Posted: 6/4/2009 3:39:18 PM EDT
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I bought an Icom IC 703 Plus at the Dayton show a few weeks ago and have been playing around with it.
Wow––- I am amazed what you can do with 10 watts out and a simple dipole. My usual rig is a Yeasu 897D running into a 130 foot wire fed by ladder line into a balun with a short run of coax into the house. Was experimenting around with 10 watts on the Yeasu and decided I wanted something that was even more portable and would draw even less amps for emergency/field use. Thus the Icom 703 plus. I have an Astron power supply in my shack, but most of the time I run my radios with 2,––––100 amp hour agm batteries. For the Icom I bought a 12 amp hr agm battery along with a 33 amp hr agm battery for field use. Today I worked 2 stations on 20 meters SSB running 10 watts into Italy using the same dipole hung up on the trees. My QTH is just north of Cincinnati Ohio. Italy is 5000 miles from home. My first contact was using 500 watts and gave me a 5/9 on my signal with 10 watts. I am really having a great time making contacts half way around the world running qrp. Cannot wait to get out into the woods for a weekend away from all the noise and see what I can do with my IC 703. 73 |
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ps ALMOST FORGOT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZOehMEUBS4 a super video posted today to the IC703 email list!!! ar-jedi |