Where to go from here?

[hobie102]

I just wish i could get a radio that didn't need tuning to be better. these radios should be the best the law allows right out of the box, it's stupid. I don't have access to a reputable tech that doesn't require me to blindly ship my radio off to someone i've never met.
Do Icom, yaesu, and kenwood radios require aftermarket tuning to be decent?

I'm seriously considering just making the investment and buying an all mode transceiver at some point and just being done with it. they just seem like better quality.

I would also like to hear everyone's input on the Icom's and Kenwoods. They seem to get good reviews but would like to hear from some folks here that have/do actually use one or all of these.

 

[w9cll]

I would also like to hear everyone's input on the Icom's and Kenwoods. They seem to get good reviews but would like to hear from some folks here that have/do actually use one or all of these.

I can't comment on the "new" ham rigs as I am a boat anchor lover, what that means is I like radios that glow in the dark... they have tubes. Anyway I will comment on my only modern rig which is an ICOM 706mkIIg. This is an excellent rig with very good receive, excellent TX and in my opinion will to use a cb term smoke any export on SSB. The feature set alone on the rig is better than any export, look it up.

I am sure others will chime in here but if I had to spend between a new shiny export or a used beat up 706 it would be no contest... the 706(or any other ham rig) would win every time.

P.S. Study for your ham ticket and quit playing around with dx on 11 meters. You can always go back to 11 metes but the real fun in DX is the ham bands.

 

[hammer0630]

My 959 was setup for a 12 watt pep on SSB. On am with a 1 watt deadkey my 959 only swings up to 15 watts. It makes my 203 do a pep of only around 100 watts on am/SSB. I think that my 959 would have to have a swing mod done to it and have it peaked to perform what it can do safely in order to make the 203 perform at it's advertised ratings.

I have 2 KL-203's and a KL-503. I was wondering if you have any problems running 15 watts into the RM Italy's. I have a President HR2510 and it dead keys 1 -2 watts but swings up to 23 watts am. I have used this KL503 for several years now with my 148GTL which dk's 2 watts and swings to 13 watts and it has been great. Any suggestions if this is to much swing I don't want to wreck it as I am seeing prices over $200.00 now for these. Thanks

 

[222DBFL]

I don't think the rm Italy amps like that much pep input, here is the spec sheet for the 503
Frequency20-30 MHz
Supply12-14 Vcc
Input energy/power12-30 A
Input power1-6 W
Input power SSB2-12 W
Output power250 W Max
Output power SSB450 W PEP Max
ModeAM-FM-SSB-CW
Fuse3x10 A
Output power level6
Size170x295x62 mm
Weight1.5 Kg.
Antenna preamplifier26 dB

 

[cbradiomagazine.com]

I've used KL203's with dual final radios swinging 25-30 watts on SSB without ever experiencing problems.

On AM I always keep the deadkey below 2 watts.