Hi, folks.

Well, shortly after midnight this morning, I made my first contact with my 
new TS480.  It was an 80-meter CW contact in New Jersey.

The guy said I had a 599 signal on my 80-meter dipole, which was an honest 
report.

One real challenge I had at first was setting some of the menus.  I could 
get into the menus fine, but had to get sighted assistance from the XYL, 
because I didn't know how to change menu settings with the all-important 
arrow keys, and where those arrow keys were.

I am having some trouble adjusting the CW sending with the rig.  It seems 
that, at 25 WPM, where I like to operate, the weighting of the CW is off, so 
I'll have to go into the relevant menu, and mess with that.

I could use some help with a few questions:

1.  Can someone give me a quick tutorial on how to use the various RX 
filters ?  I am having trouble figuring out how to consistently use them. 
Also, I had a CW filter installed, and would like to figure out an easy way 
to toggle it on and off if possible.

2.  How do I access the equalization settings for shaping your audio in SSB? 
I found the compressor, but I think there's more to it than just that.

3.  I can't seem to find the jack or jacks for an external speaker, or the 
headphones.  I assume they're somewhere on the main radio, not the control 
head unit?

4.  I have noticed that, on 40 and 80 meters, the frequency change for CW 
signals is opposite of SSB signals on those bands.  Is this normal?  I 
originally thought that I had the CW reverse on, but I now don't think so.

I may have more questions, but I think this is it for now.

If anyone wants to e-mail me privately, rather than cluttering up the list 
here, please use:

[log in to unmask]

The XYL has been extremely patient through my TS480 adventures so far, and 
through my efforts to resolve my IC746 output power problem, so I'll be off 
list and off the air for at least part of the day to celebrate Christmas 
with her and some friends, but I'll get to any e-mails I can as time allows.

The TS480 is turning out to be a great rig, although it does have a bit more 
of a learning curve than I've had with other rigs.  But then again, I think 
it's partly the new technology that's making it that way.  I also think it 
will perfect for my HF motor home installation which, of course, is my 
ultimate goal.

73 and Merry Christmas from Tom behler: KB8TYJ