Hi, Everybody,
I am about to talk about some of Ten Tec's competition in a manner that
will "stir the pot" and reveal a somewhat "anti-Kensucom" bias. If this
is going to offend your sensibilities, please do not continue reading
and delete this message now. I do not wish to offend you, but I will
make a point about all of this at the end.
In the July 2003 issue of QST, the new Icom IC-703 is reviewed. I have a
few observations after reading the review:
1/ The reviewer says that the box and manuals of the IC-703 say that it
has 6-meter capability, but this is not the case!
2/ The IC-703 Plus has already been released. So I guess we can look
forward to yet another review of *that* transceiver soon.
3/ The third-order intercept point on 20 meters at 5 kHz spacing with
the preamp on is -21 dBm.
4/ The CW keying problems of the IC-706 are still there, all these years
later! (Shortening of *all* dits in full break-in mode above 30 WPM,
leading edge spike on the CW waveform, and may I add no discernible
waveshaping of the CW signal.)
5/ In the reviewers words, "The transmitter, however, shows relatively
high third-order products during two-tone testing IMD testing... The
'703 performs about 6 dB worse than the MkIIG here."
6/ The phase noise plot shows significantly higher phase noise than,
say, the $95 1340 T-kit transceiver.
Now let's go back a couple of months to the May 2003 QST. There we find
a review of the new Yaesu FT-897, which at the time of the review I'm
sure was Yaesu's latest and greatest portable rig, but now... well, I
won't go into that.
A few observations:
1/ The reviewer uses activating the keyer as an example to explain how
the menu system works. You have to read it twice to make sure he isn't
intending to criticize the procedure, but merely describing exactly how
to do it.
2/ The receiver current drain of this 'portable' rig is about 1.0 A.
3/ The rear panel is designed so that it cannot accept a 1/4" to 1/8"
adapter.
4/ On 20 meters, the third-order intercept point is -32 dBm, 11 dB worse
than even the IC-703.
5/ Again, the CW waveform has no apparent waveshaping. Please, do not
operate one of these rigs within 10 miles of me when I am on-the-air on
160 meters.
6/ The reviewer describes a bug in the rig's tuning steps that he
learned later was an "undocumented feature".
7/ The reviewer states, "The manual needs more proofreading,
explanations of how functions work, and more detail about how to operate
them." I guess Yaesu needs a Scott Robbins to write a good application
note on getting the most out of the rig.
8/ The transmitter IMD is even worse than that of the IC-703, but
apparently that didn't bother the reviewer enough to comment about it,
as the IC-703's reviewer had.
9/ The phase noise plot shows significantly higher phase noise than,
say, the $95 1340 T-kit transceiver.
10/ The fully loaded price is $1932.80.
11/ The '897 LCD backlight can be different colors! I bet that will make
up for many of the foregoing problems.
My point: Whatever allowances one is willing to make for these radios
should be applied to *all* radios, regardless of manufacturer.
Regards,
W6LX
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