Most of us are in the same boat with you. I have an older "high end"
transceiver.. it's darn good, even on bad days. So here comes the new ICOM
7800 and the Yeasu FTDX-9000.... big buck radios to say the very least. Now
the question is simply "is the cost differential offset by performance?"
The answer is no.
Were I not limited to a city lot, the place I'd spend my money is
antennas... I have a Force12 XR-5 up at 62 feet. Can't really put up
anything bigger on this lot. To me, antennas are to an amateur what
speakers are to an audiophile... not the place to cut corners... and
certainly the place where improvements probably yield the greatest
performance gain.
Just my $0.02
Don Bozarth
W6DRB
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Geiger" <johngeig@yahoo.com>
To: <cq-contest@contesting.com>; <dx-list@yahoogroups.com>;
<icom@mailman.qth.net>; <yaesu@contesting.com>; <yaesu@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2006 8:06 PM
Subject: [Yaesu] The law of diminishing returns
> Here is a question I have about station design, but
> first let me set up the situation:
>
> Current setup-I recently picked up a rig in good
> condition that does a pretty good job for me. It
> covers HF and 6 meters (my favorite band) and knocks
> the noise out at my QTH as good as any rig I have
> seen. It is not considered a contesting rig or big
> gun DX rig, but I do like it and it does all the
> bands/modes that I am currently interested in.
> I won't list the brand or model to avoid biasing
> responses from people who love or don't like that
> brand or model.
>
> Current operating-DXing, casual contesting, and some
> ragchewing, plus hunting grid squares on 6m. I have a
> full time job, and a fairly young family with a 3 1/2
> year old daughter. Just can't get alot of time in
> front of the rig, especially for hard core contesting.
> Plus I have a fairly simple antenna system (2 element
> mini quad) but have worked 310 countries, and did 850
> QSOs a few years ago in the 10 meter contest for my
> best contest effort ever (pre daughter days).
>
> Now here is my question. Given that I am a fairly
> limited budget, when do I hit the point of diminishing
> returns. By that I mean, when does spending extra
> money to upgrade to another radio not pay for itself
> in the extra performance you buy. Would spending an
> extra $800 to upgrade to a 756PRO or FT1000MP really
> be worth it? Given my operating style, would I be
> getting my money's worth out of that extra money?
> That would be pushing things a bit financially, but it
> wouldn't make up homeless or starving, or anything
> like.
>
> I am sure that others have similiar situations and
> similar questions. So when do you hit the point where
> the extra money isn't worth the extra performance?
>
> 73s John
>
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