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why don't they make HTs that can do SSB?
- Thread starter kd7jym
- Start date
Sure, you now have complete radio on chip, such as freescale MC13260.
But you're never going to shrink an antenna for HF bands and still have it efficient.
The RF chip in smartphones operate on UHF, where antennas are small.
The bandwidth of signal is relatively wide, so not as much concern for frequency drift as you would need if you were running SSB.
SSB makes the most demanding application for frequency stability of crystal oscillators. Those crystals are physically large and suck power.
You'd still need some sort of external antenna.. for VHF and up you'd just need a rubber duck, but for HF you'd need something real, like a G5RV, Dipole, screwdriver, or whatever field gear a typical ham has. The same applies to the 817 too. There's no reason why we can't have SSB/CW/AM/FM/DIGITAL in a similar package as a smartphone. With software-defined radio technology the feature set could be very impressive in a tiny package. It might have to be slightly larger than a smartphone, sure, but not by much. I like the Elecraft above.. it's pretty small, but it would be awesome with a touch display instead of all the knobs. With the processing power afforded by smartphone processors advanced features like detailed spectrum anaysis, antenna analysis, filtering, DSP can all be software emulated.
Pretty much all DX contacts on 6m are indeed on SSB however when the band opens you can also hear repeaters from hundreds of miles away, even half way across the country. Using an HT however your best bet would be to see if your local repeaters are picking up any DX and respond that way although it is possible to hit a far off repeater from an HT. The big problem is that the antennas on 6m HT's are very poor performers on that band.
You can try and listen to 52.525 FM simplex with that VX8, you may hear some FM stations, I have made contacts there. I think people forget FM for 6 meter contacts. What you have to understand, when 6 meter is open, it does not matter what mode, antenna polarity is somewhat important though.
SSB is usually horizontal while FM is vertical.
If you make yourself a vertical 6 meter external antenna you may have more luck. Now when I made FM contacts on 6 meter I was using my 817ND and an Outbacker antenna. Give it a try
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Don't know if it's been posted here, but I just ran across this little gem:
Amateur Radio 10 Meter Hand Held Transceiver AM/FM/SSB | eBay
Kinda pricey, but it does SSB.. not a VHF HT though.
Amateur Radio 10 Meter Hand Held Transceiver AM/FM/SSB | eBay
Kinda pricey, but it does SSB.. not a VHF HT though.
About $800 stripped down...close to $1500 with the 100 watt PA and other options.
I hope it is close to that, I am only interested in the KX3 as a QRP radio so i'm hoping it will be considerably less than $1500