I wonder if a lot of our preferences for radios go beyond the technical
specs to other areas of performance? I have an Omni V with the updated
chip and a full complement of filters. I also have a Corsair II with a
full compliment of filters. Both are excellent radios, but I keep
noticing that my Argonaut II keeps wandering over to the operating desk,
and pushing the other, more technically endowed units off to the side.
It does not have the selectivity of the other rigs, but it seems to be
easier to use for most of my contacts. When I tried an Eagle out there
at the factory, I was impressed that it had a lot of the same
attributes, but had greatly improved performance over the much older
radio. An old friend has a large collection of radios, but the National
NCX-5 seems to be on the bench for 75 meters most of the time. Another
has some really nice newer radios, but most of his contacts are made
with a Kenwood TS-130S. I am seriously considering one of those 45 watt
Tokyo Hi-Power HF amps for the Argonaut II. That would put me in the
same power class as the older 6146 rigs, and should make contacts easier
to come by than the barefoot 5 watts of output. I realize that none of
the older radios is at all compatible with any serious contest effort
these days. But there are other aspects of ham radio than contests.
The Argonaut II and Delta II were given a generally bad writeup by the
ARRL testing staff, and that pretty well killed them off. But, they are
seemingly in demand and still command some decent prices. The fun
factor is not easily quantified, even by such technically adept people
as Sherwood, but it is still something that needs to be taken into
account when purchasing a rig. I wish I had the space to put my Drake 2B
and Gonset GSB100 back on the air. They are both obsolete, but a whole
lot of fun to use.
73,
Steve WA9JML
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