[VHFcontesting] What's your favorite IF radio?

[Zack Widup]

If you're really into homebrewing and feeling adventurous, try the KK7B
R2/T2, mini-R2/T2 or micro-R2/T2 combinations. You can add as many bells
and whistels as you want. I've been working on a version that operates on
144 MHz as an IF rig. I still have a couple bugs to get rid of (layout of
components is really critical with these designs). But I'm also thinking of
making a 28 MHz version as an IF radio for 50 through 432 MHz. Performance
is quite impressive.

You can make a very small and lightweight radio with these.

73, Zack W9SZ


On Fri, Mar 13, 2015 at 1:33 PM, Steve Kavanagh <sjkavanagh1 at yahoo.ca>
wrote:

> Dan:
>
> I've used the HTX-100 in the past on 50/222/432, with a mod to get low
> power out.  It works, but does have its limitations as Zack says.  Mine is
> also a bit sensitive to low battery voltage (resulting in chirp and FMing
> on SSB).  And it tends to need to have the microprocessor rebooted after it
> has been unpowered for a while (instructions are in the manual).
>
> I much prefer the K2 I have used recently on 50, 222, 432 and 903 MHz in
> the rover and on 2m in my CQ WW VHF FN05 operations.  It works fine down to
> 9V or so.  It can be set to read out the VHF/UHF frequency directly,
> including compensating for up to a few kHz of LO offset.  The drawbacks are
> that it costs at least 5 times as much as an HTX-100 on the used market,
> and you will be very unlikely to find a used one with the transverter
> interface board installed if you use a 1 mW TX level (and may have to look
> around a bit to find one with the SSB transmit board).  And it is a bit
> bigger than the HTX-100.
>
> 73,
> Steve VE3SMA
>
>
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