Selecting your first Radio!

[goaliebob99]

If your looking to purchase a radio for the first time please read this from the ARRL's website. This will help you make an informed decishion. Buying Your First Radio I would recommend if your looking for a well rounded rig that can do HF and 2 meter (local FM repeaters) I would personally recommend an Icom 746Pro. It includes an antenna tuner built in, to help you match your antenna system to the rig.

 

[n1wbd]

Bob keep in mind that if you have any problems with a multiband radio such the 746 or 756 etc. You'll be off the air.

My suggestion would be to keep 2m and 440 as a separate station. I owned a 746 and was never happy with the performance on 2 meters it had a very noisy receiver. My suggestion for a good first HF rig would be to look at ICOM 718 or the new Alinco HF rig the price is right and it's not loaded with a lot of features that you'll never use.

If budget is a issue consider a older used radio.

Also keep in mind that while the ARRL has alot of good info it's not the only place to get suggestions.

 

[TheForce]

Does anyone build their own anymore?

 

[jayn_j]

Probably not since Heathkit closed shop. That was about the same time everything started going surface mount, requiring fancy soldering equipment and a lot of skill.

Its not like the old point to point wiring days.

My first rig was used. The receiver and transmitter each weighed 80 pounds and I was always fiddling trying to get them working right. Rigs these days just work.

 

[n1wbd]

Does anyone build their own anymore?

Yup there is Elecraft K3 it's basically all plug in boards very little if any soldering though.

Ramsey Electronics still sells some smaller kits as well as MFJ.

 

[n1wbd]

But still there's nothing like the warm glow of tubes in the winter to keep warm. There is a couple of companies left selling kits but not many.

Probably not since Heathkit closed shop. That was about the same time everything started going surface mount, requiring fancy soldering equipment and a lot of skill.

Its not like the old point to point wiring days.

My first rig was used. The receiver and transmitter each weighed 80 pounds and I was always fiddling trying to get them working right. Rigs these days just work.

 

[TheForce]

I am really dating myself, I guess. I was not referring to kits, OM. I was talking about building as in Home Brew.

We used to say there were 3 types of hams. The ones who built their own were like artists, Those who built kits were like paint by the numbers. and those who just bought art to enjoy, like CB'ers with a ham license.

My first receiver was a kit, second receiver was a kit. I did buy a transceiver which was a Clegg 99er for 6 meters and a higher powered transmitter, the Johnson Viking 6N2 back in my tech days. Any of these names ring a bell? These were the only purchased rigs in my shack. Everything else was home brew. We got the parts from military surplus yards and most hams were members of MARS too.
All my HF transmitters were of my own design. jayn_j you mentioned 80 pounds, I think my HF transmitter weighed in at 10 times that. LOL! The choke in the main power supply weighed a hundred pounds. The main plate transformer was a surplus pole transformer I got for scrap copper price from the power company.

I guess it was a different philosophy but my father made me design build my first radios. He never got his ham ticket but was into building radios in the 30's. His uncle was a ham and started the first 2 AM radio stations in Reading PA and was the one who gave me my first Technician test.

Sadly, while I still have much of this stuff it is sitting rusting away and my wife keeps asking when I will get rid of it. She doesn't understand what the stuff means to me.

 

[jayn_j]

I didn't do a lot of what you would consider home brew. Mostly kits, but they seldom stayed perfectly stock either. Built a Heath DX-35 for my novice transmitter. At the time, novices were limited to crystal controlled oscillators. You changed frequencies by changing crystals. I hated trying to dig up the correct crystal, so I built a crystal switch for it. Seemed pretty simple, but the long lead lengths affected the frequencies, and on the early design kept them from oscillating at all. Lots of fiddling for a 13 year old.

Later, I built transmitters, accessories, and a Benton Harbor Lunchbox for 6M. Kits came from Heath, Allied and Lafayette. That Lunchbox at the end had almost no original parts left. Converted it to PTT. Then I hated the super regen receiver element, so I did a superhet conversion I read about in 73 magazine. Upped the power a bit (to 50 W) with a tube substitution and rebuilding the output stage. Then I wasn't happy with the stability or the need for crystals, so I designed and built a VFO and radically went with transistors.

I credit a lot of that to why I went into engineering, although it probably is the other way around. My son doesn't have those same opportunities in electronics, but he is still tinkering with stuff and is a senior getting ready to enter college, naturally in engineering. I think the drive is bred into us, the skills come from fiddling.

 

[TheForce]

You bring back memories. Weren't the kits from Allied, Knight kits? I recall my first receiver kit was a Knight R55. Ring any bells?

The Lafayette kits I recall were EICO. I built a few from them a 5" osc scope and a DC power supply. Also built a tube tester for my Dad from them.

the Heath kits I built were ham scopes, Modulation monitor and a spectrum analyzer. And the xcvr, the SB102. I loved that xcvr.

 

[jayn_j]

My first new rig was a Drake TR4 HF transceiver. I was 16 and I was in love with it and simply had to have it. Gave up all birthday and Christmas presents and then worked for 9 months turning 100 lb sacks of potatoes into 10 lb ones (at $1.10/hour) until I could save up the $575 it cost.

The fruit stand I was working at was just one block away from Amateur Electronic Supply and I swear I wore the paint off the demo unit by fondling it during my lunch hours.

 

[n1wbd]

My first rig was a National NCX-500 in 1985 operated exclusively on 10m as a Novice.

My first new rig was a Drake TR4 HF transceiver. I was 16 and I was in love with it and simply had to have it. Gave up all birthday and Christmas presents and then worked for 9 months turning 100 lb sacks of potatoes into 10 lb ones (at $1.10/hour) until I could save up the $575 it cost.

The fruit stand I was working at was just one block away from Amateur Electronic Supply and I swear I wore the paint off the demo unit by fondling it during my lunch hours.