New radios

We've been getting loads of info on new raios coming out next Q1.
For starters, there's Yaesu's new FTX-1F. I'll let  Peter explain this one:

Plus side: There's a lot to like in this one. I love the display, for starters.It really is a nice looking unit.,

The interfaces on this thing are mostly USB. About time they caught up with this trend.

They designed this thing for field duty. The folks at Yaesu observed the rise of POTA, SOTA and so on and put together a design that will shine in that environment. ... a huge battery inside which means you can run for quite a while without external power.  Just get to your POTA site, string up your end fed or what have you, hook up, and go.... for hours.

Personally I wouldn't look twice at the thing, because I don't do QRP, (it only does 6w on the battery and 10 if you've got an external supply) nor do I do anything much outside the shack, on HF.  I'll work POTA stations all day long, and help them get their contacts, but I don't actually DO POTA. To each his own. 

Still, I can't deny I like the look of the thing. I will tell you what, though.... Get the power to 100 w or better, and all mode and put it into this package with this display, and I'll be standing in line, with a kilobuck plus in my hand,  to replace my beloved 991a. Truthfully, there's not much that would cause me to give up the 991a.  And I have to admit if I was to do POTA for whatever, I'd be looking seriously at this one.... it is specifically designed for that kind of work.

Downside: QRP. Not my brand of beer.
Downside.... the multi-layered menu structure. No, I've not seen it in action, (who has, at this point?) but it's got to be that way given he dearth of controls as you can see in the pic. I got around this issue with WIN4YAESU some time back. Puts all the controls out front. But in a small package designed for field duty, you're going to need to make some compromises.

Downside: No internal tuner. This one is a bit edgy... most folks will be running EFHW's or similar and won't need the tuner.  Some folks will, or simply feel uncomfortable running that way.Yeah, they could have put one in but only at the expense of the better size, and therefore the amount of available operating hours  per charge.  (mitigating factor.... the tuner is available as a tack on along with a cooing fan, for those will run higher density modes such as FT8.  Yaesu apparently figures if you're running in those modes you're going to be packing a laptop or perhaps a Arduino or something, so the added external size won't be much of an issue. They're probably right.

Conclusions: It'll be popular with the field day/POTA/SOTA crowd, no doubt.


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The other new box is the ICOM 7760.
Well, as you can see, it's actually Boxes, plural, with a control head you can separate
from the RF deck.



Indeed, at Icom says:

The IC-7760 offers a new “innovative Shack Style” consisting a full control head with separate RF deck, connected through a control cable for greater installation flexibility. The supplied control cable is 3 m, 9.8 ft long, and by using a commercially available LAN cable, the RF deck can be installed in a more remote location. Furthermore, the control head and RF deck can be connected through a wired home LAN connection for remote operation. This simple configuration does not require a PC, and can be easily operated from nearly anywhere in the home as long as a LAN connection is available.

Here's a post Tokyo rundown on the unit:

Impressive.  It just doesn't have 2m/70cm, as the 991 and the FTX-1F do. I personally find the addition of VHF/UHF in new rigs attractive... and for a premium rig like this cannot understand the thinking behind not including them. 

(Although I personally am annoyed that nobody seems to want to include 220MHz, we all know why... it's only available in ITU region 2. As a result, the market isn't large enough to support it's inclusion. I suspect the 4m band in Europe will suffer the same fate as the 1.25m band here in the states..... But, I digress)

For a lot of folks, the Flex radio is  their dream rig. This has enough similar features, and if the build quality is up to Icom's usual standards this thing is going to turn some heads. 

I'm not sure on the availability of either of these boxes short term, but estimate they'll have them out by Q1 2025.

The Joy of Linked Repeaters

A short while back I posted a bit called Why are repeaters more quiet than they used to be? In that post, I mentioned....

The wide area networks that I mentioned earlier will also aid in getting traffic going. I'm afraid that the RF only purists aren't going to like it much, but WANs like EchoLink,  AllStar, and so on are going to be more than any other Factor responsible for making repeaters active again, particularly amongst younger hams who are just getting into the hobby.

"You mean I can get on my little 5 watt walkie-talkie that I paid $30 for and talk to somebody across the country?"

Yeah it's going to be like that.

Being a truck driver who travels all over the northeast and occasionally, outside that area, I have begun to find the attractions  of wider area linked repeater systems.  An example would be the East Coast Reflector. Another would be the one I've been playing with for the last several days.... the N3KZ system. 

For those unfamiliar with the concept, what we have in both cases is a number of repeaters in various localities, which are linked together. What one repeater hears, the rest repeat.... often in huge distances, which are unavailable by other means on the VHF and UHF bands.

Now there are many systems that are regional in nature. for example, my friend Bob, N2HJD here in my hometown of Rochester, runs a lined system that is focused on the Genesee Valley around Rochester.  As he says,

The repeater system consists of 13 Amateur repeaters cross linked on 6 different Amateur bands. There are 11 sites all radio linked in two counties around the Rochester,NY area.
The system also contains a translator, remote receiver, 2-meter remote base, an internet interface, and a  DIGITAL VOICE RECORDER
The N2HJD repeater system is all home brew with 17 CONTROLLERS, 26 receivers, and 21 transmitters, and has evolved from May of 1988 to it's current state.

The N3KZ system is a bit larger and is mostly focused on Pennsylvania though it has repeaters on the fringes of the state.... for example, New Jersey and Southern New York state. The result is I can keep track of the system and the folks active on it from anywhere in the state, and often outside of it. (Here's a list.)

The East Coast Reflector, is much larger than either of those two.  The founder of that whole deal , Dick WB2JPQ lives just down the road from me, in Buffalo, NY. I had the happy chance to meet him at Dayton this year. The thing is flat out huge, and there's no way for me to list all of the ways to connect to that net in this smallish blog post. I suggest looking at the link above to start your journey.  However, here's a graphical taste:

Practical examples? Many, but the most recent on the N3KZ system is a good one. For the last few days, I've been chatting at 4am with a fellow driver based out of the Harrisburg/York area.  One day I caught up with him from Borderntown, NJ on the Philly machine while driving down I295. On another, I spoke with him from farm country in Delaware, out on the Delmarva Peninsula, and finally, the next day from the PA Pike near Breezewood, and again later that day in Pittsburgh. All I could do at each instance was shake my head and smile. This is stuff that someone figuring on the shorter ranges that UHF and VHF usually offer, wouldn't expect. I mean, yeah, as a logical thing I certainly understand the process, but it's still a bit staggering in some ways.

Mind you, my radio is not a huge power monster. Then again, it doesn't need to be. The expense on tying into such nets can be as small as $150, even in today's messed up economy. The 779UV cost me $105. It is about the size of a pack of smokes. The pic on he right isn't my own, but I can vouch for it's accuracy. This thing is TINY.  The antenna coax and mount around another $60 though of course what you use for an antenna can be ajusted for your situation and will of course affect the total cost.
 

The 779UV offers 5,10,and 20w output, which I normally keep at 10w. (Gets a bit warm, running full power for extended  QSO's, and really there's no point to running high power most of the time since I'm making it just fine with the lesser power levels.... often I even cut the 10w to 5w.) I'm running a half-wave stick on my truck's mirror at the moment. Works just fine.  One advantage of this particular radio is that it has some 200 memories available, so plugging entire networks into this tiny box is a breeze.  The other advantage is that  with it's smaller power demands, it's powered by a cigar lighter plug. Which means no permanent wiring to the truck. Makes the boss happy.

Anyway, back to the linked systems. There is a consistency of feel, contacts, and community on these systems that I find attractive to say nothing of the ability to work the usual crowd from just about wherever I happen to be at the time. All on a radio that is smaller than a lot of HT's.  

HF in the truck is a bit more than I want to get into at this point, but tying onto linked systems is more than enough to keep my Ham radio addiction growing properly. Perhaps yours, as well?

As an aside, let's consider the normal repeater system and explaining such things to the non-ham. It can be done fairly easily... I've done it often enough, myself. Now explain however many repeaters linked together to that same person.

Smoke will be coning out their ears.