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Replacement fan for TM-D710In the first months after I bought my TM-D710 the original fan starts making a screaming noise when I put on the radio. After about one minute it seems like it gain enough traction and became a bit less noisy, and only turns on when I transmit. Since I use my TM-D710 in my home office primarily , it still is too loud.
Recently I subscribed to a Yahoogroup for the Kenwood TM-D710/V71. One of the threads that popped in my mailbox was one about changing the stock fan for a more silent one. I ordered the SilenX Ixtrema IXP-11-14 from Freezing Hardware for a whopping 14 euro’s.
The old fan was out in a breeze, the new one in place in a minute. Only thing I had to do was change the original connector. Since all three wires of the SilenX are silver, it was a bit of gamble which one to pick. When I connected the radio for a test run I came to the conclusion I used the wrong wires. No sound of a running fan at all. Not even when I was transmitting. Fortunately I did put my hand in front of the fan before rewiring it and noticed that it did suck air in. When I took a good look, it turns out the fan was running, but without noticeable sound! Unbelievable what a difference! Now I can listen to the local repeater at the lowest volume without a screaming fan every time APRS push out a packet.

I also use my TM-D710 in the car from time to time. Of course the fan noise is not a big problem in the car where other noises are more dominant. But less noise in the car isn’t a bad thing at all.

Impression of the modification:

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RentreeAfter a few months blog-less, here is my rentree! I got many many responses from people who love to read my blog-posts. It didn’t show from the statistics but I entertain more readers with this blog then I realized.
With this rentree I decided to dive into the world of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Maybe when I shape my articles more SEO-friendly, I get more readers who find them. When I read into this SEO-stuff, I realize I didn’t wrote optimal before. Maybe that explains my low statistics before. I do like to write and think my subjects must be interesting for more readers then are able to find it.

I did try to use twitter in the meantime for some online presence. I experienced a lack of possibilities to write stories about subjects I’m working on. Not even my YouTube-channel and Flickr-account could help in the demand to write longer articles. I think what I’m trying to say is:

my blog is back online. Stay tuned for new content!

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This weekend I entered the ARRL DX CW contest. It started out as a challenge to score 100 Q’s. But actually it went quite well and I just closed N1MM with 350 Q’s in the log. It was a nice picture to see all the American and Canadian amateurs all lined op in my band monitor. The propagation was quite good so I got a habit of CTRL+[down], call the station, do the exchange, CTRL+[down], next. It seems like the higher bands (20 – 15 – 10) are favorite, I never scored the most Q’s on 10 meter before! A good thing I left my Antron 99A on the roof. It turn out to be an excellent antenna for 10 and 15 meters. Only with a very few stations that didn’t copy me, I switch to the ZS6BKW on these bands. And that’s no guarantee I will work them.

Great adventure and my CW-skills are a little better now!