Purchased a Icom IC 718 new, a few months ago. Great basic radio for the price without a lot of features that I would never use. Good audio signal reports with the supplied hand held mic, recieve audio is good with the front panel mounted speaker. I am very pleased with the Icom IC 718 and would not hesitate recommending it to anyone looking for a great, basic, cost effective radio.
Always great info and clear explanations. Thanks. BTW I have an ICOM 718 and love it. Simple and it works great for voice and digital. A 7300 might help with my high noise floor but the 718 does everything I want to do on HF. I also have ICOM VHF/UHF radios. All top notch.
I use a fan dipole on 80 meters. It covers the cw portion and the general voice portion with a max swr of 2:1. My FT891 doesn’t have a tuner, so I needed it to be a well tuned antenna. With an internal tuner it can cover the entire 80 meter band. I use 10 gauge wire for the general voice element for broader bandwidth and 12 gauge for the cw portion and space the elements 14” apart. I dont currently use a balun, but it would be helpful. My other radio is the yaesu FT450 that was mentioned in the video. It’s the non-D model. Mine has an internal tuner, but it was optional on that model. The 450D comes with 60 meter capabilities and the non D model doesn’t. You can install components to give it that band, though. I paid $400 at a ham fest for my 450. It was my first hf rig. I use it for a mobile unit in my car now. It’s a pretty compact radio for a base station, so taking it mobile or portable isn’t cumbersome.
Unfortunately, Yaesu will discontinue production of the FT-450D citing parts problems. I own a FT-450D--my first rig--and it is really a great performer for the money!
Dave, the Missouri Hibid Auction had pretty good prices on ham radio equipment at their auction on April 15th with radios going for half or less of what you would pay on Ebay. I don't know when the next auction is but this one had about 180 different items from Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, Hallicrafters, Heathkit, Collins. etc. If you can't pick them up in Kansas you will be paying a lot for shipping though since most of them are pretty heavy,.
The bill of materials (BOM) on a $1,000 iPhone is usually around $200-300. Most of the cost on producing the phone has to do with R&D and start up costs, which itself is a huge investment. They can get the cost down to $1,000 because they produce tens-of-millions. Ham radio companies don't produce anywhere near that many, and therefore have to factor that into the overall cost.
The current cost of an iphone has nothing to do with R&D and startup. It's all about corporate greed and unfettered consumerism. With the volume that they sell, and the price of near-slave labor, Apple could charge just $500 for a flagship iphone and make a profit.
My first rig was a FT-840 got it off ebay for 500$ at the time. Ran it off resonant antennas until i got a great deal on a tuner from a ham club member. now i have a FT-857d i got a great deal on as-well. you don't have to spend the bucks to get on the air and you don't need all the bells and whistles to work DX.
Make yourself or find one used, an 80meter shorty double bazooka. you won't have the whole band with less than 2:1 swr, but you will have one of the best antennas one can own for limited space.
Dear David, thanks again, for your more than informative video!! I just wanted to mention that there's one T to many in your title today "80 Metter Difficulties and Expensive Radios" Cheers Maarten
Until very recently, my radios have been refurbished or used by reputable dealers, or someone I trusted at a hamfest. Saved $$ and have decent equipment. I confess that the Yaesu FTdx10 was hard to pass up.
I have ridiculously limited space with adjacent power lines. I built a coil loaded shortened dipole for 80 Meters and it works great. I tuned it for the upper end (phone section) of the band, but my tuner will pull it in for the entire band. I get 1.2:1 SWR at the resonant point ( around 3.8 MHz) but am under 10:1 on the whole band. If he can only put up one antenna and can't use a tuner, maybe he could do a fan dipole with several elements at different places in the 80 Meter band? Tune one low and one high.
A tip i can give is buy used radios at a ham fest. They will be a LOT cheaper than online sales. I've seen online sellers ask $2900 for a radio that cost $2999 new.
I got my ICOM 7300 new for $899 when the $100 ICOM rebate was factored in. In addition, the ham store I used had an instant discount also. I find the price of that radio to be super. Given some power driven mag loop antennas that can take a lot of power can cost over $2000, I don't think $900 for a ICOM 7300 is too expensive. Actually for what one gets antennas are much more expensive than entry radios.
Multiplexing DC over RF coax is "difficult"? I have multiplexed RG58 running all over the house for CCTV. The DC runs the cameras and a secondary LF carrier can run a tilt pan and zoom camera. A few simple notch or band pass filters separate the AC control signals.
The yard has 24 volt AC CCT cameras that run on a piggybacked RG58/four wire shielded cable. And I am still running NTSC analog. (Never The Same Color Twice)
Mr. Casler, is your 7300 MARS modified? ;-) (Mine isn't...too afraid I'd use it -lol) By the way, thanks again for your Extra series videos. I did my first Extra VE session last month! '73
From what I see online, the production costs of iphones are less than $500 but they sell them above $1000. I can't see Apple doing anything else but price gouge because they know the customers will buy it.
If the whole transceiver was implemented using DSP processing and a few FPGAs and using C++ for DSP to control what the transceiver can and cannot do might cut down on the the amount of electronics used in the transceiver, SSD units are now starting to replace Mechanical Hard Drives.
Sorry Dave, but there were tube factories in St Petersburg, Siberia and two or three other locations inside the USSR besides the giant X-Po-Pul multi agency factory complex facility in Saratov USSR. If you add in Soviet satellite countries there was a Polish factory that marketed tubes under the names, Telam, Polam and Dolam. There was the Hungarian Tungsram factory, who made pretty good audio tubes. There were also the Czechoslovakian Tesla factories. Then were East German factories that were basically captured by the Soviets in WWII. There were Siemens, Valvo, Funke, Funken Werks, and Telefunken factories that the Soviets made the East Germans use. They made very good tubes Novosibrisk and Svetlana both made some very nice large KW and tens of KW and even 100s of KW broadcast transmitting tubes that rivaled transmitting tubes made in the west. The Communist Chinese tubes were patently obvious basic copies of the Soviet copies of western tubes. I am not a huge Mike Mathews fan. He is a bombastic douchebag in my opinion. He bought the rights to use the Svetlana name breaking Svetlana. The real Svetlana made really nice guitar amp and audio power tubes but most importantly they made some very high quality very large very powerful very well made transmitting tubes that brought many massive power old home brew rigs back from the brink of the trash heap for me. I am still maintaining the "GREEN MONSTER II" which will run RTTY at 3000 Watts PEP and barely break a sweat, not that I would ever exceed the USA's 1500 Watt limit. It's really easy on the tubes when your rig is loafing along at less than 20% capacity SSB. Alas with my postage stamp yard, it makes a great cloud warmer, but I'd put it up against any Henry, any Tokyo High Power and or many old military rigs.
I have one of these 66' OCFDs too (Buckmaster). I haven't put it up yet b/c I'm so worried about getting it to 35'. ...I'm in a small yard with no trees. I can get it to 20', no problem. I know the saying is "any antenna is better than no antenna", but I really want to know--- how much of a difference will it make to put the feedline up from 20' to 35'? I can get it to 20' this weekend. 35' will cost me time, money and points with the wife. ...but I'll do it if you tell me that 15' improves performance by 50%!
I was in Bulgaria in FEB 1993. A member of our group asked the tour guide, How much do cars cost in Bulgaria? She said a MAZDA cost about $8,000US. The group member said that's a good price. She said NO, that is way too much. Bulgarians cannot afford $8,000, so MAZDA should sell their cars in Bulgaria for $2,500.
... or use a 9:1 with a 500 ohm terminating resistor to the end and you will have 6M to 2200M with less than a 3:1 SWR (aka no tuner) and most of the time under 1.5:1 SWR across ALL frequencies of ALL bands.
Why not a fan dipole with two legs cut for 3.650 and two cuts for 3.850? Betcha it would cover the whole band with less than 2:1 SWR with a single coax feed line.
My 80M is so blasted from internal noise in my home that it is basically useless. Unless you have an S9+ signal, I'll never hear anything. I could improve it, I'm sure If I really wanted to deal with it..
I have always been interested in Amateur Radio. I am wondering if Hams Worldwide can use radios from military surplus, old ships and aircraft. They may require technical modification to work in the Ham bands. But it would mean recycling of working electronic equipment taking into account the terrible economic devastation caused by the pandemic.
First of all David, I really enjoy your excellent videos, learnt A LOT, thank you!! :) About 80m wide band antennas there actually is at least one that might work, The caged dipole. In fact there is a EFHW solution by using a 49:1 balun, check out Kevin Loughin's video: ruclips.net/video/SzxyjWyiuC4/видео.html At a 20m version it seems to get about 56% wider. I'm not sure but I guess it would get less wider down the bands to 80m but it still will be wider. Just a small hint and hope it get to help others. If anyone does a test with it at 80m I suggest you get back to David or/and Kevin with the results, it would be great info. to be shared. Again, thanks a lot for your superb videos David! 73's sa5vox
Purchased a Icom IC 718 new, a few months ago. Great basic radio for the price without a lot of features that I would never use. Good audio signal reports with the supplied hand held mic, recieve audio is good with the front panel mounted speaker. I am very pleased with the Icom IC 718 and would not hesitate recommending it to anyone looking for a great, basic, cost effective radio.
Really enjoyed this episode. I like how you add context to your answers!
Very good explanation Dave. Love your channel. 73,KO4DNI
Always great info and clear explanations. Thanks. BTW I have an ICOM 718 and love it. Simple and it works great for voice and digital. A 7300 might help with my high noise floor but the 718 does everything I want to do on HF. I also have ICOM VHF/UHF radios. All top notch.
I use a fan dipole on 80 meters. It covers the cw portion and the general voice portion with a max swr of 2:1. My FT891 doesn’t have a tuner, so I needed it to be a well tuned antenna. With an internal tuner it can cover the entire 80 meter band. I use 10 gauge wire for the general voice element for broader bandwidth and 12 gauge for the cw portion and space the elements 14” apart. I dont currently use a balun, but it would be helpful. My other radio is the yaesu FT450 that was mentioned in the video. It’s the non-D model. Mine has an internal tuner, but it was optional on that model. The 450D comes with 60 meter capabilities and the non D model doesn’t. You can install components to give it that band, though. I paid $400 at a ham fest for my 450. It was my first hf rig. I use it for a mobile unit in my car now. It’s a pretty compact radio for a base station, so taking it mobile or portable isn’t cumbersome.
Unfortunately, Yaesu will discontinue production of the FT-450D citing parts problems. I own a FT-450D--my first rig--and it is really a great performer for the money!
yep, already gone.
Dave, the Missouri Hibid Auction had pretty good prices on ham radio equipment at their auction on April 15th with radios going for half or less of what you would pay on Ebay. I don't know when the next auction is but this one had about 180 different items from Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, Hallicrafters, Heathkit, Collins. etc. If you can't pick them up in Kansas you will be paying a lot for shipping though since most of them are pretty heavy,.
The bill of materials (BOM) on a $1,000 iPhone is usually around $200-300. Most of the cost on producing the phone has to do with R&D and start up costs, which itself is a huge investment. They can get the cost down to $1,000 because they produce tens-of-millions. Ham radio companies don't produce anywhere near that many, and therefore have to factor that into the overall cost.
The current cost of an iphone has nothing to do with R&D and startup. It's all about corporate greed and unfettered consumerism. With the volume that they sell, and the price of near-slave labor, Apple could charge just $500 for a flagship iphone and make a profit.
@@beartwigs I really hope you aren't typing that on an Apple product.
The D in Yaesu 450D now stands for Discontinued.
My first rig was a FT-840 got it off ebay for 500$ at the time. Ran it off resonant antennas until i got a great deal on a tuner from a ham club member. now i have a FT-857d i got a great deal on as-well. you don't have to spend the bucks to get on the air and you don't need all the bells and whistles to work DX.
Well spoken Dave.
Very interesting info re: supply chain history and ham radio. It took me weeks to get my hands on a new 7300... 73 de N2MXX
I was going to buy one after I get my antenna and feed line installed. Guess I better order one now.... thanks ki4esk
@@gregrandolph2845 that's a great radio. have fun. regards from the UK.
Always Great Thank You Dave You are a wealth of knowledge
Make yourself or find one used, an 80meter shorty double bazooka. you won't have the whole band with less than 2:1 swr, but you will have one of the best antennas one can own for limited space.
I have a FT-450D. It is a great rig.
Dear David, thanks again, for your more than informative video!! I just wanted to mention that there's one T to many in your title today "80 Metter Difficulties and Expensive Radios" Cheers Maarten
Until very recently, my radios have been refurbished or used by reputable dealers, or someone I trusted at a hamfest. Saved $$ and have decent equipment. I confess that the Yaesu FTdx10 was hard to pass up.
I have ridiculously limited space with adjacent power lines. I built a coil loaded shortened dipole for 80 Meters and it works great. I tuned it for the upper end (phone section) of the band, but my tuner will pull it in for the entire band. I get 1.2:1 SWR at the resonant point ( around 3.8 MHz) but am under 10:1 on the whole band.
If he can only put up one antenna and can't use a tuner, maybe he could do a fan dipole with several elements at different places in the 80 Meter band? Tune one low and one high.
Icom 7610 are now going for $3,000 at most radio stores.
was 2899.99 at one point for a Christmas sale 2019 before the world went insane.
Yes. And near-new 7300s for $850.
A tip i can give is buy used radios at a ham fest. They will be a LOT cheaper than online sales. I've seen online sellers ask $2900 for a radio that cost $2999 new.
I got my ICOM 7300 new for $899 when the $100 ICOM rebate was factored in. In addition, the ham store I used had an instant discount also. I find the price of that radio to be super. Given some power driven mag loop antennas that can take a lot of power can cost over $2000, I don't think $900 for a ICOM 7300 is too expensive. Actually for what one gets antennas are much more expensive than entry radios.
Excellent video.
Multiplexing DC over RF coax is "difficult"? I have multiplexed RG58 running all over the house for CCTV. The DC runs the cameras and a secondary LF carrier can run a tilt pan and zoom camera. A few simple notch or band pass filters separate the AC control signals.
The yard has 24 volt AC CCT cameras that run on a piggybacked RG58/four wire shielded cable. And I am still running NTSC analog. (Never The Same Color Twice)
Mr. Casler, is your 7300 MARS modified? ;-)
(Mine isn't...too afraid I'd use it -lol)
By the way, thanks again for your Extra series videos. I did my first Extra VE session last month!
'73
From what I see online, the production costs of iphones are less than $500 but they sell them above $1000. I can't see Apple doing anything else but price gouge because they know the customers will buy it.
If the whole transceiver was implemented using DSP processing and a few FPGAs and using C++ for DSP to control what the transceiver can and cannot do might cut down on the the amount of electronics used in the transceiver, SSD units are now starting to replace Mechanical Hard Drives.
Sorry Dave, but there were tube factories in St Petersburg, Siberia and two or three other locations inside the USSR besides the giant X-Po-Pul multi agency factory complex facility in Saratov USSR. If you add in Soviet satellite countries there was a Polish factory that marketed tubes under the names, Telam, Polam and Dolam. There was the Hungarian Tungsram factory, who made pretty good audio tubes. There were also the Czechoslovakian Tesla factories. Then were East German factories that were basically captured by the Soviets in WWII. There were Siemens, Valvo, Funke, Funken Werks, and Telefunken factories that the Soviets made the East Germans use. They made very good tubes Novosibrisk and Svetlana both made some very nice large KW and tens of KW and even 100s of KW broadcast transmitting tubes that rivaled transmitting tubes made in the west. The Communist Chinese tubes were patently obvious basic copies of the Soviet copies of western tubes. I am not a huge Mike Mathews fan. He is a bombastic douchebag in my opinion. He bought the rights to use the Svetlana name breaking Svetlana. The real Svetlana made really nice guitar amp and audio power tubes but most importantly they made some very high quality very large very powerful very well made transmitting tubes that brought many massive power old home brew rigs back from the brink of the trash heap for me. I am still maintaining the "GREEN MONSTER II" which will run RTTY at 3000 Watts PEP and barely break a sweat, not that I would ever exceed the USA's 1500 Watt limit. It's really easy on the tubes when your rig is loafing along at less than 20% capacity SSB. Alas with my postage stamp yard, it makes a great cloud warmer, but I'd put it up against any Henry, any Tokyo High Power and or many old military rigs.
I have one of these 66' OCFDs too (Buckmaster). I haven't put it up yet b/c I'm so worried about getting it to 35'. ...I'm in a small yard with no trees. I can get it to 20', no problem. I know the saying is "any antenna is better than no antenna", but I really want to know--- how much of a difference will it make to put the feedline up from 20' to 35'? I can get it to 20' this weekend. 35' will cost me time, money and points with the wife. ...but I'll do it if you tell me that 15' improves performance by 50%!
It will affect the antenna's pattern in that the signal will travel more up than out. It can still work fine.
I was in Bulgaria in FEB 1993. A member of our group asked the tour guide, How much do cars cost in Bulgaria? She said a MAZDA cost about $8,000US. The group member said that's a good price. She said NO, that is way too much. Bulgarians cannot afford $8,000, so MAZDA should sell their cars in Bulgaria for $2,500.
... or use a 9:1 with a 500 ohm terminating resistor to the end and you will have 6M to 2200M with less than a 3:1 SWR (aka no tuner) and most of the time under 1.5:1 SWR across ALL frequencies of ALL bands.
Not just covid, a major fabrication factory had a fire which destroyed a large part of it.
Why not a fan dipole with two legs cut for 3.650 and two cuts for 3.850? Betcha it would cover the whole band with less than 2:1 SWR with a single coax feed line.
Yeah I am still waiting for my MFJ 259D on back order for six months waiting for part to build they say
IC718 is great. FT450D is only available on the used market.
My 80M is so blasted from internal noise in my home that it is basically useless. Unless you have an S9+ signal, I'll never hear anything. I could improve it, I'm sure If I really wanted to deal with it..
yea Dave the seventy three hundred is around a thousand. and it has more that I will ever use.
I have always been interested in Amateur Radio. I am wondering if Hams Worldwide can use radios from military surplus, old ships and aircraft. They may require technical modification to work in the Ham bands. But it would mean recycling of working electronic equipment taking into account the terrible economic devastation caused by the pandemic.
Hams are the cheapest group of people I know.....some of my ham friends squeak when they walk.......HI HI / k6sdw
Hello de VU2TJF from india
You may wish to change the title from "Metter" to "Meter." Just a suggestion.
Yeasu ft450d has gone by by now to
long gone.
First of all David, I really enjoy your excellent videos, learnt A LOT, thank you!! :)
About 80m wide band antennas there actually is at least one that might work, The caged dipole.
In fact there is a EFHW solution by using a 49:1 balun, check out Kevin Loughin's video: ruclips.net/video/SzxyjWyiuC4/видео.html
At a 20m version it seems to get about 56% wider. I'm not sure but I guess it would get less wider down the bands to 80m but it still will be wider.
Just a small hint and hope it get to help others. If anyone does a test with it at 80m I suggest you get back to David or/and Kevin with the results, it would be great info. to be shared.
Again, thanks a lot for your superb videos David!
73's sa5vox
radios are expensive because climate change
Spreading R&D costs? Prove that. It is all about marketing. Price at what market bears. Period.