My Week in Radio
- gifted a tiny HF radio receiver to a friend’s kid
- whip, loop, + wire antenna I added.
- listening is how I ended up licensed.
Others
- K3KB, Alan:
- cleaning out old gear to maybe move
- RC airplanes
- test gear
- kits
- very old HTs
- will bring to next breakfast
- cleaning out old gear to maybe move
- NA3CW, Chuck:
- working on Joe’s tuner: about to power up
- AF3Z, Jim:
- 10M CW sked
- very few signals otherwise
- heard a solid CQ
- on at 8000ft mountain in mexico
- heard JM7OLW (Japan), and got it finally
- 6pm on 10M
- KC3OOK, Bill:
- ham shack is about finished
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
- got a new wire up in the air
- all bands were open for testing: 6M-40M
- KV3JGB, Matt:
- working some HF
- new CWOps academy class
- KD3AIS, Tim:
- listening to HF while doing other work
- WA3KFT, John:
- 28435khz 1pm-2pm retired net
- contacted OK, TX
- 28435khz 1pm-2pm retired net
Questions
- K3OU, Manny:
- building his shack from zero, looking at 2 transceivers:
- Yaesu FT-DX10 (hybrid SDR)
- ICOM 7300 Mk2 (SDR)
- which performs best?
- WA3KFT, John:
- using 7300 for 5 years
- lots of features he’s not used
- has an ATU
- uses an amplifier with it sometimes
- likes it
- K3KB, Alan:
- had an IC-7300 for a while
- doesn’t use the ATU, uses external instead
- what do you mean by performance?
- K3OU, Alan:
- reception performance:
- receiving weak signals
- rejecting side signals
- reception performance:
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
- both rigs are top-tier
- IC-7300 is intuitive to Harvey, so never read the manual
- play with both UIs to see what you like
- ease of use may be more important than performance
- HRO has them available for demo
- KA3GLI, David:
- download each manual and spec sheet for comparisons
- WA8CRW, CR:
- FTDX10 has better specs
- NA3CW, Chuck:
- Radios sound differently, so you want to hear it connected to an antenna
- IC-710 sounded nice at field day to Chuck
- Kenwoods sound nice to Chuck
- some may be better for DX or general use
- KC3OOK, Bill:
- Will any of those be at WFD?
- Be careful reading only specs, some specs can be misleading
- WA3VEE, Ron:
- looked at output of 7300. sending smugmug link
- Ron has both radios and will bring them to WFD.
- there should be more there
- FTDX10 has an external display port
- IC-7300 didn’t have it
- IC-7300 Mk 2 may have it
- FTDX10 has a wider spectrum display
- IC-7300 is a well-featured “starter” rig
- FTDX10 has more features
- look up sherwood engineering for comparisons
- W3GMS, Joe:
- settling on a rig’s UI is a lot like picking a car.
- drive it before buying it
- .1uV difference will not be perceivable: it’s in the noise
- all rigs are pretty good
- visit someone and test drive their rigs
- IC-7300 seems like great bang for the buck
- don’t get hung up on specs
- roofing filters are a great feature when operating multiple rigs
- kenwoods have great audio
- settling on a rig’s UI is a lot like picking a car.
- WA3KFT, John:
- 5 years
- spectrum scope is the #1 reason to buy it: expandable to analyze a signal
- K3OU, Alan:
- thanks for all the advice, especially test driving at field day
- hasn’t been on an HF rig since 80s
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
- use different audio presets between rag chewing and contesting
- K3OU, Alan:
- not going to contest, just chat
- building his shack from zero, looking at 2 transceivers:
- KD3AIS, Tim:
- Looking at band plan, why and how do people use the really high microwave frequencies
- W3MFB, Mike:
- people will use a 10M radio to drive a transverter and parabolic antenna
- higher frequencies may be useful for satellite
- WA3VEE, Ron:
- has seen 5GHz and 10GHz operations
- very line-of-sight, maybe from summits
- KC3OOK, Bill:
- IC-905 does those bands
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
- for experimentation
- there are local people active on 1.2GHz
- much smaller antennas and dishes
- KD3EMS, Chris:
- What would be more secure for the church than using FRS? DMR?
- KC3NZT, Harvey:
- look into MURS, it’ll at least not be as common
- it may allow base stations
- KD3EE, John:
- you may want to contact a commercial radio dealer to get setup on a licensed business frequency
- WA3VEE, Ron:
- DMR would be more complicated to setup
- W3GMS, Joe:
- contact Metropolitan Communication for commercial setup and coordination
- KD3EMS, Chris:
- Triangle Communications in New Holland is nearby