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Best mid range HF.....
- Thread starter 74IN
- Start date
SIX-SHOOTER
ICOM CENTRAL.7610,9100,PW-1,HEIL FIN & HEIL PR-781
MID PRICED?
That is a HIGH price for a MID PRICED "HF" only rig! I was thinking more like an ICOM 718.A "USED" ICOM 746 PRO is $900 or so & a GREAT radio with 100 watts on HF,6 & 2 meters.
SIX-SHOOTER
That is a HIGH price for a MID PRICED "HF" only rig! I was thinking more like an ICOM 718.A "USED" ICOM 746 PRO is $900 or so & a GREAT radio with 100 watts on HF,6 & 2 meters.
SIX-SHOOTER
I hear you on the price issue.
Unfortunately, anything under 2K seems to be "mid priced".
You can spend 10 to 15K on an HF rig. Well maybe you can't, I know I can't, some do.
The K3 100W kit is 2K. That's with you doing the assembly of the rig with completed boards.
Yaesu FT DX-9000, FT9000d, FTdx9000mp, FTdx9000 Contest Transceivers
Icom IC-7800 Amateur Transceiver, Icom 7800
My 706MKIIG's replacement (the 7000) is 1300$ without shipping from some retailers and the 706MKIIG was not far from it.
Bummer things cost so much, but I want to get what I can for what I can spend. Never had a new one, maybe I can once.
Unfortunately, anything under 2K seems to be "mid priced".
You can spend 10 to 15K on an HF rig. Well maybe you can't, I know I can't, some do.
The K3 100W kit is 2K. That's with you doing the assembly of the rig with completed boards.
Yaesu FT DX-9000, FT9000d, FTdx9000mp, FTdx9000 Contest Transceivers
Icom IC-7800 Amateur Transceiver, Icom 7800
My 706MKIIG's replacement (the 7000) is 1300$ without shipping from some retailers and the 706MKIIG was not far from it.
Bummer things cost so much, but I want to get what I can for what I can spend. Never had a new one, maybe I can once.
Attachments
I guess it all boils down to what defines a "mid range" HF radio. Is it price or performance? Both are easy to define but unlike conventional wisdom, the two don't track linearly. There are radios priced at the high end whose performance in some areas is mid-grade. For example, there has been a lot of talk about the FT-5000 lately on the Elecraft mailing list and while reactions to the latest review of it in QST were positive, it was pointed out that the transmitted phase noise is only -130 dBc/Hz from 10
kHz to 1 MHz. As the referenced poster argued, when feeding an amplifier at legal limit, the transmitted phase noise will be S4 or so in any receiver within a mile or so of that station! By his calculations one may need to be at least 6 miles away before the transmitted phase noise drops below the band noise. In my opinion, that is unforgivable in 2010. Especially from a radio that is touted as being top of the line or thereabouts.
The above example is not unusual, sadly enough. I know that we spend most of our time comparing features and receiver specs, but our transmitters impact everyone around us when we transmit. There will be those who argue that such rigs meets Part 97 specs but that is the bare minimum we should strive for.
So, what do we do? The easiest is to compare specs and shop accordingly. ARRL maintains an archive of product reviews that have appeared in QST over the years. These documents are an invaluable resource as they are really the only documented tests most radios ever receive.
All that said, what's my recommendation? Of course it would be the K3. Yes, it seems pricey fully optioned, but I think the performance and continuing improvement and addition of features make it an incredible value and its friendly to our neighbors on the bands. Various ops have reported operating two K3s on the same band simultaneously without knowing the other was there until within about 10 kHz (I have no experience in that regard).
So if we compare by price and consider that $5 to $10k roughly defines the "high end" offerings and $1500 and lower defines the "low end", we can fit a lot of radios comfortably into the "mid range". As optioned, my K3 with 100 Watt PA, 1 PPM TCXO, and additional 2.1 kHz and 500 and 200 Hz filters came in at just under $2400 (biggest one-time purchase of my ham radio career) which is well under the mid range mid-price point of $3250. Adding the internal tuner is another $300 which still is well below the mid range middle price point. Of course that is still about $900 above the TS-590S mentioned earlier which makes a difference to a strained budget, but the K3 offers up to five filters in each receiver when the optional second receiver is added. There are more features and ways to use this radio that I've yet to explore but I have a rig that ranks near the top in all around performance for a lower mid-range price. That is an amazing value to me for a "mid range" radio.
kHz to 1 MHz. As the referenced poster argued, when feeding an amplifier at legal limit, the transmitted phase noise will be S4 or so in any receiver within a mile or so of that station! By his calculations one may need to be at least 6 miles away before the transmitted phase noise drops below the band noise. In my opinion, that is unforgivable in 2010. Especially from a radio that is touted as being top of the line or thereabouts.
The above example is not unusual, sadly enough. I know that we spend most of our time comparing features and receiver specs, but our transmitters impact everyone around us when we transmit. There will be those who argue that such rigs meets Part 97 specs but that is the bare minimum we should strive for.
So, what do we do? The easiest is to compare specs and shop accordingly. ARRL maintains an archive of product reviews that have appeared in QST over the years. These documents are an invaluable resource as they are really the only documented tests most radios ever receive.
All that said, what's my recommendation? Of course it would be the K3. Yes, it seems pricey fully optioned, but I think the performance and continuing improvement and addition of features make it an incredible value and its friendly to our neighbors on the bands. Various ops have reported operating two K3s on the same band simultaneously without knowing the other was there until within about 10 kHz (I have no experience in that regard).
So if we compare by price and consider that $5 to $10k roughly defines the "high end" offerings and $1500 and lower defines the "low end", we can fit a lot of radios comfortably into the "mid range". As optioned, my K3 with 100 Watt PA, 1 PPM TCXO, and additional 2.1 kHz and 500 and 200 Hz filters came in at just under $2400 (biggest one-time purchase of my ham radio career) which is well under the mid range mid-price point of $3250. Adding the internal tuner is another $300 which still is well below the mid range middle price point. Of course that is still about $900 above the TS-590S mentioned earlier which makes a difference to a strained budget, but the K3 offers up to five filters in each receiver when the optional second receiver is added. There are more features and ways to use this radio that I've yet to explore but I have a rig that ranks near the top in all around performance for a lower mid-range price. That is an amazing value to me for a "mid range" radio.
I think the price is at the high end of 'mid-range', but you get a lot of bang-for-$$$. If... the computer it is connected to can run the software effectively.
I have toyed with the idea of a Flex radio. What is keeping me from making the purchase is the current laptop I have. It works well with HRD for control and digital decode, but not sure it will keep up beyond that.
If your current computer is current in hardware and software then it is back to specification comparison vs. $$$.
Mike
I have toyed with the idea of a Flex radio. What is keeping me from making the purchase is the current laptop I have. It works well with HRD for control and digital decode, but not sure it will keep up beyond that.
If your current computer is current in hardware and software then it is back to specification comparison vs. $$$.
Mike
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