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The Icom 706 Mk II G is a decent mobile with much better DSP. You just need a PhD to be able to figure out how to operate it.

Interesting point. There are indeed complaints about the sound quality of the FT-897D; personally, I think it sounds great.

I'll concede that the 706mkiig is potentially the single most popular HF/VHF/UHF all-mode radio. It got that way for being a very solid performer both mobile (in a car) and sitting on your desk. If I were to install a transceiver in my car, the 706mkiig is the one I'd go with.

However, there are hams that have studied the relative power usage of the 706mkiig and the FT-897 and found that the 706mkiig tends to suck down quite a bit of power even while only receiving, making it a poor candidate for portable (extra-vehicular, shall we say?) activity, such as mountain topping:

The FT-897 can be configured to use minimal current on RX by turning the dial light to automatic, and disabling the DSP. Using headphones helps as well. In this mode, you can get down to 550-600mA, which is much lower than counterparts like the IC-706. In fact, other than the dedicated manpacks like the F-817, VX-1210 and military equivilants, only a few rigs like the Elecraft are more frugal.

Just looking at the specifications for the FT-897D and for the IC-706mkiig:

FT-897D:

Squelched: 600 mA (Approx.)
Receive: 1 A

IC-706MKIIG:

Rx Standby: 1.8A
Max Audio: 2.0 A

I don't know what the OP means by mountain topping -- does he mean he's going to drive his truck to a mountain top and transmit from there or does he mean to toss everything he needs in a backpack and hoof it to a high point? The radio he chooses depends on that distinction. If he's backpacking, I would say the FT-897d is the best choice of the two.

It was indeed difficult ... in 1980. You probably had access to a computer only at work. But today you are correct, it is much easier to carry your own computer in a pocket than to worry about encryption, IT and other such things.

I have a couple of personal files on my work computer; one of them is the desktop background, and the rest are of a similar nature. If anyone wants to read the latest HRO catalog, I have a copy there.

Icom V8 and a j-pole made out of twin lead.

http://www.qsl.net/wb3gck/jpole.htm

http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/v8/

Bring fishing line and a slingshot, get the antenna up in a tree.

Under $200USD and easy to pack.

The resurgence of American amateur radio equipment companies is one of the great untold stories recently. I mean, one still has Japanese industry stalwarts Icom and Kenwood, who led the Japanese domination of the industry in the 1970s, but even Yaesu was bought by Motorola a few years back. The real news, though, is the new, innovative startups, doing state-of-the-art, truly wonderful designs, with simultaneous high performance, high quality, and reasonable prices. Companies like Elecraft and software-defined radio pioneer FlexRadio Systems come to mind, producing products unmatched by any of the mainstream companies.

It's a refreshing change.

You can use ICOM ID1 1.2ghz radios providing 128K half duplex. It is possible to run a pair at each end with high gain antennas to get full duplex without requiring a diplexor. They run around $1000 each, require NLOS and should get you 50-100 miles with very high gain antennas on both ends. Amateur Radio Technician grade license required in the US, don't know what the Canadian equivilent would be. Under amateur service there are restrictions on business use and data encryption (FYI). http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/dstar/id1/default.aspx Dean

Even that may be on it's way out for HF as well as VHF/UHF

Software controlled radios are becoming the new big thing for HAMs also. Any plans to write more 'flexible' software for the FLEX-5000A radio?
http://www.flex-radio.com/
Icom also has a neat receiver-only radio: http://icomamerica.com/en/products/receivers/pc/pcr2500/default.aspx

Check out the Icom D-Star system. It's a digital voice and data communications sysem that is routable across the Internet. It's built on open protiocols, and anyone can hack on it.

I think it is too cool to be able to program black boxes, either a receiver like the IC-PCR1000 or a pure software based T/R radio like FlexRadio

Visited the Tampa Amateur Radio club's field day operation but didn't participate this year, some photos up here - http://www.hamclub.org/. (Warning: server is already running slowly and I haven't even posted it to /. yet!)

The story I have to share is this-- it was very cool, they had the use of both the City of Tampa's police department's mobile command post as well as the Hillsborough Country Fire Rescue's mobile command post going with stations in each (all running on emergency power of course), plus a handful of RVs running on generators as well. Of course they also had traditional stations as well as slow scan tv, satellite communications and digital mode communications going as WELL as a "get on the air" station for any NON hams who want to, well, get on the air! Another interesting sight was the use of one of the fire department's chevy suburban trucks to anchor down the third guy wire on a 100 foot collapsable tower. (You can see that particular truck on the bottom of the club homepage, unfortunately NOT hooked up to the tower).

The City of Tampa and Hillsborough County and the Tampa Amateur Radio Club have a very close relationship and constantly drill and practice for emergency communications. And since Field Day is really just a big emergency communications drill (although every type of ham communications is represented) its no suprise the city and county let TARC use their equipment for this.

Unfortunately they had a lightning strike on the 100 foot tower in the middle of operations that took out a beautiful Icom 756pro-ii (http://www.icomamerica.com/amateur/hf/ic756proiim ain.asp. But that was the only loss (and they had a backup one ready to go). All in all it was awesome to check it out, maybe I'll participate next year!

For more on field day, check out the rules and also here's a nice little blurb about it

Cheers

The Amateur Radio SERVICE was never intended (nor needed, IMO) as a path for checking one's E-mail

I think you realize by now just how damaging you are to our great hobby. Part of what makes amateur radio great is that people come up with new functions and uses all the time. Can't stand digital modes, huh? After 27 wonderful years making terrific contributions to the hobby like this little gem, you must have learned the phrase "use it or lose it". Did you know that we have frequency allocations above 30MHz? Did you know that those frequencies could be worth a crapload of money to the FCC and commercial interests? Think about this for a second. In the 10GHz band **ALONE** we have 500MHz. About 100 times what you HF bigots use. Maybe we want to do some more interesting things than just pound copper. If you want to learn about the exciting forefront of ham radio technology, check out the Icom D-STAR system. It lets us run voice and 128k data streams simultaneously on 1GHz mobiles and 10GHz backbone links. Boy, 128k continuous data streams. That must really chap your ass. What are you doing to help us keep 10GHz? Running a 1/4-watt CW beacon? Gee, thanks.

You sound like a crusty old curmudgeon.. looking up your call to see how much longer you're going to be around to "help" the hobby. Crap, born in 1960. Looks like you'll be around for a while yet. May BPL piss you off enough to sell all your gear.

I did a 21.7 mile shot using Cisco Aironet BR342, Andrew 19dB solid dishes, and YDI
500 mw amps.

I'm a bit embarrased to admit using a wireless LAN product for backhaul work, but some morons overtightened
the patch cable on an Andrew P2F 5.2-5.8 GHz 2' dish hooked to a WiLan AWE-120 5.8 GHz radio and put their link out
of service.

Despite extensive tweaking the link never managed more than analog modem speeds. It helped in recomissioning the UNI band stuff, but was otherwise
useless for hauling traffic.

802.11[bag] is NOT an access product. Take a look at Alvarion's Breeze Access II, or better yet just wait for an
802.16 product meant to do access work.

802.11[bag] is NOT a mobile access product. That market belongs to licensed band products with ISDN like performance offered by cellular companies.
Anecdotal evidence of mobile access to one police department in a town of 12,000 does not equal proof of concept for operation in urban areas; its plain
dumb luck coupled with no competing ISM band ISP(yet).

802.11[bag] is NOT a backhaul product. Backhaul radios are made by WiLan, Redline, Aperto, Proxim, and others. The minimum cost is $2,500 an end just for
the radio, most of them are in the UNI band, the full duplex products are generally split band 5.2/5.7 GHz, and they provide typically eight to ten
mbits for entry level products, unlike 802.11b which NEVER, EVER gets 11 mbits in long shots, with 1 or 2 mbits being the typical rate.

802.11[bag] SHOULD NOT BE DEPLOYED BY MONKEYS. Are you a MoNkEy? If you haven't read Matthew S. Gast's 802.11 book published by OReilly and you
don't fully grok the implications of the shared MAC layer, you are just throwing nuts and filth from the treetops into the already busy ISM band.

Slashdot's coverage of other topics is relatively even. The coverage of radio is focused on 802.11[bag] and this is quite laughable most of the time
to those of us who have actually owned and operated a wireless ISP. Personally I think the editors ought to be giving us a whole lot more information
on ICOM's D-STAR, a 23cm (1.2 GHz) amateur band voice/data system.

If it's more than a hobby, I can't help but think that you're doing the general public a disservice by requiring search and rescue team members to have an amateur radio license in order to communicate effectively.

It's not -that- hard, as a non-profit or even a loose-knit group, to get a commercial-band frequency allocation from the FCC, share a frequency with someone else, and/or borrow repeater space.

Then, people wouldn't need licenses. They could just volunteer, be assigned a radio, and do whatever needs done.

Besides, the radios are simpler. You can tell someone "Only use channel 1; push this button to talk" and they'll generally just get it. Compare this with a typically button-laden, accident prone HAM radio, and I think it's obvious which one Joe Search Bumpkin would be more comfortable using.

The stench of self-important bullshit surrounding your post, KD5SMV, reminds me of a brief conversation I had with with a member of a local "Emergency CB Relay" league.

You know the type. You'll be meeting with a group of them sometime within the next 30 days in a wooden shack with a large tower just outside. That you'll be talking about antenna farms and radio mods while they'll be discussing hot linears does not detract from the insipid inanity mutual to both hobbies.

Icom is a top-tier manufacturer of ham radio gear. Their newest creation, the D-STAR system supports 128 kb/s data and phone (voice) over 1.2 GHz links and 10 GHz backbone links. The user radios have a mike, speaker, control head, as well as USB and 10 base T ethernet. Very interesting stuff.

Icom is a top-tier manufacturer of ham radio gear. Their newest creation, the D-STAR system supports 128 kb/s data and phone (voice) over 1.2 GHz links and 10 GHz backbone links. The user radios have a mike, speaker, control head, as well as USB and 10 base T ethernet. Very interesting stuff.

Somewhat OT, but I use one of their PCR 1000 wide-band computer controlled receivers in my Jeep not only to monitor ham and NOAA channels, but also in place of the am/fm stereo. Good stuff.

I forgot to mention this in the submission, but ICOM also makes scanners that you can hook up to a regular PC. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there is any Linux software...

A number of you have noted that the American version blocks the cell phone frequencies, but rumor has it that snipping out a resistor removes the block.

--Eric

here it is

TenTec's RX-320 is a solid rig, but a bit dated. Newer receivers, such as the Icom PCR1000, outperform the RX-320 in every way (VFO speed, frequency coverage, receive modes, sensitivity, filters, notch, etc). Of course it costs more than twice as much, but you get more than 1 Ghz additional receive coverage (100 kHz - 1.3 GHz), which allows it to be used as a scanner, and not just a SWR.

Dan East

There is even a programming library and some applications available to control various radios.

There is even a programming library and some applications available to control various radios.

There is even a programming library and some applications available to control various radios.

Thanks for the FYI. I haven't purchased the r3 or the r2, mostly because I'm still a poor college student. The X10 FAQ site quotes the following as the transmission frequencies for its video "senders".

X10 cameras and Video Senders use the following frequencies:
Channel A: 2.411 GHz
Channel B: 2.434 GHz
Channel C: 2.453 GHz
Channel D: 2.473 GHz

Given that Channels A & B are at the outer most edge of the r3's receiving range, and Channels C & D are outside the receiving range of the r3, which is quoted by the r3's specs page. I could see why there would be the need for a pre-amp and external antenna. Oh well I guess the simplest and cheaper solutions are most often the best solutions, though sometimes slightly heavier.

Or get one of these: Icom R3. Far more portable.

Icom has a smaller solution and with many other features such as being compact and lightweight. Both features that will keep you traveling further and enjoying the spoils of unsuspecting X10 users for many hours to come.

1. Internal. This is the Winradio approach. The good news is that, as processors become faster and faster, they're able to absorb more of the electronics into software layers. The latest WinRadio is akin to all those Winmodems we've seen. However, the environment within a computer case isn't exactly the best place to put an RF circuit -- it's full of all kinds of strong fields and oddball harmonics.

2. External. A much nicer place to put your radio is in a nice RF tight box a few feet away from all that nonlinear harmonic crapola. And, after all, the output is relatively low bandwidth, so bring it into the system through an I/O port -- USB, 1394, heck even a serial port will do.

What you really want is an Icom PCR-1000, covers 100 kHz to 1.3 GHz (continuous if you shop in Akihabara), multimode. Hook it up to a serial port and an audio in jack, and you're all set to vacuum the ether.

Or, just check out the JavaRadio network of PCR-1000 equipped sites around the world...

I for one would love to give it a go, but every site I've looked at described hundreds of hours of studying and tests and tens of thousands of dollars in equipment. Is there any way to build a cheap but effective setup? Maybe in the $1000 range?

The tests are not that hard. If you know basic electronics, you can pass the Tech and General exams with a few hours of study. Here are practice tests It takes about 30 Hours to learn the Morse Code for Tech+ and General tickets, but you only need that for the HF bands.

You can pick up a Icom-706MKIIg rig for about $800 used and it should be all the radio you will ever need.

Not really a dump idea. Amateur hand held tranceivers have long had cross band repeat and dual receive. Icom is one company that makes them. Some of these include dc to light receivers, hundreds of memories and the ability to transmit on up to 4 differenct frequency bands. If people really want "free" communications an amateur radio license is super easy to get.

While there are certainly some people who fit this criteria, many are not. There are people of all different ages, and weight categories, who are hams. The public should really try to visit something like Field Day sometime; people seemed to find it quite interesting that the back parking lot of a high school suddenly had four 70 foot towers and dozens of tents scattered around.

Also, as far as the equipment, the equipment is surprisingly modern, and we don't all make it out of scrap metal... Yaesu, Icom, Kenwood, and Alinco are all popular amateur radio manufacturers.

Also, hams have launched a ton of satellites; the newly-launched AO-40 satellite has a footprint that covers practically half the Earth at a time. Now I know, with your super-duper cell phone, you can contact anyone with a phone, even if you're in the middle of nowhere.

But suppose you're somewhere like California, with the power crisis. The cell towers suddenly lose power. Or worse yet, there's a major disaster. Experience has shown that cell towers quickly become extremely jammed; transmissions on trunking radio systems get queued; and the hams help out.

Also, even in normal conditions, there's a big difference between a cell phone and a ham radio. To paraphrase someone else (dont' remember who) - would you call complete strangers on complete cell phones? Would you ask them what type of cell phone they had? No, they'd think you're a nut and would hang up.

Of course, there's more to ham radio than contacting random people and asking what type of radio they have... There are actually a lot of neat things to do with ham radio, check out something like ARRL, which has a bunch of info about ham radio.
________________________________________________

the Icom IC-R3 Handheld audio/video receiver!

This thing rocks! With a frequency coverage of 0.495-2450 MHz (cellular frequencies blocked), and AM, FM, WFM modes built-in. You can watch live camera feeds, security cameras, TV, and tons more! This used to be an NSA and FBI toy -- now anyone can get one. Lot's of fun to be had with this thing.