Hi Caity, Grant and all,
Caitlyn Martin wrote:
Hi, Jim, Grant, and everyone else,
First, I agree with everything Grant said about why general coverage
can be important. Most general coverage transceivers could also be
modified when changes in amateur frequency allocations come along. My
Icom IC-723S (JA QRP version of the IC-728) meets NTIA standards for
frequency stability on 60m with the CR-64 installed per the NTIA
website. A simple mod made it 60m ready. Most rigs without general
coverage would have required much more extensive modification to add a
band. Of course, a software defined like the Ten Tec Argonaut V and
Jupiter got a firmware upgrade and all was well.
First, let me say that I was not putting down general-coverage
reception. Like many potential
hams in the 50s/60s and earlier, I began as a SWL. My first receiver
was a Hallicrafters
SX-110. My amazement was the insistence by many modern-day hams that
such coverage
was included.
Thinking about frequency agility is something that I hadn't considered,
since a lot of time had
passed since the time that hams got the so-called WARC bands and the
recent allocation of the
60m band. My original Drake R-4 and T-4X (which I have to this day)
would receive and
transmit on virtually any frequency between 1.8-30 MHz with additional
crystals. I believe that
the exception was the 5-6 Mhz range, which was an IF.
I am an avid shortwave listener and I was before I was a ham. I have
family overseas, mainly in Israel and Europe. I like getting news from
those places directly, not filtered through American press bias.
Shortwave is invaluable to me. One of the things that has impressed me
with Ten Tec is their early adoption of DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale),
something the big three have ignored. I'd love to see that capability
in the ham line as well so a separate radio wouldn't be necessary.
Guess I should revisit the SW BCBs; just not enough hours in the day.
For that purpose I have
an Icom PCR-1000 that I've never used that much because of the
difficulty of getting the software
to work with any version of Windows after Win98. I have a Pegasus
also. Being in the
software development business, I am fascinated with the interfacing of
ham radio hardware with
computers. There is probably an SDR-1000 in my future, although I'm
more interested in the
Linux version of the software than the proprietary M$ C# since I'm
trying to go mostly open-
source between now and retirement.
There was a time, as Jim correctly points out, when general coverage
meant sacrificing receiver performance on the ham bands. At that time
rigs like those offered by Ten Tec, the Icom IC-740, and a handful of
similar rigs I could mention by the big three, were far superior to the
rigs with general coverage. That is no longer true and there really is
no advantage to ham bands only rigs at this time.
Very true; technology has marched on in this regard!
Just my .02...
73,
Caity
K7VO
And a very worthy two cents it was!
73 de Jim - AD6CW
P.S. Caity - why aren't you a member of the list? Let me know if you
want me to add you.
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