Subj : Re: 2 meter license
To   : Crocket
From : Angus Mcleod
Date : Sat Apr 24 2004 10:16 pm

  Re: Re: 2 meter license
  By: Crocket to Kc8szu on Sat Apr 24 2004 15:44:00

 > I personally don't have the
 > money to throw at a state of the art DX base station, but if that's what the
 > hobby was about, why don't we all just go out and use CB's?

I have two thoughts on this:  Building ham equipment is fun, which is why from
time to time I build a QRP rig or something, and have a load of fun with it. 
I've built antennas of all sorts, from a series of wire antennas to a colinear
J-pole, and even a 13-turn axial mode helix for 70cm!

But there is NO WAY that I can ever build a rig with all of the fabulous
operating features of even an old-timer like my IC-735.  Far less my IC-970H! 
So do I need all these fabulous features?  Well, they sure do help, sometimes!

For instance, sitting here pointing a 13-element yagi at the moon and hoping
to copy the first ever 8P EME, you don't want to wonder if your homebrew 2M rig
is drifting.  There ARE people who homebrew all their gear, but I am not the
greatest electronics expert around (far from) so I don't usually try to
construct anything too elaborate.  Yet a good rig is a pleasure to operate. 
When I put 8P on AO-13 I was glad to have a good dual-band rig with all the
features of the 970H.  I'd never done it before, there was nobody to ask for
advice/help, it had taken me two years to get the 70cm band opened in 8P-land
so I could operate mode B, and it was opened ONLY for me, and the authorities
were watching to see whether there would be adverse effects on other services. 
The *last* thing I needed was some noisy, homebrew UHF rig that splattered
wideband, and got the 70cm band closed to hams for the next 25 years!  As it
was, when I reported my success to the guys in the ministry, within three
months, all 8P hams were granted 70cm privelages -- and a couple other bands as
well!

So there are pros and cons, and i think the wise man knows what occasion calls
for what type of gear.  And of course, his own skill will be a factor.

As for repairing the latest rigs, well the SMT is beyond me.  I just don't have
the equipment to work with SMT components (or the eye-sight, frankly) and to
add a 1/8th watt carbon comp. resistor to some of the sub-cpmponents of a
modern rig usually means it won't go back together again, the clearances being
so fine!

So I like my HF QRP operation and I can manage on that level of hardware, and
the more sophisticated stuff, I buy!

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