Good First Rig.

I hope to get my license by the end of the year, finding the time is difficult but curious to know your thoughts on a suitable but decent first rig.

Preferably solid state but I'm not against Valves by any means and have someone who can show me how to tune it.

I'm going to install a simple end fed wire antenna 9:1 Balun shortly and will hook it up to the SDR receiver for the time being.

How important is grounding ? I was told it's grounded to DC and doesn't need a separate earth ?

martinedwards

Mine was a FT101b 40 years old and works wonderfully. I changed the capacitors and switched some crystals to get other bands.

Cost me £100 4 years ago.

I'd want at least a digital display. And perhaps something a bit more modern that parts might not be either impossible to find or outrageously expensive.

martinedwards

in that case, my second rig was a FT747GX.

full coverage across hf, the only missing mode is FM though some will have the board.

mine cost ?200

I've worked the world with these two rigs and wire antennae.

dxhound2005

Deleted User wrote: »

I hope to get my license by the end of the year, finding the time is difficult but curious to know your thoughts on a suitable but decent first rig.

You might be familiar with eHam reviews?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/products/14

Lots of opinions there. You can filter the results to show the ones with the highest ratings.

micko45

you can search adverts, there is always something on that, I find it better than donedeal for Ham gear and cheaper than ebay.
I got and sold my first rig off it, the icom 736 was a fantastic rig. Something like that would be ideal, but you didn't mention budget.

Search for any of the following, if anything takes your eye, post the model here and someone can help.
icom
yeasu
kenwood ts

If you like to play around with electronics maybe the bitx40 might be for you, really cheap and easy to put together. i got one of these around christmas, great thing.
http://www.hfsigs.com/

dxhound2005

dxhound2005 wrote: »

You might be familiar with eHam reviews?

http://www.eham.net/reviews/products/14

Lots of opinions there. You can filter the results to show the ones with the highest ratings.

I sure am but making a decision is another thing.

Someone mentioned budget, around 500 Euro's. Cheaper is always better, what some people look for ham gear in Ireland is mental.

4dxc

Depends what you want it for. I`d get a used TS-850 from Kenwood. The radio is great, just be sure it`s working correct and is ideally one with a higher serial number (as its quite old). Common failure i had is loss of sensitivity on bands 15m and higher. Just be aware that spare parts for all these old rigs are getting rare.
Otherwise may be a TS-590 which will be above your budget or for portable use a TS-50.
All these rigs are quite different, so it depends what you are into (contesting, rag-chew, dx, shortwave vs. vhf, ...).

Yeah I was actually looking at the TS-850, the 890 is too expensive for a first rig really. Finding radios in Ireland is a bit difficult sometimes.

You can have problems with old radios indeed but new they are wicked expensive and I'm not sure I'm a fan of all this DSP tech. Sometimes good sometimes not. I do like the SDR waterfall on some radios but I have the SDR Play which I can set up for receiving and I intend to do so at some point but it will make a vastly superior receiver than a radio costing a few grand !

I'm not a huge fan of contests but can be interesting to know how far you're getting out btu they take up far too much of the bands.

Budget has to account for the possibility of needing a PSU and ATU, the ATU can be a few hundred alone and the Antenna I'll be using for now will be a 130 foot long wire and 9:1 UNUN. Bought on ebay, yes I should have made it myself of course but getting the time for all this is a struggle at the moment working shift and having to mind a 1.5 year old and 3 year old when off shift while my Partner works means time for much else is minimal. Anyway not that I complain, I love spending time with the lads. :-)

Anyway, the antenna will be mounted from a tree to a pole on the chimney so I guess it will really be a sloper. Once set up I'll experiment with different antennas, time permitting.

I'm really only interested in 160m , 80, 40 and 20 meters for now.

First I need to get working on getting the license.............

4dxc

There is a dirt cheap 850 on adverts.ie. If it`s working properly on all bands that`s the best value for your money.
Usually the receiver issues are rather selectivity than sensitivity. Therefore -without excellent filtering- the SDRs are struggling. Antenna wise, I`d set up a dipol (2x17m or whatever fits) feed it with open wire line and a symetric tuner.

Running the cable in for a dipole would be an issue but something I intend to do eventually. At least for now the cable will only run from the chimney. I do hear myself a lot of people using these long wire antennas with good results.

The SDR Play is a very good receiver with a good antenna.

That 850 looks great thanks,

Damn, too slow, the 850 is gone , went for 300 !!!

4dxc

That was a great deal if it was working properly.
Considering what`s on the market I`d go for the TS-50 then (there is one on adverts as well). It`s nowhere as good as the TS-850 but therefore more mobile and I heard less issues about leaking caps etc.

If you are really into homebrew you could start with a Red Pitaya SDR ( http://pavel-demin.github.io/red-pitaya-notes ), but that's for sure not plug and play and needs additional filtering. More of a project though..

CrowdedHouse

If your antenna is likely to be a random wire, consider an Icom 746 with an AH 4 tuner

Edit: or even an Icom 706 MkII G small but very good all band radio, works with AH 4 too

4dxc

4dxc wrote: »

That was a great deal if it was working properly.
Considering what`s on the market I`d go for the TS-50 then (there is one on adverts as well). It`s nowhere as good as the TS-850 but therefore more mobile and I heard less issues about leaking caps etc.

If you are really into homebrew you could start with a Red Pitaya SDR ( http://pavel-demin.github.io/red-pitaya-notes ), but that's for sure not plug and play and needs additional filtering. More of a project though..

Yeah sold for a steal.

I have the SDRPlay, only one sdr at a time.

Phil.x

What do people listen to and why do you need a licence?

CrowdedHouse

CrowdedHouse wrote: »

If your antenna is likely to be a random wire, consider an Icom 746 with an AH 4 tuner

Edit: or even an Icom 706 MkII G small but very good all band radio, works with AH 4 too

Not a big fan of those small mobile rigs. The 850 would have been ideal.

Phil.x

Phil.x wrote: »

What do people listen to and why do you need a licence?

Check out this link. 80m and 40m are quiet active.

http://hackgreensdr.org:8901/

It's a hobby, people talk about different stuff and a lot of it is to do with the hobby, the interest in radio, the fascination and satisfaction of making contact with people hundreds to thousands of Kms away from your home radio.

You need a license to make sure you know the rules and to have some knowledge of radio and antennas , power limits etc and some electronics. No license and people won't talk to you if you have no legit call sign.

orm0nd

there's a ts 2000 on adverts and not over priced if op is interested in a shack in the box,

I've got a ft 950 and a ft 920 & will be selling 1 or both of them shortly,

haven't time just now & tbh have lost interest for the time being at least

I like the larger radios more and it's out of price range for a first rig, I've still to buy ATU and probably PSU.

Lads, one of you sent me PM's a while back and I deleted them like an edjit, please PM me again. You were going to head down my area.

Thanks.

martinedwards

dipoles are very common and have become trendy but they only work well on one band.

I recently bit the bullet and bought some ribbon feeder and put up a doublet. tunes on all bands (except 15m for some reason!)

I have it wrapped around my garden on 3 1/2 sides of the square as I don't have room to put it out straight.

very low background noise (s1 on 80m compared to s8 on a G5RV) and even with the poor conditions recently I've worked Europe, Africa, Asia and North America with 100w

Dan Jaman

Phil.x wrote: »

What do people listen to and why do you need a licence?

Right now, I'm listening to the biggest load of old crap I've heard in years. One of the crusty old hams is expounding how the Moon Landings were all a hoax.
I'm struck by two very important and salient questions...
How can some people be so stupid and still breath?
How did that fool get a Ham ticket?

thelordgod

And you are listening to it???

Edit: Also do you have a ham license?

Was this on top band ? 1933 ?

thelordgod

Nobody should be listening to that lot anyway

Dan Jaman

thelordgod wrote: »

And you are listening to it???

Edit: Also do you have a ham license?

a. 3.697
b. not relevant.

thelordgod

Well the footage of the moon landings is fake - that's why NASA "lost" it. Whether man landed on the moon is another story. A lot of the old timers have bits of their brains missing anyway. And you dont need to be highly intelligent to have a ham license - plenty of gobsh**es have one.

Dan Jaman

thelordgod wrote: »

Well the footage of the moon landings is fake - that's why NASA "lost" it. Whether man landed on the moon is another story. A lot of the old timers have bits of their brains missing anyway. And you dont need to be highly intelligent to have a ham license - plenty of gobsh**es have one.

Excuse me while I choke on my coffee.
Tell me about Building Seven.

Ah lads don't ruin the thread....