[geeks] Moved to geeks: Cheap Ham radios (was Dayton Hamfest)

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: James Fogg <James at jdfogg.com>
>Date: 2008/05/19 Mon AM 01:17:33 EDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Moved to geeks: Cheap Ham radios (was Dayton B Hamfest)

>> >It would be nice to have a cheap rig.  The cheapest, new HF rig of decent
>> power runs around $500-550.  A little expensive for beginning hams and
>> those reentering the hobby.
>>
>> The "cheap" radios of days gone by (Henry Radio Tempo One, Yaseu FT-101,
>> Kenwood TS-520) all cost around $500-700, IIRC - but those were 1970's US
>> dollars. Five or six hundred dollars today is much more affordable today
>> than it was then...
>
>
>Many people would find an inexpensive HF radio a big disappointment. A good
>receiver is important on HF. Since many hams begin in the VHF/UHF world they
>get spoiled with clean FM and strong signals.

That is a big part of my previous assertion, though worded much better.

I was flipping through various Ham retail sites and stumbled across this Icom
HF radio (160 Meters -> 10 Meters, AM, SSB, CW at 100 Watts (40 on AM)) that
is available for $545-595 (currently a $50 rebate available).[0] That, in my
mind is a good, cheap HF radio for starting with... Of course, you would need
a 20 Amp 12 Volt power supply in the house, so figure on another $100-150 for
that...

>The other surprise is the antenna requirements for HF. I have a UHF 1/4 wave
>ground plane that cost me $4.00 to build and it sits on top of a bookcase.
My
>HF antenna is an 80M inverted V that so far has cost about $200.00 (mast,
>ropes, balun, etc.). The inverted V requires a huge footprint in the yard.
The
>mast guys are spaced at 20 feet out from the pole and the V ends are about
120
>feet apart. So far I haven't found any compact HF antennas that perform
well.

Antennas are always a compromise...

Lionel

[0] http://rffun.com/catalog/hamhf/0718.html