[TenTec] Yep -- Omni VII

[Jim Lowman]

Hi Caity, Grant and all,

Caitlyn Martin wrote:

>Hi, Jim, Grant, and everyone else,
>
>First, I agree with everything Grant said about why general coverage
>can be important.  Most general coverage transceivers could also be
>modified when changes in amateur frequency allocations come along.  My
>Icom IC-723S (JA QRP version of the IC-728) meets NTIA standards for
>frequency stability on 60m with the CR-64 installed per the NTIA
>website. A simple mod made it 60m ready.  Most rigs without general
>coverage would have required much more extensive modification to add a
>band.  Of course, a software defined like the Ten Tec Argonaut V and
>Jupiter got a firmware upgrade and all was well.
>  
>
First, let me say that I was not putting down general-coverage 
reception.  Like many potential
hams in the 50s/60s and earlier, I began as a SWL.  My first receiver 
was a Hallicrafters
SX-110.  My amazement was the insistence by many modern-day hams that 
such coverage
was included.

Thinking about frequency agility is something that I hadn't considered, 
since a lot of time had
passed since the time that hams got the so-called WARC bands and the 
recent allocation of the
60m band.  My original Drake R-4 and T-4X (which I have to this day) 
would receive and
transmit on virtually any frequency between 1.8-30 MHz with additional 
crystals.  I believe that
the exception was the 5-6 Mhz range, which was an IF. 

>I am an avid shortwave listener and I was before I was a ham.  I have
>family overseas, mainly in Israel and Europe.  I like getting news from
>those places directly, not filtered through American press bias. 
>Shortwave is invaluable to me.  One of the things that has impressed me
>with Ten Tec is their early adoption of DRM (Digital Radio Mondiale),
>something the big three have ignored.  I'd love to see that capability
>in the ham line as well so a separate radio wouldn't be necessary.
>  
>
Guess I should revisit the SW BCBs; just not enough hours in the day.  
For that purpose I have
an Icom PCR-1000 that I've never used that much because of the 
difficulty of getting the software
to work with any version of Windows after Win98.  I have a Pegasus 
also.  Being in the
software development business, I am fascinated with the interfacing of 
ham radio hardware with
computers.  There is probably an SDR-1000 in my future, although I'm 
more interested in the
Linux version of the software than the proprietary M$ C# since I'm 
trying to go mostly open-
source between now and retirement.

>There was a time, as Jim correctly points out, when general coverage
>meant sacrificing receiver performance on the ham bands.  At that time
>rigs like those offered by Ten Tec, the Icom IC-740, and a handful of
>similar rigs I could mention by the big three, were far superior to the
>rigs with general coverage.  That is no longer true and there really is
>no advantage to ham bands only rigs at this time.
>  
>
Very true; technology has marched on in this regard!

>Just my .02...
>
>73,
>Caity
>K7VO
>
And a very worthy two cents it was!

73 de Jim - AD6CW

P.S.  Caity - why aren't you a member of the list?  Let me know if you 
want me to add you.