[UK-CONTEST] What is the best VHF Radio

[Jiri Culak]

Hi Neil,

We used FT847 few times in contests in OK2/JN99 which is known as QRM
alley....center of activity, another 5-8 Contest groups all running
multiple systems and "few" GS35Bs and radio was "coping just about". We
tried Icom 746es (not that good) and transverters too. In your case,
spectrum analyser would be handy as it's hard to say... anyway, did you
have NB in circuit? (Noise Blankers are big NO NO in crowded bands) as
they produce realy big splatter even from clean signals. Was the 24kHz
wide station only station on the band at the time? 

If you do want to have high performance station with little sacrifice to
both strong signal handling and sensitivity and selectivity, I would
recommend good transverter (TVVF144a. Javornik MK2...even old Microwave
Modules MML144 gave much better results than bare foot today's radios!)
Or, you can search internet and try to buy rigs like: Nescom BMT225,
TXR210(Snezka) or the ultimate R2CW. Those were developed in Czech in
90ies for only one purpose and that was: contesting in extremely crowded
bands and running HIGH power (the output is really dream, no phase
noise, very smooth ALC,etc).

Regarding FT1000MP XVERter output, yes, spurious are BAD and using 10W
RF OUT settings and 15dB PAD will give 300mW and is near perfect
solution.

You mentioned masthead LNA? In most cases these are NOT being overloaded
and failing bit is behind them. It is handy to have option of turning
them off, and to have variable ATT pad between RX input and LNA.


PS: I was on the air in 144Trophy whole 24hours and heard both good and
strong and bad and strong signals.

Thanks for Qs BTW.

Jiri M0ITY

PS: Answer is, there is no such a thing as ultimate VHF Rig and
commercial stuff is usually compromise as DXer needs might be different
from Contesters.
FT847 is good enough, same with small 857D,897F which I used both with
good results.





Experiment, Experiment.


-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Ian Burns
Sent: 08 September 2008 09:13
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] What is the best VHF Radio

I can thoroughly recommend the FT100MP and Javornik II transverter 
combination. The receiver is not totally bomb proof but is noticeably 
better than my FT847. We used the setup at G0FBB in the 2m trophy this 
weekend and had no real problems despite some very loud signals on the
band.

The only drawback of this combination is that the transverter output of 
the FT1000 can be too dirty to use on a crowded band. It's a fair way 
off the VHFCC recommendations of -100dBc... The main o/p is clean enough

to use via a suitable attenuator though.

73
Ian.

Dave wrote:
> At 20:21 07/09/2008 +0100, G3RIR wrote:
>
> There is a useful comparison of HF Tcvrs here 
> http://www.df9ic.de/tech/trxtest/trxtest.html
>
> 73 Dave G4RGK
>
>   
>> Earlier today I reported to a station on 144MHz that his signal was
very
>> wide. I could hear splatter about 12kHz either side of his signal.
>>
>> I turned off my mast-head pre-amp, switched in an attenuator and
turned my
>> beam side on so that I only had s7 registered on my s-meter. The
splatter
>> was still noticeable.
>>
>> The station concerned said he was definitely not over-driving
anything. He
>> asked what receiver I was using and on being told it was an FT847 he
>> suggested that it was my receiver at fault. This may of course be the
>> problem but he wasn't the only loud signal on the band but was by far
the
>> widest.
>>
>> What are the group members' views on the FT847 in handling such
situations
>> and indeed what is the best receiver around for 144 and 432?
>>
>> I am also interested to know what is the specified noise figure for
the
>> FT847; of course the manual only refers to sensitivity!
>>
>> Neil, G3RIR
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> UK-Contest mailing list
>> UK-Contest at contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/uk-contest
>>     
>
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