[TenTec] What Radio?

[CSM(r) Gary Huber]

I agree with Jim regarding the radio environment you and your radio 
equipment operate in. Still those radios with 80db or better dynamic range 
at 2KHz are competitive when the operator understands the need to reduce the 
RF gain and how to operate the receiver in the midst of strong signals and 
phase noise. I'm using a OMNI-VII with a N4PY sub-receiver mod (FLEX-1500) 
for a panadapter. The panadapter really provides a lot of information 
regarding signals and noise in and near the QMNI-VII's pass-band.

Like Jim, I also have a neighbor about 1000 feet away, Keith, AC9S who 
chases DX and contests. Frequently we are on the same band in the same 
pile-up each running 1.5KW amps and unless we are within the filter 
pass-band of our receivers we just do not hear each other. I'm usually 
running a OMNI-VII (with all the mechanical filters) while Keith may run a 
TR-7 or ORION-II. He has other radios but we've not tested them.


73 es DX,

Gary - AB9M

-----Original Message----- 
From: Jim Brown
Sent: Tuesday, August 30, 2011 9:20 AM
To: tentec at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [TenTec] What Radio?

On 8/30/2011 6:32 AM, CSM(r) Gary Huber wrote:
> There's not a lot of difference between the top 10 radios listed in Rob
> Sherwood's chart

I admit to missing the initial post in this thread, but the obvious
question is, what do you want to DO with your radio, and what special
challenges do you face at your QTH, or with your style of  operating.
I've owned and liked a bunch of radios in my 56 years of hamming,
starting with a pair of Command sets for 80 and 40M that I used with an
S38D, a BC-348, a Heathkit Apache that I built, an SX-101 loaned by a
friend who couldn't pass the code test, a Drake 4-line, an HQ-129X, an
HT37, an Omni A, Omni V, FT100D, IC746, K2/100, TS850, and FT1000MP. My
operating bench now holds a pair of K3s with Sub-RX and P3s.  At one
time or another, I've run the Omni A, FT100D, IC746, and TS850 mobile on
the HF bands, mostly on CW. As a college EE student, I tuned up the
first several hundred TR3s that came off Drake's production line.

The P3 that I added to my K3s is the first spectrum display I've had on
a ham rig, and I find it VERY useful in contesting, DX chasing, and in
chasing down RFI issues. I also own an HP spectrum analyzer (bought
used), but it fills a VERY different purpose, and is not at all useful
as a ham operating accessory.  .

When you buy a rig, you're buying a receiver, a transmitter, and a user
interface. The receiver separates one signal from another, including
your ham neighbors. If they're a few blocks away and running high power,
you'd better have a REALLY GOOD receiver. You also need a really good
receiver if you're going to do serious contesting.  Many lower cost rigs
have relatively high phase noise, both on RX and TX, and on RX are
unable to separate strong QRM from the signal you're trying to work.
That phase noise is going to make you a bad neighbor when you transmit,
and make you hear your neighbors strong signals when you listen.

Close-in dynamic range matters when you're trying to work very close to
a strong signal. You say you don't do contesting -- well, many other
guys do, and if they are working close to your frequency, they're going
to blow you away if you don't have a good RX. You're going to call them
bad names, but your RX is really the problem.  I mostly do CW, but I'll
do SSB to contribute to a club effort, and I often get complaints from
guys with lousy receivers 5 kHz away who claim ownership of THEIR
frequency for a net -- but their frequency is 10 kHz wide, in their
minds.  I make a point of keeping my signal clean, and guys with good RX
can work right next to me.  K6XX is 3 miles away, both of us running
legal power to a really good antenna farm, and we can work 500 Hz apart
on CW and not know the other is there. On the other hand, another
85-year old OT 3 miles away wipes out all of the SSB portion of whatever
band that he's on with S9 phase noise and intermod.

So -- if you're going to use a radio "down the chart," realize that may
mean that you must avoid some parts of some bands when there's a
contest, or that your close-in neighbor may be mad at you because your
phase noise is spilling into his channel.  But if all you want to do is
rag chew when the bands are quiet, a lower down the chart rig may be all
you need.

73, Jim K9YC
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