Posted: 6/3/2010 11:07:53 PM EDT
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don't really need one with 6 meters ( i have the 8900 for that)
any ideas? i was thinking an old Kenwood TS-430 or 440, or an FT-102. any help would be appreciated. 
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don't really need one with 6 meters ( i have the 8900 for that) any ideas? i was thinking an old Kenwood TS-430 or 440, or an FT-102. any help would be appreciated. My first HF is a TS-940. Another older HF rig I would have been very happy with is the Yaesu 840. Continuous coverage VFO ftw. http://www.rigpix.com/yaesu/ft840.htm I saw these for several hundred bucks at the Claremore hamfest. |
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You did say HF. If you want all bands, at the price of the Icom 718, you will have money left over for a separate 2m rig.
NICE used Icom 718's can be had for $400-$425 almost every day of the week. I've seen such listed just the last few days. Both of my 718's were purchased lightly used, and you could honestly say, "like new". The 718 is very "user friendly". The DSP could be better, but then, it is about the same as the DSP in the Yaesu FT-897/FT-857 radios. For an upgrade down the road I'd suggest the West Mountain Radio CLR-SPKR to go with a 718. The 718 is so easy to operate that I left it in the hands of a couple of other hams for a few hours last Field Day, and they had a blast with it. One liked it so much that he went home and ordered one for himself. He was an experienced General, and though had a nice older Kenwood at home, he thought the 718 would be a great backup radio and one to set up for digital modes. You will have to spend much more to get a better radio. |
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The 8900 Will only do 6meters FM in a very narrow band, it will not allow 6 meters SSB which can realy reach out there and is alot of fun.
I would get something like the FT857D that covers all modes and all frequencies. A lot more possibilities......... a lot more fun |
| 718 was my first rig as well. I have been through a few more since. As strange as it is I just received my 3rd Kenwood TS-50 in the mail today. I LOVE that radio. It will do all I need it to do and is built like a tank. No bigger than a CB, it is easily mobile (what I use it for) or will work fine as a base. Give it a look. I paid $400 shipped for this one and it is like new. |
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The Icom IC-735 is a solid performer for 300-350 bux if you are looking at used rigs. The Kenwood TS-440 is also a good rig, just make sure it doesn't have the dreaded "dot syndrome". This is curable, but takes some work. Some other entry level rigs are the Icom IC-730 80-10m ham band only with WARC bands. These can be had for 225-250 bux and are great rigs to start out on. Yaesu FT-757GXII is another.
All of these rigs will need a 12vdc power supply. |
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LDG IT-100 Tuner $169.95
Samlex SEC 1223 $99 G5RV Antenna $39.95 if you have the space. It's 102' long. Mine is only about 25' in the air, but I've made contacts with it all over the US, Canada, as well as one or two in Nicaragua and Spain. As you can see in the picture below the tuner and power supply are pretty compact. 
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the tuner and the power supply look good for me as space is going to be coming at a premium. I've run out of room in here things are starting to go vertical.
i don't have the room for the antenna you mentioned. i'm limited in the regards that my house lot was created in 1927, however i do have a good attic. |
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bought a used Icom 718 on ebay. Smart move. 
so now to the antennas and tuners and power supplies.
The Icom AH-4 antenna tuner works really well with a 718 - The 718 already has a rear panel connector for it, so it's plug-and-play. Being able to remote-mount the tuner reduces clutter in the ham shack, and eliminates the need to run anything other than RG coax between the 718 and the antenna location. It's capable of matching a very wide range of antenna impedances - everything from short whips to long wires to loops. |
I was looking at the LDG IT-100 on the advice of AFM. 
At-4 is also an option, but at the time being I have to find a spot to mount my radio and antenna as my parents (yes, i'm still with my parents. wanna fight about it. :P) backyard is Fubar for antennas, to many power lines. i'll figure something out eventually, i'm sure.
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Quoted: These are two separate radios: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/AFreeMan/01Icom718setup.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/AFreeMan/20HFGoKit.jpg How do you like your DSP speaker? |
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Quoted: I am down to two for my first HF rig, the IC-718 or the FT-450AT. Debating this as well although I'm also considering the Yaesu 857/897.... but leaning towards the FT-450 (but using a third party tuner). What's the general opinion of the 450? I've heard good things from some people locally. The IC-718 seems to have a distinct lack of controls, making me think it is overly simplistic - since I haven't messed with one in person, I don't know if that view is correct or not, so please school me  The main drawbacks I have with the 857/897 at this point seem to be a lack of info on the display, making me think they might be more difficult to get feedback from on what you're doing if everything is menu driven on a tiny display. Thoughts? |
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I am down to two for my first HF rig, the IC-718 or the FT-450AT. Debating this as well although I'm also considering the Yaesu 857/897.... but leaning towards the FT-450 (but using a third party tuner). What's the general opinion of the 450? I've heard good things from some people locally. The IC-718 seems to have a distinct lack of controls, making me think it is overly simplistic - since I haven't messed with one in person, I don't know if that view is correct or not, so please school me The main drawbacks I have with the 857/897 at this point seem to be a lack of info on the display, making me think they might be more difficult to get feedback from on what you're doing if everything is menu driven on a tiny display. Thoughts?
No experience with the 450, so will let others comment on that radio. The 897 is quite confusing, the manual is thick and sucks big time. There are a few buttons I never figured out what they were for. The 718 has everything you need on it. The buttons do what they say they do. The only "menu" you fool with on a daily basis is accessed by the Set button, and you access power setting there. The rest, read the buttons, they do what they say. BTW, I did on the air tests, swapping the coax back and forth from 897 to 718, and reports back said I sounded exactly the same on both. Well, that was enough for me. I sold the 897 a few weeks after buying a 718 as a "backup" or spare "field day" radio. The 897, to set memories you have to do things in a particular order, but it does not tell you that, so you begin to enter, get the freq in there, OK, where is the section on labels?... now I have to flip to page 137 to... damn! What is it doing? Wasn't fast enough... start over, press A, while holding B, left eyebrow up, yes, it's Thursday, and ... well, you get my drift. The LDG FT-Meter was a big help on the 897. That gives you a big needle type analog meter for SWR, Power, etc. Almost a necessity. The tiny display on the 897 is difficult to read. The 718 is simple to operate, but not simplistic. And that's a bad thing? It does what it needs to do. I had found nothing, absolutely nothing that the 897 would do that the 718 wouldn't. OK, there are a bunch of "digital" menu settings in the 897. So what? You don't need them. I can do PSK31, Hell Feld, RTTY, Throb, etc, with the 718 set on SSB. The digital menus of the 897 add to the confusion. OK, so once they are set, what the hell do you do with them? Who knows? OK, the 897 has 6m, 2m, and 70 cm. I really prefer a separate 2m rig. The traffic, usage, etc is quite different from HF to VHF/UHF. Some guys are very comfortable with the 897, and it's near twin, the 857. I wasn't. The 718 allowed me to operate on the air, instead of concentrating on operating the radio. The Ten-Tec Jupiter I have now is equally easy to operate. Both the Jupiter and 718 have menus, but they are mostly of the "set once and forget" variety. |
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Quoted: No experience with the 450, so will let others comment on that radio. The 897 is quite confusing, the manual is thick and sucks big time. There are a few buttons I never figured out what they were for. The 718 has everything you need on it. The buttons do what they say they do. The only "menu" you fool with on a daily basis is accessed by the Set button, and you access power setting there. The rest, read the buttons, they do what they say. BTW, I did on the air tests, swapping the coax back and forth from 897 to 718, and reports back said I sounded exactly the same on both. Well, that was enough for me. I sold the 897 a few weeks after buying a 718 as a "backup" or spare "field day" radio. The 897, to set memories you have to do things in a particular order, but it does not tell you that, so you begin to enter, get the freq in there, OK, where is the section on labels?... now I have to flip to page 137 to... damn! What is it doing? Wasn't fast enough... start over, press A, while holding B, left eyebrow up, yes, it's Thursday, and ... well, you get my drift. The LDG FT-Meter was a big help on the 897. That gives you a big needle type analog meter for SWR, Power, etc. Almost a necessity. The tiny display on the 897 is difficult to read. The 718 is simple to operate, but not simplistic. And that's a bad thing? It does what it needs to do. I had found nothing, absolutely nothing that the 897 would do that the 718 wouldn't. OK, there are a bunch of "digital" menu settings in the 897. So what? You don't need them. I can do PSK31, Hell Feld, RTTY, Throb, etc, with the 718 set on SSB. The digital menus of the 897 add to the confusion. OK, so once they are set, what the hell do you do with them? Who knows? OK, the 897 has 6m, 2m, and 70 cm. I really prefer a separate 2m rig. The traffic, usage, etc is quite different from HF to VHF/UHF. Some guys are very comfortable with the 897, and it's near twin, the 857. I wasn't. The 718 allowed me to operate on the air, instead of concentrating on operating the radio. The Ten-Tec Jupiter I have now is equally easy to operate. Both the Jupiter and 718 have menus, but they are mostly of the "set once and forget" variety. Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I'm looking for - ie: simple to operate is great, as long as it's not simplistic due to lack of control, features, etc. The 857/897 sound exactly like what I fear they would be - I dig my 8800 for 2m/70cm but was worried the Yaesu combined rig might be a little confusing with mixing HF and 2m/70cm operation in one unit. Since it sounds like that's the case, I'll probably narrow myself down now to the FT-450 or IC-718 exclusively for my first HF rig. Ok, so who has an FT-450 that can tell me why I want it more than an IC-718? |
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No experience with the 450, so will let others comment on that radio. The 897 is quite confusing, the manual is thick and sucks big time. There are a few buttons I never figured out what they were for. The 718 has everything you need on it. The buttons do what they say they do. The only "menu" you fool with on a daily basis is accessed by the Set button, and you access power setting there. The rest, read the buttons, they do what they say. BTW, I did on the air tests, swapping the coax back and forth from 897 to 718, and reports back said I sounded exactly the same on both. Well, that was enough for me. I sold the 897 a few weeks after buying a 718 as a "backup" or spare "field day" radio. The 897, to set memories you have to do things in a particular order, but it does not tell you that, so you begin to enter, get the freq in there, OK, where is the section on labels?... now I have to flip to page 137 to... damn! What is it doing? Wasn't fast enough... start over, press A, while holding B, left eyebrow up, yes, it's Thursday, and ... well, you get my drift. The LDG FT-Meter was a big help on the 897. That gives you a big needle type analog meter for SWR, Power, etc. Almost a necessity. The tiny display on the 897 is difficult to read. The 718 is simple to operate, but not simplistic. And that's a bad thing? It does what it needs to do. I had found nothing, absolutely nothing that the 897 would do that the 718 wouldn't. OK, there are a bunch of "digital" menu settings in the 897. So what? You don't need them. I can do PSK31, Hell Feld, RTTY, Throb, etc, with the 718 set on SSB. The digital menus of the 897 add to the confusion. OK, so once they are set, what the hell do you do with them? Who knows? OK, the 897 has 6m, 2m, and 70 cm. I really prefer a separate 2m rig. The traffic, usage, etc is quite different from HF to VHF/UHF. Some guys are very comfortable with the 897, and it's near twin, the 857. I wasn't. The 718 allowed me to operate on the air, instead of concentrating on operating the radio. The Ten-Tec Jupiter I have now is equally easy to operate. Both the Jupiter and 718 have menus, but they are mostly of the "set once and forget" variety. Thanks, that's exactly the kind of info I'm looking for - ie: simple to operate is great, as long as it's not simplistic due to lack of control, features, etc. The 857/897 sound exactly like what I fear they would be - I dig my 8800 for 2m/70cm but was worried the Yaesu combined rig might be a little confusing with mixing HF and 2m/70cm operation in one unit. Since it sounds like that's the case, I'll probably narrow myself down now to the FT-450 or IC-718 exclusively for my first HF rig. Ok, so who has an FT-450 that can tell me why I want it more than an IC-718?
I have a FT-857 and I don't find it all that confusing honestly. Yes it's menu driven, but it's not that bad and it all seems pretty logical to me. I love the size of the thing. I also have a IC-718 and it's definitely a great rig as well, just bigger and more narrowly focused. |
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LDG IT-100 Tuner $169.95 Samlex SEC 1223 $99 G5RV Antenna $39.95 if you have the space. It's 102' long. Mine is only about 25' in the air, but I've made contacts with it all over the US, Canada, as well as one or two in Nicaragua and Spain. As you can see in the picture below the tuner and power supply are pretty compact. http://diamond-x.net/Hobbies/Ham-Radio/DSC08205/878050086_gCQdD-L.jpg Good looking old FT-101. |
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These are two separate radios: http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/AFreeMan/01Icom718setup.jpg http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y209/AFreeMan/20HFGoKit.jpg How do you like your DSP speaker? With the 718, a necessity! Well, maybe not, but close. Sometimes the DSP in the 718 is better, sometimes the CLR-SPKR is better, and occasionally I used both. I had a similar DSP board, by BHI, installed in my first rig, a Yaesu FT-897. I am sure they use the same chip, as the sound of the four DSP levels was identical. The chip on the BHI board had been buffed to remove all markings, so can't be sure, but... With the radio's DSP sometimes being better, and other times the speaker's, they both must work on noise differently, and perhaps the nature of the noise causes one DSP to work better, I don't know. But I would definitely put the West Mountain CLR-SPKR on my shopping list. And after having installed the BHI module in the 897, and the price being very close to the CLR-SPKR, I would save the trouble and just buy the speaker. Also, the speaker even without the DSP working is better than the ones built into the radio. I now have a Ten-Tec Jupiter with great DSP circuitry and no longer need the West Mountain speaker with my main rig. I will not sell it, but keep it to use with my standby gear. So, Icom 718, Yaesu 897 or 857, this should go on your "things I need to get asap" list. Edit: But what if I want to use headphones? There is a 1/8" earphone jack on the back of the speaker. So you still get the benefit of the speaker's DSP circuitry. If anyone would like some MP3 sound clips of these DSP's in action, IM me your email address so I send these as attachments. There are four clips, recorded on the same night, same frequency, same net, within minutes of each other. First you hear the net control calling roll, no DSP, then the DSP cuts in, reducing noise for a while, the DSP off, bringing noise back up. This is done on each of the four DSP level settings. Just IM me, include your home (not ARFCOM) email address, and in subject line "DSP clips for ARFCOMMER". |