Subj : Modern Rigs for starters
To   : Infectedbootsector
From : Spaceman Spiff
Date : Wed Apr 06 2005 09:01 pm

  Re: Modern Rigs for starters
  By: Infectedbootsector to All on Mon Apr 04 2005 04:25 am

 > Greetings!
 > 
 > Anyone have some suggestions for a basic rig setup for a beginner?  I've bee
 > told that 2 meters is the best to start out on...
 > 
 > 
 > 
 > 
Yep 2 meters is great for local radio use. The antennas are small and easy to
build. You can pick up a 2 meter swr meter relatively cheap also, so you can
make sure you are not burning up your rig transmitting into a poorly matched
antenna or shorted coax.

Yeasu makes a nice inexpensive 75 or 80 watts 2 meter FM tranceiver.
You will need some COAX, RG8 or RG8X mini foam, PL259 connectors.
An antenna can be made cheaply, I have several 2 meter designs on my website or
you can find many with a simple search. I would also suggest an SWR meter.
MFJ makes an inexpensive SWR Power meter.

Take a look a HAM RADIO OUTLET (HRO) website  hamradio.com

They have an ICOM IC-V8000 for $189
It is a 75 watt rig, ANGUS will like this little mobile rig becasue it is ICOM.

Since it is a mobile rig, you will need a 13.8 volt regulated power supply, I
would recommend at leat a 20 AMP if not a 25 AMP supply.  If you can find a
used Motorola Business band radio power supply at HAM fest you might get one
cheap, or any other used Power supply. Of course you won't need this if you use
the rig in the car or truck. :)

The ICOM IC-2100H is a 50 watts rig about $159

They also have Yeasu and Kenwood 2 meter rigs for about $150

You want to make sure your rig has CTCSS encode and Decode (Tone squelch, PL)
and DTMF so you can bring up auto patch (telephone access and other re[eater
function capability) also if the rig has digital mode capabilities in case you
want to start hooking your computer up to the rig one day, it might make the
price of the radio jump up a few buck, but it  is a cool feature but it is not
something you absolutly must have.

CTCSS and DTMF is a must.  A lot of memories is handy and if the rig will allow
you to name the memories, like putting in the repeater Call Sign or club name
along with the frequency so you can quickly see what repeater you are on.

ie:  145.250 MHZ in my area the W3SK repeater belonging to the PWA club.
It is cool to see PWA W3SK on my dial, but this is not a must have feature.

Being able to change fequencies from the microphone is nice, but again, if you
get an inexpensive rig using the dial on the radio is ok to.

A well lit display with large easy to read read out is great, also if the
microphone touch pad is back lit it make working at night in a car easier.

Oh, my website for the antenna designs is
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/n3jnc


Hope this helps.

.