Amateur Radio

[HeavyDuty]

I love my KX3, but if I were going to replace it I’d probably get a KX2 (which wasn’t available at the time.). $1500 for their “shack in a bag” kit.

The Yaesu 818 is very appealing, too.

[mtnbkr]

The Yaesu 818 is very appealing, too.

Yup. It does a lot of things in small package. The biggest drawback is the lack of good filtering which makes weak signal work or use in crowded bands tougher. Filtering, speech compression, DSP, etc would be nice. But, if it had those features, it would cost as much as the 705 or KX2. That aside, there's nothing like it in the price range and it doesn't require a lot of battery to run, making it ideal for portable users with broad requirements.

Chris

[HeavyDuty]

Damn this thread.

I’m a casual HF operator, and a lapsed one at that. I’m more likely to do basic picnic table portable than any kind of organized ops. My CW skills are almost nonexistent at this point, which makes my pile of kit radios pretty useless at the moment. For portable HF I have a KX3, but have always wanted something less valuable for simple grab-and-go ops.

I was looking at a CommRadio CTX-10 for a simpler, more durable rig but the field reports were mixed, and now they may be out of production. A classic radio that has always appealed is the Ten-Tec Argo 556, but they are a little long in the tooth plus the modular band switching is cumbersome in this day and age.

My ideal is a more rugged rig than my KX3 but with the same built in ATU (so I can use multiband verticals on a small tripod) and battery. A FT-818 comes close if I bag it with a LDG autotuner.

Two radios that have caught my eye are the Lab599 TX-500 and the Xiegu X6100. The Xiegu is more interesting because of the internal battery and lower price, but that TX-500 is sexier than hell - I’m sure the aftermarket has figured out a piggyback battery by now. Either in a go bag would be a blast.

Any other suggestions or comments?

[HeavyDuty]

Screw analysis. Let’s roll!

I just ordered a FT-818ND from DX Engineering. Surprisingly HRO is out of stock (their NH store is ten minutes away) but DX Engineering is the same price with free shipping. I didn’t order anything else right now, just the radio as it comes with a hand mic, battery and AA battery tray.

[mtnbkr]

Screw analysis. Let’s roll!

I just ordered a FT-818ND from DX Engineering. Surprisingly HRO is out of stock (their NH store is ten minutes away) but DX Engineering is the same price with free shipping. I didn’t order anything else right now, just the radio as it comes with a hand mic, battery and AA battery tray.

I think you'll enjoy it.

Couple add-ons that you may find useful:
Pacific Antenna SOTA Tuner: I had this when I owned an 817nd. Great little tuner for 40m/20m/17m/15m. I had a 70' 26AWG wire on a cheap chalk-line reel with marks at the lengths appropriate for each of those four bands. I'd roll it out to the chosen length, hoist it up into a tree with my throwline (35' of old flyfishing line with a 1oz lead sinker on the end), use the tuner to dial in the SWR, and go to work. QRPGuys sells a similar kit that doesn't have the housing, and *may* not be as durable, but it's the same circuit and cheaper.
I used HD velcro to attach mine to the top of the radio, the used a 6" RG-174 BNC jumper to connect it to the front-panel BNC port. That way the tuner was always handy for touch-ups.

EMtech ZM2 Tuner: I think you're familiar with this one already. It works great with the 818 (my buddy bought my ZM2 to use with his 818).

QRPGuys.com in general: Lots of great antenna kits. Their "No-Tuner" EFHW kits work well. Of course, you can homebrew your own, but theirs come with built-in wire winders.

Bioenno Batteries: Great if you want a lightweight option that is safer than chinesium lipo batteries. Kind of pricey, but perform well. You'll run out of desire to operate before you deplete the 4.5AH model (this is the one I have). I've used mine to run my radio and charge my HT for an entire weekend in the field.

BTW, the higher HF bands have been hot lately. Not only is this nice from a novelty standpoint, but antennas are shorter.

Also BTW, the June VHF contest is coming up. The 818 does good work on 6m/2m/70cm with SSB. I normally operate in the FM class (using an HT), but if I had an 818, I'd be working SSB.

Chris

[HeavyDuty]

I started a separate thread for this

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....94#post1343494

[HeavyDuty]

I think you'll enjoy it.

Couple add-ons that you may find useful:
Pacific Antenna SOTA Tuner: I had this when I owned an 817nd. Great little tuner for 40m/20m/17m/15m. I had a 70' 26AWG wire on a cheap chalk-line reel with marks at the lengths appropriate for each of those four bands. I'd roll it out to the chosen length, hoist it up into a tree with my throwline (35' of old flyfishing line with a 1oz lead sinker on the end), use the tuner to dial in the SWR, and go to work. QRPGuys sells a similar kit that doesn't have the housing, and *may* not be as durable, but it's the same circuit and cheaper.
I used HD velcro to attach mine to the top of the radio, the used a 6" RG-174 BNC jumper to connect it to the front-panel BNC port. That way the tuner was always handy for touch-ups.

EMtech ZM2 Tuner: I think you're familiar with this one already. It works great with the 818 (my buddy bought my ZM2 to use with his 818).

QRPGuys.com in general: Lots of great antenna kits. Their "No-Tuner" EFHW kits work well. Of course, you can homebrew your own, but theirs come with built-in wire winders.

Bioenno Batteries: Great if you want a lightweight option that is safer than chinesium lipo batteries. Kind of pricey, but perform well. You'll run out of desire to operate before you deplete the 4.5AH model (this is the one I have). I've used mine to run my radio and charge my HT for an entire weekend in the field.

BTW, the higher HF bands have been hot lately. Not only is this nice from a novelty standpoint, but antennas are shorter.

Also BTW, the June VHF contest is coming up. The 818 does good work on 6m/2m/70cm with SSB. I normally operate in the FM class (using an HT), but if I had an 818, I'd be working SSB.

Chris

Good info - I hadn’t noticed that SOTA tuner before. I’m not sure how much wire use I’ll have for now, I’d like to wring out my vertical options first. The ZM-2 is wire ready, too but bigger. I like your idea of mounting the SOTA tuner on Velcro.

[mtnbkr]

So...

I got my TruSDX a week and change ago. I bought the completed model. It works but has warts. Even when purchased assembled, it needs work. The assembled option should not be considered "ready to run". None are insurmountable, but I do not recommend this as a first QRP or first HF radio. It's not a contest rig and it's not a competitor to any commercial QRP radio, but it's a great experimenter's platform or a spare rig as a take-along for trail running or biking (yes, I'm that kind of geek). I built K6ARK's EFHW transformer to go along with it. Currently I have 20m and 40m single band radiators, but I'm going to modify the 40m one to be multiband. The whole kit, radio, battery, and antenna weighs in at 1lb and fits in a stretchy Magpul sunglasses sock. My KX2 kit weighs twice as much.

I've made a few contacts on 40m using my home antenna and the K6ARK antenna. Most of my signal reports have been 5X (X being anywhere from 3-9). I got one 43 report, but he was in the same state and too close to me for propagation to work well because another station further away heard me loud and clear. I use the internal mic and a set of Sony earbuds.

Good:
Tiny
Cheap
Reasonably good performance
Strong RF output for its size
Lots of online support and guidance
Internal mic works well.
Has internal keyer for Iambic operation
Runs off little power, even 5v USB (power output limited on 5v though). I use my KX2's internal battery.

Bad:
Terrible audio output on internal speaker
Audio amp distorts/howls if you turn it up too loud even with headphones. A powered speaker that allows you to turn the internal audio low supposedly works well.
High internal noise floor (S3-4 on my example with no antenna). It has been suggested this is due to AGC turning up gain when there are no received signals. I need to test with AGC off.
May need toroid tweaking and other adjustments to get best performance (easy to do with NanoVNA)
No SWR meter during voice use. You only get SWR and RF output on CW.
Menu uses some non-standard labels and the manual doesn't clarify anything.
Screen can be challenging to read in bright sunlight
No SWR power foldback. If your antenna is poorly tuned, you will risk damaging the radio. This is where peaking and aligning the radio is critical to give yourself a margin of error. The radio can put out 6, 7, and even 8w, but you'll want to tune it down closer to 5w (I've yet to do this, but it's on my list of things to do)


Chris

[HeavyDuty]

I’ve been racking up the more expensive purchases I’ve been wanting before I leave sales tax free NH. Last week was radio’s turn in the barrel.

I love my KX3, but I’ve always thought it was a little precious for field use - plus having to split the case to charge the Eneloops has always bothered me, so I usually use an external battery which defeats the small size in the field. I picked up a FT-818 a month or so ago for field use, I can easily pop the bottom plate to pull and charge the Eneloops; I have rails on it and a tuner bungied to the top. It’s a fun little low stress radio, but definitely from an earlier era - not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Last weekend I was up at HRO’s local store for some coax connectors, and fell in love with the ICOM IC-705 and accessories. I picked one up with the dedicated field backpack and tuner. I’m thinking this will be the perfect POTA picnic table rig, and having a decent built in scope is great.

I also recently picked up my truSDX kit from a local group buy. I need to order a case, but to be honest this will sit unbuilt until after my move. I used to love kitbuilding, so this should be fun.

[RJ]

I resemble this remark.



We’re on our summer trip, currently in Petoskey MI. Haven’t used the radio a lot, mainly to get Wx forecasts on the 162.x Wx bands for where we are.

Started up Hamstudy dot org for General. Also loaded a Morse tool for the laptop to learn to copy. My brother (an AE) gave me a ARRL handbook from 1977 he had when he got started. Lots of good info on vacuum tubes.