I've just picked one of these up as well , getting it on Tuesday when I will be passing the vendor's location . I'm just in the process of setting up my Thunderpole 5 antenna and will cut the whip to 32" since this is right for UK40FM and also happens to sit nicely in the middle of the bands covered by the Major 360 . I will actually cut it slightly long to allow for exactly 32" protruding from the top section of the mast ; and can always shorten it , but can't put back what I already cut off ! I just measured it and approx 1/2" disappears inside the receptacle , so 32-1/2" it is .
I will check the SWR for UKFM Ch20 , but don't expect it to stay down across 4 bands , so will use a matcher as well since it won't be practical to take the antenna up and down every time I change bands . I have a number of UK 27/81 rigs , and now the Major , bought it just to see what is still on the air . Had a Multimode 2 years ago , and if one of these turns up at a reasonable price I may upgrade later . Better still a Multimode 3 , but they tend to be both rare and expensive now .
Major M360 - Help!
I got my Major M360 last night , and got home very late with it , after a long day at work ...
I was initially worried that I'd been sold a lemon , despite its good cosmetic condition and coming in the original box and with the original mic and schematic diagram .
On getting home , the initial disappointment was finding the power lead in the box did not fir the set . Undaunted , I metered from the two pins on the power socket to the chassis , hoping one would be short ; neither were , so I removed the bottom casing and noted the red and black wires . I then carefully tacked two wires onto the pins of the socket , with the correct polarity and connected to my Farnell bench power supply , bringing the voltage up slowly - all was well . I have since ordered the correct power lead , standard for HAM International sets and readily available , so the jury rig will only be for a couple of days .
Connected to my aerial , which had been SWR'd for UK ch20 , I checked it again on the equivalent channel on the M360 , all good with hardly any movement on the SWR meter after being set to the output , barely above 1:1 across the super high band ; tried on the other bands - same result .
Not much traffic last night on any of the bands , just a few distant voices . However I'd had a long day yesterday , so a late start this morning ; turned the set on around midday and lots of activity on USB , nothing notable on any other modes ... However I was detecting conversations in Spanish , English and what sounded like Russian , but could easily have been Ukrainian ...again voices sounded distant and I couldn't get back to them ; I know my set does transmit as I had one of my 40ch handsets here and called between both in both directions , all OK . Later today , some voices , on AM , seemed much closer , I tried calling back to them but no luck . I think everyone I heard was quite distant .
I've now had the set approx 24 hours .
I was initially worried that I'd been sold a lemon , despite its good cosmetic condition and coming in the original box and with the original mic and schematic diagram .
On getting home , the initial disappointment was finding the power lead in the box did not fir the set . Undaunted , I metered from the two pins on the power socket to the chassis , hoping one would be short ; neither were , so I removed the bottom casing and noted the red and black wires . I then carefully tacked two wires onto the pins of the socket , with the correct polarity and connected to my Farnell bench power supply , bringing the voltage up slowly - all was well . I have since ordered the correct power lead , standard for HAM International sets and readily available , so the jury rig will only be for a couple of days .
Connected to my aerial , which had been SWR'd for UK ch20 , I checked it again on the equivalent channel on the M360 , all good with hardly any movement on the SWR meter after being set to the output , barely above 1:1 across the super high band ; tried on the other bands - same result .
Not much traffic last night on any of the bands , just a few distant voices . However I'd had a long day yesterday , so a late start this morning ; turned the set on around midday and lots of activity on USB , nothing notable on any other modes ... However I was detecting conversations in Spanish , English and what sounded like Russian , but could easily have been Ukrainian ...again voices sounded distant and I couldn't get back to them ; I know my set does transmit as I had one of my 40ch handsets here and called between both in both directions , all OK . Later today , some voices , on AM , seemed much closer , I tried calling back to them but no luck . I think everyone I heard was quite distant .
I've now had the set approx 24 hours .
I ordered , and received , the correct power lead within a couple of days .
The set has proved excellent . Not much on FM , nor standard AM , but the sidebands are very lively .
So far , I've heard stations from Texas , Louisiana , Canary Isles , France , Bulgaria , Belgium , Netherlands and Germany .
I managed to get back to the Canary Isles ( from Scotland ! Thunder pole 5 is a great aerial ! ) and also to a gentleman in Tunbridge Wells .
Skip still running tonight when I got home from work , despite heavy rain locally and lots of distant stations heard , but not reached .
The set has proved excellent . Not much on FM , nor standard AM , but the sidebands are very lively .
So far , I've heard stations from Texas , Louisiana , Canary Isles , France , Bulgaria , Belgium , Netherlands and Germany .
I managed to get back to the Canary Isles ( from Scotland ! Thunder pole 5 is a great aerial ! ) and also to a gentleman in Tunbridge Wells .
Skip still running tonight when I got home from work , despite heavy rain locally and lots of distant stations heard , but not reached .
Well , I got the major M360 back in May , used it to chat to a number of stations both in the UK and overseas , although I could receive fine , some reported that I was transmitting off frequency . Notwithstanding the nice condition of the rig , it was 40 years old and doubtless some components , caps in particular , will have gone off . Kept my eyes open and have just picked up a Ham International Multimode II , recently serviced and upgraded with super hi and lo channels added as well as UK 27/81 , plus a 10Kc shift in additional to the clarifier , which on the Multimode is on Tx and Rx , unlike the Major .
I have had this one a few days now and it seems to be working really well ; was just speaking to a breaker in Georgia ( USA ) from here in Sunny Scotland , so the skip must be running today . I will add some pics of the rig once I receive the new custom decal for the front panel , with the additional bands properly printed .
I have yet to connect my frequency counter , but should then be able to verify frequencies on Tx .
I have had this one a few days now and it seems to be working really well ; was just speaking to a breaker in Georgia ( USA ) from here in Sunny Scotland , so the skip must be running today . I will add some pics of the rig once I receive the new custom decal for the front panel , with the additional bands properly printed .
I have yet to connect my frequency counter , but should then be able to verify frequencies on Tx .
Frequency counter connected ( I bought it secondhand so cannot verify its accuracy ) UK channel 19 , which should be 27.78125 MHz reads as 27.7867 Mhz .
I can communicate OK with my several UK 27/81 sets with nothing apparently wrong , and audio sounding OK , in both directions .
I don't currently know whether my set is off frequency or whether the counter is inaccurate .
I can communicate OK with my several UK 27/81 sets with nothing apparently wrong , and audio sounding OK , in both directions .
I don't currently know whether my set is off frequency or whether the counter is inaccurate .
Just back on here and realised I hadn't put any pictures up of the multimode , so here are a couple . Also a couple of shots of the Audioline PT-342 which arrived this afternoon - that one will become my mobile rig as it is the best one of the three of these I currently have , once I drill a hole to mount my K40 base into the roof of my car !
Since I now have the Multimode , and still have the Major , the latter may also be used mobile , as long as I can leave the aerial accessible under my drivers seat , which will also give me an insert point for a SWR meter .
Since I now have the Multimode , and still have the Major , the latter may also be used mobile , as long as I can leave the aerial accessible under my drivers seat , which will also give me an insert point for a SWR meter .
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