After much consideration, I’ve determined that I need to do something to get myself on the air a bit more from either home or mobile, so with that I’ve decided that I’m going to start selling some stuff off and do some shuffling of equipment to get almost exactly what I want in a setup. Let’s look at this in three categories, Mobile, Home, and Antennas:
Mobile:
I purchased the Icom ID-5100 back in May 2017 at Dayton – I was trying to get bigger into D-Star and also in my new vehicle needed a better mobile as my Alinco DR-150 didn’t quite fit into my Wrangler nicely. I had the IC-7100, but that was my only HF Radio, so I wanted to move that into my apartment to use. Fastforward to now, I’ve been running both the Yaesu FTM-400 and the aforementioned ID-5100 now together mobile since 2019, but in thattime I’ve noticed a trend with my usage: the ID-5100 usually stays off with the exception of occasionally checking the linking status of a local repeater. Because of this, I’ve decided to sell the ID-5100, and move the 7100 back into the car. With spending an hour and 20 mins in the car daily, I’d really like to have HF Mobile again, and this still allots me D-Star for checking that occasional repeater status, and occasional DV repeater usage.
I’m also planning on shifting around some antennas – adding a third to the vehicle, a Tarheel LT-II or Baby Tarheel, and leaving the other mobile on for the occasional 2m/440 usage that the 7100 will get.
Home:
I like my tube radio, the TS-830s I purchased a few years ago, however I do want to get something newer for the house that I’ll actually use, and something that will free up some desk space in my office/shack area. So I’m leaning towards (this one isn’t decided yet) trying to sell the TS-830s at a hamfest this year.. I didn’t pay much for it as it was untested when I purchased it, however I was able to get it up and running with no issue, and it’s a fully functioning radio with full power out. It’s a fun radio to have on my desk, but I’d really like to get something with 6m in it, and I try to only allocate so much money to hobbies each year (an idea that running copious amounts of races has admittedly blown up a little bit this year). With the funds from selling this, and some squirreling away I usually do for Dayton but may dip into a little early this year, I’m going to pick up either a IC-7300, FY-710-AESS, or DX-10 – I’m torn. Icom’s are a very nice, easy to use interface that’s virtually identical across all rigs, but there’s something about the Yaesu build I’ve always preferred. Sure, the menus on their new rigs are goofy to the nth degree at times, but they just take some getting used to.
Antenna Moves:
It’ll be a few weeks, potentially a couple of months even, before I make any purchases, but for the moment I can plan – especially for antennas.I’ve mentioned the mobile idea – mobile will always be a compromised antenna of some sort, but the question is how compromised? I believe that for the minimal price difference between the Baby Tarheel and the LT-II, the LT-II would be the better option based on reading, so that will be the route I go – as always, I’m open to comments on this as well.
For a home antenna, I’m not too sure what to do. My lot is rather space restricted, in fact we technically don’t have a single tree on our lot, however the neighbors have some rather large pines that overhang, I may be able to fit an OCF or some other type of dipole in the bits that are on our property. The issue is how far the elements would hang down, and would theyimpede being able to move around the back yard? Because of this, I’m leaning towards a vertical for the moment – I know verticals always come with compromises, but for HF they can still perform relatively well – there are occasional ones at localhamfests for sale, so I’m going to keep an eye out at our upcoming one in Mid-July, however if I don’t come across anything there, I think I’m going to settle at the moment for a Hustler 6BTV. This will give me decent coverage on 80m-6m.
As you’ve read in the past, I do a lot of planning, most of which takes me a sometime to follow-through on… let’s see if I actually follow through on any of this!
**Update** in the time it took me to write this I’ve sold the 5100 , and an additional spare 900mhz mobile that I had on hand, though that was less than I purchased it for, and was really just to get someone new on the band – looks like I’m starting to bank for that new rig!
Roving On 