Topband: Low Band Backup Rig?
Tom Rauch
w8ji at contesting.com
Sun Dec 28 10:37:09 EST 2003
I have only had three of those rigs here, the 570, Jupiter and the IC706.
The Jupiter and 706 are both what I call "very casual operation ragchew
radios". I think you could find better values for a DX radio. The 570 was OK
for a secondary backup radio, but the one I had was modified to use a narrow
roofing filter.
The 706 does what it was designed to do (be a compact mobile rig) very well.
It has some transmitter purity shortfalls (especially on SSB), and will have
transmitted and receive bandwidth issues if signals are more than moderately
strong. I still have one for mobile.
The Jupiter I used was very sensitive to RF voltages on some external ports
(like the QSK control ports) and had some boot-up issues. It probably is an
OK radio for casual use if you don't use QSK configuration with an
amplifier, and don't have the boot up issues I had!
73, Tom W8JI
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