No argument there Brian. I’m certain that the benefit is greatest on SSB, and it is no coincidence that the primarily SSB activators favour an 857, whereas a much higher percentage of CW activators carry QRP rigs.
Again I agree. Though I personally feel the greatest benefit of the Intermediate Licence is that it is the gateway to access the Full Licence course.
Glad you enjoyed it Mike!
That’s funnier than what I said. Respect.
Good to hear. You won’t regret it, it’s great fun! Congrats on the IL, and good luck with the CW and Full.
Well done Dom. I’m sure you will find having a bit more power helpful at times when conditions are poor. The sweet spot between battery drain and power output seems to be around 30 watts which is where I usually operate my linear.
On the occasions that I do chase contacts, the high local noise level means that I definitely welcome a bit more signal coming my way, even with DSP and narrow SSB filtering available.
I think you are right, in that it shows tthe new ham that upgrading is quite possible. I may be wrong, but looking at the RSGB books I get the impression that it is a manageable step from FL to IL and a harder jump from IL to full. If I was doing it now I would aim for the full licence only for the benefit of 60m!
Yes and no. AS Gerald says, the sweet spot is about 30 watts, but a smaller multimode with 30 watts output would be a fine replacement for the 857 (or the 891 if V/UHF is not wanted). I think the main draw of the CW-only QRP rigs is size/weight and current drain, they don’t do anything that an FT817/8 can’t do but they are dinky little beauties with surprisingly sophisticated circuitry. I remember decades ago building a direct injection receiver and it was a devil to keep out broadcast QRM! However I think that the rapidly increasing SFI will bring the 817/8 back into focus as a good little DX machine. In the declining years of cycle 23 I managed in a year to work over 100 DXCC entities on five continents with an 817 on SSB so it is not to be sneezed at! Mike is correct to emphasise the correct antenna - which is, of course, the one that works best for you!
857 for the win. Not thinking of buying a new radio till it bites the dust. As for antennas I have the SOTA beams band hopper 2 20 and 40 Meters to play with so hopefully so rare DX might be logged, you never know!
The Yaesu portable rigs are very good designs that have proven incredibly difficult to replace. I’m on my third 817 - always been my rig of choice, and I’m now over 18 years in as an 817 user! And when this one dies, it will be replaced with an 818 based on what’s currently out there!
I’m still on my first FT817 (2001 vintage!).
Cracking rig, it was financially painful at first - £799 + £19.99 for the case, but I reckon I’ve had good value. Additional costs have been a new PA board (original self destructed whilst rig was switched off!) and a 300Hz CW filter.
I tend to agree that there hasn’t been a comparable rig to replace the FT817 yet.
The 8x7 RF performance is distinctly average and many of these small CW only radios have substantially better receivers but not all. If you operate the Elecraft radios you soon understand that their receivers are well beyond the performance of the 8x7 radios. With the small “altoids” radios you often get a better receiver than an 817 that is power frugal and lightweight. Of course they have many.many fewer features so it’s hard to compare them on an apples for apples basis.
So why do I have 2 817s? Simple, I want a portable and compact all mode radio that covers my favourite HF bands 60/30/20/17m and 70cms for transverter driving. Having two was a bit of expediency at the time and isn’t justified any more, I should sell the 2nd one. And the 706mkII that hardly gets used. And the CW K2 after acquiring a fully loaded 10W K2 the other day (it’s not for SOTA though). Maybe offload some of the Codans too! Too many HF rigs that are not used especially as there’s a pair of QCX’s due on air soon.
The only thing comparable is a 705 but that makes your wallet wince compared to a second hand 817 and the 705 isn’t battle proven yet.
So in my first world consumerist view you need an 817 for acceptable 160-70 all modes. You also need a KX2 so you can appreciate how pish the 817 RX is. Maybe a few small PAs in case you need a bit more “poundage” at times. (My last few trips to EA8 have included a 25W PA in case it was needed). Or an 857 but it’s big and heavy and you wont always need the power but you will always be lumbered with the size and mass. And you need an assortment of small CW radios such as QCX’s for several bands, MTR3, H1B etc. Just because sometimes a single band radio the size of 2 cigarette packs, a wee LiPo and a small EFHW to throw into a tree lets you feel so superior to the mugs carrying 857s and their 20AHr batteries.
You need a selection of bullet proof handies to pick from and one of all the SG Lab transverters (23/13/9cms) some Kuhne stuff because “Kuhne”. And to finish off any odd-ball transceiver levered onto the ham bands but using some cool technology produce for something else. Like the VK3CV 122GHz transverter that uses car collision avoidance radar chips.
My 817 hears an increase in background noise on a summit when the antenna is plugged in. This suggests that it is as sensitive as it needs to be. Its big failing is its tendency to block in the presence of strong signals, annoying but I’ve heard worse!
My 30m FT-817 activation this morning concluded with 3 JAs in the space of 4 minutes. That’s why 50 watts is surplus to requirements for those of us that choose to take advantage of the more efficient modes!
Like I say though, I totally agree that the extra power is worth considering if only using SSB on HF. Certainly, I remember the days before I learned CW and finding HF activating a real struggle. I was even about to buy an 857 at one point, but decided at the last minute to invest my time into CW rather than my money into a new rig.
Nowadays, I seem to do fine with my 5 watts on HF SSB too, but maybe my operating is more effective than it was 15 years ago!
Main thing is to use the bands, modes and power that suits YOU and gives you the greatest enjoyment on a summit.
Paul, you need to acquire some scrap radios and smuggle them in. Then when you want a new toy, you buy it and show your beloved that you have a 1-in-1-out policy by getting rid of a scrap radio. The effect is better if your new item is compact (IC705 say) and the outgoing item is a KW2000 or such.
Not quite sure how to smuggle in a KW2000 even if I thought it was a good idea. With the PSU 36lbs and somewhat bulky it might be a challenge to explain that somehow it was part of my sota kit that fits in the bottom of the rucksack not previously seen, and worse than that I might be asked to prove it by using it on an activation …
It would not be too hard to take a “glowbug” using say an ECL83 and an inverter PSU for the TX and your normal SOTA radio for the RX. But Jonathon GW2HFR did it properly and took a 19 set with Dynamotor on to a summit and was the 1st valved (tubed) SOTA activator and set the bar so high nobody has bothered since
I’ve found some 1.5v battery valves in the recesses of my junk box, and was pondering a qrp tx using 10 PP3s for HT. Otherwise they’ll just go to recycling.
Any interest in a “tube fest” next year…?
It would be fun to make a paraset replica and activate with it, I believe they weighed about the same as an FT817 - and I just checked and I have all the necessary parts…hmm!
Go on, you know you’re worth it.