I treated myself to a new transceiver from YAESU and also a HEIL headset.

First I will talk about the YAESU FT150e ASP pictured in my shack above. 

I picked this amazing radio up a couple of months ago and I have been using it a lot on both 2 meters FM and AM Airband. Yes it works on AM! 

Well it works on AM as long as it is RX mode. It actually transmits on 2m and 70cms FM as well as 220mhz and the PMR band. FM only.

 It's a fantastic radio, very easy to set up your favourite frequencies into allocated memory groups. It does it all for you once you enter and save a particular frequency. Simplified - Meaning it auto creates groups and organises them into labels under M-AIR, M-VHF, M-UHF, OTHER, M-GRP, M-ALL and VFO. 

This feature is great when auto scanning through, you have two separate VFO which can be configured to receive simultaneously full duplex on either cross band, the same band and also mixed modes AM and FM.

 I have been listening to AM AIR traffic into my local airport Leeds and Bradford International as well as monitoring the amateur radio FM 2 meter calling frequency at the same time.

 The radio has a decent receiver on both AM and FM and with the ASP function you can clean up the audio to make it sound cleaner than DMR even with a low signal. 

It also has a preamp called S-DX which when engaged brings the signal up by a couple of S-Points. The FTM150 has a band scope which is a full screen width, it is similar to the older band scopes seen on the other YAESU models like the FT-857. 

It's a pretty cool radio with 55 watts of punch and after comparing it to my FT-2980 which I also like I haven't seen any disadvantages of having 55 watts over 85 watts. 

I am using the radio with my mono band Diamond F23 antenna. The aircraft reception is amazing as is the range I am am recieving. 

I have the radio on whilst I track the aircraft with my Raspberry pi FlightAware 1090 Mhz station which shows all the data of each aircraft received including the distance. 

Overall 

I really am glad I bought the YAESU FTM150e ASP radio it's a fantastic bit of kit and since getting it my presence on the 2 meter FM band has gone way up! I'm enjoying myself on there again!

Other new toys for the shack include a HEIL headset which is the PRO 7 (Helicopter style).

Again a few quid spent but again very nice indeed. I got the headset to reduce my operating noise during late night DX sessions on my YAESU FTDX101mp.

 After a couple of EQ adjustments via the menu and I was setup ready for some late night action, I used the monitor feature to hear my own volume whilst talking and this helps to keep me from getting to loud when working exciting DX.

 The family do from time to time get fed up hearing the radio loud and me bellowing out "M0YKS" so with that in mind it was money well spent. I haven't had any complaints since lol.

My audio reports have been very pleasing with the PRO 7 HEIL headset and I have been able to use the M70 desk mic with the same audio setup so I can switch over as and when I need to. 

The bands have been reasonably good lately with plenty of choices from 80 up to 4m which I got to try out the other evening when I made a couple of QSO on 70 Mhz SSB for the very first time. 

The beauty part of Amateur radio - Always something new to do! 

Keep up the good work all! Happy Ham radio activities and best 73 good DX! See you back here for more blog updates sooner rather than later. Thanks for following!