Kris:
My suggestion would be a used IC736. This is a real portable rig. It
has a carrying strap on one side. You can buy an extra CW filter for
it. It has a very good built-in ATU. The power supply is also built in
and the whole rig will fit in a carry-on for an airliner and leave
plenty of room for your keyer and a laptop computer. It also has a
built in keyer. It has an internal jumper to switch from 110 to 220
volts. You just have to change the fuse when you do that. It runs 100
watts from 160 through 6 M, AM/SSB/FM. Not sure about its RTTY
capability as I am at my office and have never tried it on RTTY. It is
capable of computer control. There was a review of this rig in the
National Contest Journal in the summer or fall of 1994, which is what
convinced me to buy it before a trip to Dominica. I took it many times
to Barbados, even though a TS850S was available there for HF. It was
good to have a back up and it worked great on 6M. I used it on Bonaire
last December and am planning to take it back to Bonaire in February.
The rig is large enough that the controls are easily usable and not too
many controls are hard to read and use (unlike those on the IC706). The
only advantage the 706 would give you would be higher VHF bands on some
models. The IC736 has the feel and sound of a "real contest rig" and I
don't think anybody would claim that for the IC706.
73,
John, K4BAI.
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