Re: [TenTec] subject added...rig specs

[tongaloa <tongaloa@alltel.net>]

Thanks for comments.

I have done a lot of traveling with rigs and find that KISS means 
minimize the number
of items one has to carry and make them easy to carry.

My long time favorite, but way to long of tooth, travel rig was the 
Yaesu FT101B.
Pinet out so it can match ad-hoc antennas very well with nothing more 
than a small
L net external. It will operate on available AC anywhere in the world or 
DC.  It,
the L net, a couple of rolls of wire, handheld mic, and the bug, and I 
can operate anywhere.
It has a handle so is easy to carry.

Light was always a problem when running on battery at night. Plug in for 
LED on the radio fixes this.
Carrying the extras was a pain. Imagine pushing a wheelbarrow with the 
FT101, a car battery, and the
other stuff, through a salt marsh, to the base of an old broadcast 
vertical for some 160m DX.
Haveing a bunch of stuff checked and you may end up spending a week on 
some exotic island with
the rig and nothing else. Cloths, you might find locally. A power 
supply? An antenna tuner? Forget it.

The new rigs can be made small so KISS to me says, make the box big and 
carry everything else inside.
It need not be heavy though. A handle is a must. Some D rings for 
strapping to the backpack would be handy.
6 is open often enough that it is nice to have the capability. If 
running off a battery, the adjustable power, provided
efficiency is maintained means you can get more QSO per battery. Just 
adjust power output until you
the number of repeat requests levels off.

Allowing for physically larger box one can have a nice spacious front 
panel. Plenty of room for
separate TX and RX freq displays. When working pileup from the DX end, 
this is a very nice feature.

-bob

NJ0IP wrote:

> Bob, yours is a very different rig than what some of us want.  Physically,
> yours is going to end up being closer to the size of the Jupiter.  You make
> it far to complex. Like someone else already said, similar to the strategy
> of the Scout.  KISS.
>
> I don't want a P.S. (don't always need it) or AT (don't always need it)
> built in because I want the rig to be reasonably small.  And when I need a
> matchbox, it usually must be one which has a broader tuning range than any
> rig's built-in matchbox.  Matchbox and P.S. can be checked (on flights), but
> I prefer to hand-carry the transceiver.  That's why it needs to be small -
> yet not so small that it is difficult to operate.  I find the K2 hard on the
> boarder of being too small.  Which reminds me, "Must have passband tuning"
> (since the K2 does not).  I certainly would welcome an improved D.C. power
> connecter.  AND PLEASE A USB2 INTERFACE (instead of RS232).  Or better yet,
> give it a NIC which is probably more future-proof than both the USB2 and
> Serial.
>
> 73
> Rick (still dreaming)
>
> ------------------------------------
> My ideal traveling rig.
>
> HF plus 6.
> Carry handle
> Adj 10 > 100W efficient use of power at all levels.
> Quality speech processor.
> CW, full QSK, built in memory keyer.
> Built in universal power supply with BIG wingnuts for attaching battery
> and ground.
> Built in MANUAL antenna match and big wingnut for attaching wire (like the
> marine rigs that have a big insulator and an SO-239)
> Airplane luggage rack size with covers for front and rear and rugged
> enough case and
> covers that it could be checked baggage without additional packaging.
> Waterproof case!
> space inside for storing keys, logs, antenna wire, some feed line,
> microphone.
> Split ops with TWO freq indicators that can be red in full sun or in the
> dark.
> Accessory power on the front panel for a LED type reading lamp and
> notebook PeeCee.
> Two headphone with separate volume control and two key jacks.
> Good filters and band pass tuning.
>
> -bob
>
>
>
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