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…on an IC-7300. The little digital QRP rig is cool but I want to get back into real ham radio. Now all I have to do is figure out how to put up a decent antenna on a 37' boat.
On Edit: This will be the first brand new HF rig I ever purchased. The only other radio I ever bought new was an IC-2200H 2 meter mobile rig.
Edited by ad4mg: Spelling in title corrected.
:clap::clap::clap::clap::clap:
AT-180 or AH-4 working against a backstay wire.
A ton of my friends own that rig. At least one, multiples.
My eventual plan is to put one of those or its successor, along with an IC-9700 and an optioned-out R-8600 in my main shack and connect them to my LAN. The other end of the equation is a tablet PC and Jabra Bluetooth headset. Can hang out on the patio and play radio while visiting with whom or whatever stops by. Twice it's been horses. The other night it was a pair of fox kits.
That's a lot more complicated—not to mention expensive—than it seems because although I do already have an AH-4, using the backstay means I'd have to cut it and install two insulators and that requires a crane to hold up the mast during the process and that requires that my boat be hauled out of the water on a travel lift and that requires at least $1000. Besides, I'll be installing this on Ella's boat, which is a 37' trawler, which is a power boat, which means no backstay.Quote:
Originally Posted by N8YX
I talked to two people who own them and they had nothing but praise for it. That, along with the reasonable price ($999 at GigaParts), is why I decided to go for that particular model.Quote:
A ton of my friends own that rig. At least one, multiples.
102" whip and a proper loading coil and that set up (+AH-4) should tune up on any band 80-10.
160 isn't my forte. While I did once build a dipole that loaded up perfectly on it, height was an issue and it basically kept the worms warm.
Bay boiled mackerel anyone?
I was figuring an ~35' end-fed random wire run up over the radar mast.Quote:
Originally Posted by KG4CGC
Yeah, it's hard to get the recommended quarter wave over the ground on 160m. Erecting two 131' towers is a lot more than I'd want to deal with.Quote:
160 isn't my forte. While I did once build a dipole that loaded up perfectly on it, height was an issue and it basically kept the worms warm.
Bay boiled mackerel anyone?
Once, on the advice of a long-time ham I knew, I made a 160m vertical out of a 4' section of that green fiberglass camo netting support tubing close wound with #22 magnet wire over the entire length. It wasn’t usable (SWR was way up there) until I added a capacitance cap made out of 1/4" copper tubing, then it sort of worked, but only for use on a local 160m net.
Does her boat have a vertical mast? Yardarm w/ insulated wires (I'd use one on each side of the mast to lower the Q) or if the mast is metallic, look into a shunt feed arrangement.Quote:
Originally Posted by K6BSO
It does have a ~10 foot radar mast with a fiberglass dome on it, although it's up on the bridge deck which puts the top up at least 20 feet above the waterline. I've decided that I'm going to try running an end-fed wire from the Ah-4 over the top of the dome. Not the best of all possible solutions, but it should work. Here's a picture of it:Quote:
Originally Posted by N8YX
https://i.imgur.com/XvmXfSm.png
Just to clear things up: although the boat is in good mechanical shape and it is capable of going places, Ella prefers to think of it as her home and only moves it every few years when it's due for a maintenance haul-out. That's why I'm able to use the radar mast as an antenna support. When we want to have fun out on the water, we use my sailboat. Less disruption of our life and, with its sails and little 14hp diesel, it's almost free to operate.
Can you put one of these on the mast?
https://www.tarheelantennas.com/model_100a_hp
Not easily.Quote:
Originally Posted by N8YX
Ella and I got coax, a counterpoise wire and some control cable for the AH-4 run today. Coax ended up being about a foot short, of course, but that's easy enough to fix. I’ve exceeded my Doctor-ordered Maximum Allowable Time On Foot (DMATOF) so now I've got it propped up and am having a beer. The the antenna itself will have to wait a couple of more days.
Funny thing: While we were routing the counterpoise, Ella discovered an unopened package of black fishnet stockings (with sequins) down in a hard-to-get to compartment where the bow thruster motor lives. And because I’d never expect you to believe such a thing without proof:
https://i.imgur.com/8RiHFk5.png
Is that a Coors Banquet beer I see in the coolie?
I've always liked Coors Banquet beer.
Yes, it is. Ella’s favorite — she’s a beer drinking woman.Quote:
Originally Posted by ad4mg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0GrmmlCJu4
Mine likes Miller Lite.
In terms of beer, I veer towards the way heavier stuff. Drinking around a campfire, though, I love Leinenkugel Orange Shandy (if it can be found).
Yeah, I prefer something with a little more body myself, my current favorite being Lagunitas IPA. But I’m no beer snob — I'll drink a Budweiser if that’s what’s around.Quote:
Originally Posted by N8YX
Ella and I put up a 41' end fed longwire antenna up yesterday. Still need to wire up the AH-4 and add a few refinements but I can see the non-ionizing radiation at the end of the tunnel now.
The main (aft) support is a 20' telescoping aluminum flagpole that I got at Harbor Freight for $50. I added stainless steel hose clamps at the base of each section since the reliability of the twist locks on these things is known to be, uh, less than ideal. The forward support is the hollow fiberglass handle of a fishing gaff with the nasty sharp steel hook cut off.
https://i.imgur.com/uq8lgo8.png
I miss beer. And wine, and anything with alcohol.Quote:
Originally Posted by N8YX
Just made my first QSO with the new station: PY5BH in Brazil on 15m FT8. AH-4 tuned my end-fed wire antenna in about two seconds flat, SWR 1.5:1. I can live with that.
Put a mic or a key on it and tell me where to listen...
OK, not practical for me to keep pinging the thread, so I'll put this out there instead. I listen on 21.051 to do my rbn torture. I can try a call but I'm only good to 13wpm.
"only good to 13wpm."
There are others who are envious of your only, sir.
Well now, true as that might be, it's only 13 on a good day.
I am being optimistic about my ability and should have said 8-10. I stumble quite a bit still.
Some day I will hear fast. I insist
A screenshot of my PSK Reporter page from yesterday:
https://i.imgur.com/DQOPayB.png
I am approaching the time when I too will pull the trigger on a 7300. I will pair it with my old OCFD after I inspect and rework some of the wire.
Any recommended accessories?
Does it come with a cable to pair it with your computer?
I spend 99% of my time on amateur radio just listening. I will not be using using it on 10m. I have a dedicated 10m rig and a dedicated 10m dipole that covers the planet.
I am also a MW (AMBCB) DX'er. Just one of those things I've been doing since 2nd grade. Has anyone tuned in on MW with a 7300?
We have a large 10M group in the area.Quote:
Originally Posted by KG4CGC
95% of its members have a 7300; one has two. They occasionally show up with other rigs but it's a favorite. Next time I'm on frequency I'll pop the question and see the responses.
My current weapons of choice for MW are a Drake R-7, JRC NRD-515 or Mackay Marine 3031A. The FT-980 doesn't do bad there either.
I was looking at a Kenwood 570D like I had back in the day. Did the jumper attenuator "mod" to open up reception for everything below 1.8 Mhz. I actually received 2 longwave broadcasts one night. One out of Germany and one out of Saudi Arabia. So, we're talking 20 years ago. The 7300 has a simple attenuator in the menu that is defaulted to on below 1.8Mhz and only requires a couple of touches on the touchscreen.Quote:
Originally Posted by N8YX
I was looking at some of this era of Kenwood radios on Ebay. Still selling for the same price I paid 20 years ago on the used market. The thing to consider is that it is now a 30 year old radio. Getting long in the tooth as we like to say. The new stuff is just amazing and for the price range of the 7300, the receive quality can't be beat.
As I was looking into getting more information on the 7300, one of the places I checked out is HRO. Yaesu is offering rigs in the price range we're talking about but I know zero about them ... even after reading all the sales hype. I had an FT-100 25 years ago. Amazing receive for a rig of any size and this was a compact mobile. Problem was the SWR mod that had to be done after you ran into the issue and while it helped, it was only a band-aid to a design flaw they should have fixed early on, not let the buyer/user be their beta testers.
I have heard the 7300 on the air. Clean, clear audio, not too sharp, not dulled out. Perfect range and tonal quality.
(Of note with regard to MW DX) I bought a Ray Jefferson DF 640 a number of years ago. It is made for use on your sea faring, small pleasure vessel, fishing boats, what have you as long as it is indoors in the bridge or cabin. It has the rotatable double ferrite bar antenna on top. One night while sitting in the front yard I picked up a low power, Vietnamese language station at 1600 or 1610 out of Texas. I don't speak Vietnamese but I listened for a good 40 minutes until I could come to this conclusion just by listening. Later I looked it up online. Pretty impressive for something without a longwire strung up in the trees!
The 7300 does not come with a computer interface cable but all you need is a USB A-B printer cable. One caveat, though: cheap USB cables are poorly shielded. I had a lot of trouble at first until I purchased a Triplite cable with ferrite chokes at both ends. At a whopping twelve bucks on Amazon it was a little more expensive than most but it was worth it.
I guess the next question is, where is the best place to order from?
One of the locals owns every high-end transceiver made in the last 20 years. Flex, Electraft, YaeComWood...name it.Quote:
Originally Posted by KG4CGC
He did an A/B comparo one night with an IC-7851 and the 7300; these used the same equalization settings and mic.
Vast majority in the group told him to keep the 7300 and lose the 7851.
I got mine from Amazon. There’s a link in my previous post.Quote:
Originally Posted by KG4CGC
No sir. I mean the 7300. I see the link to the cable.Quote:
Originally Posted by NQ6U
Oh, sorry. I got mine from Gigaparts but the price is pretty much the same everywhere. Except HRO, of course. They were a few bucks higher.Quote:
Originally Posted by KG4CGC
That's what I see. I'm wondering about Gigaparts rep as a retailer etc. HRO and Amazon are selling for about the same price except HRO offers to remove a diode for $45.Quote:
Originally Posted by NQ6U
https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002065
Diode disposal service: https://www.hamradio.com/detail.cfm?pid=71-002337
I could also drive down to HRO in Atlanta or stop by next time I'm in the area. Last time I was there it was literally half the size of a Radio Shack™ and I had to present ID to make a purchase.
The Amazon linkus: https://www.amazon.com/7300-02-Direct-Sampling-Shortwave/dp/B01C95F56M/
ID to purchase? Huh.....
Selling guns at HRO now?
Was there a waiting period to pick up the radio?
I would never buy anything like a ham radio transceiver from Amazon; they seem to have problems with fragile, big ticket items like that, plus there’s always the possibility of getting a used or counterfeit item from them. They’ve gotten really bad in that respect. You should see some of the crap people bring into the store that they bought on Amazon. My “favorite” was a fake Racor fuel filter/water separator. The hard plastic sediment bowl had become a more or less melted into a soft, rubbery thing from contact with gasoline. It almost certainly would have failed catastrophically before much longer and probably caused an engine room fire.
I’ve bought a few items from Gigaparts and it’s been fine — reasonable shipping cost, the 7300 came double boxed, maybe not the quickest order turn around out there but fast enough.
I probably would have paid HRO’s premium and bought it from our local store, except I couldn’t because they closed it last year. Closest HRO is now in Anaheim, about two and a half hours away.
It was 1999. No waiting period. I don't have any jokes for it. It was like, back in time, even for back then.Quote:
Originally Posted by WZ7U
Ah, they still had the brown wood paneling for the walls.
“When radios are outlawed only outlaws will have radios”Quote:
Originally Posted by WZ7U
“You can take my radio when you pry it from my cold, dead hands”
ATL is roughly 2.5 hours. I go to Atlanta all the time it seems. Often to the other side of it in Union City.Quote:
Originally Posted by NQ6U
I never go to Anaheim if can help it unless I have to pass through on my way to somewhere farther north. Although it’s become more purple than red over the last few years, I still tend to think of all of Orange County as enemy territory.Quote:
Originally Posted by KG4CGC
FWIW, I’ve been dealing with Gigaparts for over 20 years, never had an issue.
Although it was first as a computer vendor. Didn’t find out ie was owned by hams until I placed my first order over the phone and talked with one of them.