James, nobody said that you can hear him. You just assumed that.
When you know the DX-pedition is on Christmas Island, you've found the spot
on the DX-spotting site, but on the listed frequency your receiver is
blocking. We have a name for it here in Germany: "Wellensalat" (meaning
"Wave Salid").
The next guy has an ORION and works the DX. You don't even hear it. Sure,
it might be the antenna, but it is just as likely to be the receiver if
there is a big pile-up and the DX station is week.
HERE ARE THREE "REAL LIFE" EXAMPLES WHERE IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE:
EXAMPLE NUMBER ONE:
At my old QTH near Munich, a neighbor down the street was also a ham.
We had about 200 meters separation between our antennas.
He ran a very healthy kilowatt and his favorite band was 40m, where he had
regular SSB skeds with VK on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
I would run contests in CW and also be trying to work multipliers in the
Pacific on 40m at the same time.
KEEP IN MIND, OUR 40m BAND WAS ONLY 100 KHz WIDE! (7.000 to 7.100).
We both had dipoles that were strung parallel to each other.
<> With a good radio, like the Omni VI+, I could continue to operate and
work strong and medium stations, but it was nearly impossible to work the
weak ones. My K2, WITH an external 'TUNABLE' preselector could too.
<> My TS-480, and my Jupiter were pretty useless under those conditions,
but I could occasionally work strong stations. The receivers were just
getting torn up too badly to do much with them.
<> My IC-706 MKII G was totally useless. Its RX was torn up so badly that
I couldn't hear or work anything.
<> My ORION's first RX could hear and work weak stations, as long as I was
more than about 5 kHz away from his frequency.
<> But my ORION's second RX was worse than the Omni or K2, yet still better
than the TS-480. It was usable but significantly worse than when using its
first RX.
THE UNDERLIEING DIFFERENCE HERE IS "CONVERSION."
The good radios all have downward conversion, the bad radios have upward
conversion.
I only had an OMNI VII at that QTH for about 2 weeks and did not run a
contest with it, nor did I get out of bed early enough to see how it
performed when my buddy was on the air. Would have been very interesting.
I just didn't think to try that.
EXAMPLE NUMBER TWO:
At multi-multi contests, we have 12 stations with legal power on the air at
the same time.
There is a "Run" station and a "S&P" station on each band. All stations are
running the same mode.
We separate the antennas as far away from each other as possible, but the
two stations on any band are sitting next to each other on the same table.
Under these condx, with an excellent transceiver (e.g., ORION or K3), it is
possible for the S&P station to listen just a few kHz away from the run
station. With an Omni VI, it was more like 15 kHz separation required.
Most rigs with upwards conversion just don't function under these condx at
all. Exceptions are few (e.g., IC-7700/7800, OMNI-VII).
EXAMPLE NUMBER THREE:
Field Day in the US where you often have an SSB and CW station on the same
band at the same time, especially 40 and 20m.
My club only ran 100w, and it was really tough to be on 40m SSB and CW at
the same time, even though one antenna was vertical and the other
horizontal. Unfortunately we only had Japanese radios, until the last year
before I left, where one guy brought his new K3. Using a half way decent
radio like a 756-Pro III, you could work, but when the second station was
something cheap (i.e. these tiny rigs costing under $1000), the op was
unable to hear much at all. We had to keep swapping radios around until we
would found two that could kinda co-exist. Too bad they didn't use Ten-Tecs
or Elecrafts.
PEOPLE who never operate under these conditions will be pleased with the
performance of most radios.
The reason we have different opinions on this point is because we don't all
operate under the same condx.
If you never plan to operate under any of the conditions described above,
you are lucky.
You have a much broader selection of radios to pick from than I do!
73
Rick, DJ0IP
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of Richards
Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 4:58 AM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment
Subject: Re: [TenTec] RX366
On 5/19/2013 7:13 PM, Rick - DJ0IP / NJ0IP wrote:
> Fundamentally it gets down to a couple of things, like which side of
> the pond do you live on, and if you care whether you might be the 5th
> guy or 155th guy to work a DX station.
Phooey. If you can hear him, then the difference between
being the 5th guy or the 155th guy to work him is your
transmitter and his receiving antenna, not your receiver.
After all, the comment presumes I can hear him in either
case on either rig!
;-)
> Rob also says something in all of his presentations which isn't
> apparent from looking at lists, but it is very important.
> You don't have to have the best radio on the list, your radio just has
> to be "good enough."
I think that is exactly what John was saying.
> So although you are very correct in the spirit in which you wrote your
> post, there are many transceivers which are so crappy that one should
> simply avoid them if he has any competitive interest at all.
Nobody on this list owns one of them. . . ;-)
Just MY take.
====================== K8JHR ===========================
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