At 07:04 PM 04/07/2002 -0400, you wrote:
>John W3ULS wrote:
>...What are brand-new hams to think when they pick up
>the May QST and are told in so many words they need look no further than
>the IC-746PRO if they want a state-of-the-art rig? In a few years they
>probably will find out the truth, but by then the ARRL will have sown more
>skepticism.
Hi John, et al...
John, if you look in the callbook, you'll see that I'm actually a rather
new ham. My first HF reciever was a fourth-hand SEARS-labeled FRG-1. I
augmented it very shortly thereafter with a 'real' HF rig... and Icom 745.
At that time, I read the reviews, but most of the numbers and such could've
been written in sanskrit, and it would've been just as understood by me. I
set up the IC-745 with optional SSB and CW filters, and used it for copying
code from my apartment while studying for the 5 and 13wpm tests. After I
made that ticket, I used the 745 for some CW, and some SSB, and it worked.
I'd heard about T-T gear, both glorious praise and cursing. I'd heard all
sorts of Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, JRC, Drake, Collins, etc.,- all on the air,
and through my 745, I couldn't tell the difference.
Then one day, I was on business in Baltimore, walking through NK3ST, and
met Nick K3NY. Several months later, I was back in Baltimore, and hooked
up with Nick and the gang, to help guest-op NK3ST. Nick brought his Omni
down into the sub, and that was my first ears-on exposure to the Omni.
Now, a submarine isn't exactly a great environment to do a test-drive, and
with all the gas-tube lamps in the downtown, it was downright noisy, but I
noticed one thing- Even amidst all that noise, and the tinny interior of
the shack, the Omni sounded a whole heckuva lot better than my IC-745, back
in a well damped, well grounded, well antenna'd, quiet RF environment of my
shack. When I got back home, I started working on the 745 to try to solve
those problems, and I solved quite a few, but there's always limits to a
design which just can't be fixed with new capacitors, toroids, re-routing
wires, foiling noisy stuff, etc. The Icom is a neat little rig, but the RX
just doesn't shine in those strong-signal environments, and I've been told
that the TX ain't very nice either.
Had it not been for my being in the right place at the right time, I
wouldn't've had the opportunity to buy this Omni VI / Centurion
combination. So far, I've been told that I sound wonderfully human, and I
don't suffer from listening fatigue either sitting in the operating chair,
or with the volume cranked up while soldering at the bench across the room.
Amidst this revelation, I was still totally baffled by all the numbers
quoted, but the part that did win me... was driving Nick's Omni. As a
result, I take ALL magazine review articles with a grain of salt.
Actually, I have a 30-lb block sitting on the side-table, and after I read
a glamourizing article, I just lean over and take a good lick or two.
Sometimes I hafta push the cat hair away, but I always stay on an even keel...
DK :-)
73's from KW0D Dave in LeClaire, Iowa
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