[CQ-Contest] I.C.E. vs. Dunestar

[David Hachadorian]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kelly Jones" <kjones at virtualcohesion.com>
To: <cq-contest at contesting.com>
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 5:46 PM
Subject: [CQ-Contest] I.C.E. vs. Dunestar


> I'm thinking about either getting a set of individual 
> filters or
> possibly an "all in one" bandpass filter but trying to 
> decide which is
> better.  I have experiences with both and from what I've 
> seen, both
> appear to work fine.
>
> Anybody care to comment?  I see Dunestar costs slightly 
> more than I.C.E.
> Are they worth the extra cost?
-----------------------------

I have the Dunestars. My local buddy W7WW has the ICE boxes. 
There are two thing I don't like about the ICE 6-band box:

1. The signal path goes through 12 sets of relay contacts in 
series. I have seen problems with the received signal 
dropping out, and one has to "whack the box" to get them 
back. The Dunestar box has only 2 sets of relay contacts.

2. The capacitors in the ICE box get very hot, especially on 
10 meters, and will fail by permanently making a large 
change in capacitance. You can get better capacitors 
("snubbers") from www.mouser.com . They still get very hot, 
but so far they have not failed.


Dave Hachadorian, K6LL
Yuma, AZ








































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