration shows where we'll connect the coaxial tap.

Illustration 5: The RF board is shown bottom side up here so you can see the position of the shield notch in relation to the tap point.

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Jack Smith recommended that the coax between the tap point and the buffer amp be limited to no more than 20mm to make sure that the IF transformers could be re-peaked without a problem. The next illustration shows the coax installed on the board. After this coax is installed, you can attach the other end to the pads on the G4HUP board.

Dave, G4HUP, suggests that a single wire be used instead of the coax to connect the board to the tap point as he is concerned about detuning the IF transformers with the capacitance of the coax. If you choose to go that way, make sure you provide a good ground for the G4HUP board.

Illustration 6: The hot side of the coax goes to the Tap point and the coax shield is attached to the Ground point.

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Here we see the shield notch and the G4HUP board attached to the RF board tap coax.

Illustration 7: Make sure to use teflon coax for the tap. The outer jacket you see here is about 1/2" long.

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I chose to mount the G4HUP board as shown here in order to keep the length of the connecting coax to a minimum. The yellow wire supplies 13.8V to the board and as Jack Smith suggested, I sourced the 13.8V at the load side of the glass fuse on the RF board that supplies the rear-panel 13.8V accessory jack. The fuse will protect receiver circuits should you accidentally ground the 13.8V line when you install the board. Here's a photo of the fuse location. You can solder the wire to a fuse terminal on the bottom of the board nearest the rear panel.

Illustration 8: The yellow wire supplies 12V to the G4HUP board (see text).

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The 13.8V supply wire is routed along the right side of the RF board and tied it to the other cable bundles running along that side.

The provided SMA connector is mounted on the rear panel between the power connector and the linear on/off switch. Drilling the three required holes in proper alignment in the thin steel cabinet isn't the easiest task.

Illustration 9: This is the accessory fuse. Connect the G4HUP + terminal to the fuse on the end of the fuse nearest the rear panel.

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Here's what the connector looks like inside the Mark V. A small solder lug is provided with the GSIK kit and you should position that lug so that you have a minimum of the inner conductor exposed.

Illustration 10: Mounting location for the SMA connector on the Mark V rear panel

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Use a center punch (spring loaded variety) to mark the drilling locations on the rear panel. It's a good idea to place a terry cloth rag inside the chassis around the hole locations to catch any drill debris and make sure to vacuum the area when finished.

After the SMA connector is mounted on the rear panel, you can reinstall the RF board. Route the wire from the fuse to the right top side of the board with the other cable bundles. Reinstall the shield and make sure that it's installed exactly as it was originally. Install all the coax connectors and the ribbon cable. Carefully insert the ribbon cable into the connector, making sure it's at the depth it was before you removed it. Then push down on the edges of the connector at each end of the cable, locking it in place.

Illustration 11: SMA jack mounting on the rear panel.

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Here's how it looks with the RF board reinstalled.

G4HUP supplies a piece of white paper with adhesive backing used to insulate the bottom of the board from the chassis. After the RF board is remounted on the chassis, secure the G4HUP board to the chassis using a piece of double sided foam tape between the board and chassis.

At this point, I suggest powering up the Mark V and making sure that everything works as it did before.Next, check the alignment of the two IF transformers, T1008 and T1009. To do that, use a signal generator to inject a signal into the Mark V antenna jack and adjust the two transformers to peak the signal. Use the Mark V S-meter for peak indication (AGC in FAST position). I found that there was

Illustration 12: RF board has been reinstalled and the G4HUP board secured to the chassis with a bit of double sided tape

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very little adjustment required. When adjusting the transformers, make sure to use a plastic tool - no metal. If you don't have an alignment tool that fits the slugs, you can shape one from an existing tool using a utility knife.

At this point, the Mark V modification is complete.

The Big Picture

Now a few words on how things fit together. The Funcube Dongle Pro+ connects to the modified MarkV using a short piece of coax with an SMA connector at each end. If you don't want to construct the cable yourself, ready-made cables are available on eBay or other sources at a very reasonable price. The connector on the Funcube is a for a USB cable to connect to your PC. While it's possible to just plug the dongle into a PC USB slot and run a longer piece of coax from the dongle to the Mark V, I elected to keep the 70 MHz signal cable short as possible and used a USB extension cable from the dongle to the PC.

The Funcube appears to NaP3 as a PC sound card and you have to tell NaP3 you're using a Funcube asthe source device and identify the input device in the Sound Card section. Here's what a properly configured Funcube looks like:

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Hit the Calibrate button and set the gain for around +5 dB.

Next, you must configure the Funcube dongle by pressing the Configure button shown in Illustration 13. Set the IF frequency to 70461000. The Mark V IF frequency is 70455000 and setting the frequency to 70461000 will move any zero frequency spike 6 kHz to the left on the display so it won't normally interfere with your view.

Make sure that LNA Enable and Mixer Gain are NOT checked, and set the IF gain to zero as shown. With those gain settings, you'll still be able to see even the weakest signals you can hear and you won't run into IMD problems on a band full of strong signals. IMD will show up as phantom signals that can be seen on the display, but not heard in the receiver.

Illustration 13: NaP3 configuration for the Funcube Dongle Pro+

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Now you can close the NaP3 configuration window, hit RUN and view the Mark V IF on the NaP3 display.

Solving the CAT problem

NaP3 doesn't support the Mark V directly as it supports only the more recent Yaesu CAT protocol used by the FT-950, 2000, 5000, etc. What's needed is a way to convert the Mark V CAT protocol to something supported by NaP3 and also a method of sharing the Mark V com port with NaP3 and your logging program. If you use the DXLab suite for logging, there's a simple solution that offers basic function and allows you access to the Mark V com port for both NaP3 and DXLab. For full function and use of other logging programs, I'll describe a more comprehensive solution.

For the first solution, you will need to provide a pair of linked virtual COM ports to serves as a pathway between NaP3 and DXLab Commander and you can accomplish that using VSPE, VSP Manager or other similar product. I used VSP Manager to create a pair of ports, 12 and 13, that are logically connected. In Commander, I specified port 13 as the Secondary CAT Serial Port and specifiedthe Elecraft protocol. At the NaP3 end, I specified the rig as an Elecraft K2 on port 12. With that configuration, Commander and NaP3 both think they're talking to a K2.

Now, any changes made to the Mark V frequency at the Mark V front panel or the NaP3 display or the Commander window are reflected at the other locations. If you mouse on a signal seen on the NaP3 display, the Mark V is immediately set to that frequency. If the Mark V is tuned with the knob, the NaP3 display and Commander readout follows.

Illustration 14: Configuration for the Funcube dongle driver

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Commander provides an additional function that was formerly provided by K6SE's MPFILTER program. On the right side of the Commander window the currently selected IF filter for both second and third Ifs is displayed. You can select any available filter for either IF from pull-down lists and can select combinations that are not available from the front panel of the Mark V. You can also select the current Sub-receiver filter.

Issues

There are a couple of unresolved issues with NaP3 in this configuration. NaP3 apparently does not detect the IF filter width in use on the Mark V, and the mode is not always properly interpreted. The result is that you may change modes on the Mark V and find that the bandwidth shadow on the NaP3 display is not appropriate for the mode or bandwidth selected. To correct the problem, you can change modes or filter widths with the NaP3 buttons and you'll get the proper display.

Another concern I had was the possible center spike seen with many sound cards. In the past, I found that I was never able to completely eliminate the spike using the DC Block feature of NaP3. When I examined the problem using the Funcube Dongle, the spike was indeed there as you can see in this illustration:

Illustration 15: Pull-down lists seen as 2nd IF and 3rd IF can be used to select any installed filters

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The remaining spike is seen to be a bit fuzzy compared to the spike you will see with a LP-Pan / soundcard setup and NaP3.

When I set DC Block on in NaP3, the spike was reduced considerably as seen in the next photo.

Illustration 16: On the left is the zero crossing spike, moved 6 kHz to the left of center. The strength is -73 dB on the NaP3 scale

Illustration 17: DC Block reduced the spike 53 dB according to the NaP3 scale

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An alternative solution for NaP3 support of the FT-1000MP CAT protocol

Testing is complete on a new software interface that provides support for the FT-1000MP Mark V communicating to NaP3 and logging software. This program, known as “Mark V”, translates the FT-1000MP CAT protocol to that of the Elecraft K2. So, the FT-1000MP is defined to NaP3 and the logging program as a K2 and both programs are able to talk to the simulated K2 simultaneously with nointerference. All functions essential to using a panadaptor with the FT-1000MP are supported and the transceiver frequency (VFO-A and B), mode, bandwidth are all communicated to the other locations when changed at any other location. Mousing on a DX spot in the logging program will cause the transceiver's VFOs to be properly set along with the mode.

In addition, Mark V incorporates the function of the MPFilters program by K6SE (sk), allowing the user to select IF filter combinations not possible from the transceiver front panel. A document describing the functions and operation of the program is available at www.k8ac.net .

Conclusions

The modified Mark V with the Funcube Dongle Pro+ and NaP3 provides a first class panadaptor that isfar superior to the spectrum scopes found in even the most expensive transceivers. The G4HUP board is a worthy replacement for the Z10000B from Clifton Laboratories. NaP3 remains the best panadaptorsoftware available, even with the lack of direct support for the FT-1000MP Mark V. NaP3 to Mark V CAT communications can be achieved using DXLab, or the fuller function Mark V software, available free from K8AC.

Floyd Sense – K8AC

West Jefferson, NC

January 31, 2016

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