This is from one of my favorite Ham technical writers, Steven Katz, WB2WIK/6. I find his comments informative, accurate, and entertaining. This article he wrote for eHam.net does a very good job of describing the benefit of radials on a vertical antenna system.
20 dB for $48.60
from Steve Katz, WB2WIK on January 18, 2009
read the whole thing here: http://www.eham.net/articles/20850
Overview
Antennas, antennas, antennas!
They are our transducers to the ether, and are what make our wireless equipment work. Yet, for various reasons, many hams seem unconcerned about them.
Deed restrictions (CC&Rs) are probably a leading cause of hams having poor antennas, although plain old apathy seems at least as big a problem. Budget should never be the problem, since so many excellent antennas are available as used items either very cheaply or free, and of course some great designs can be homebrewed for almost nothing. And we find that often times, the ham with no antenna had enough of a budget to buy a $1000 radio. Hmph.
This subject is too vast to address in a brief article, so I'll focus on a single, popular design: HF Vertical Antennas. Even more specifically, inexpensive HF vertical antennas which are typically base-fed, trapped or loaded designs requiring a counterpoise or image plane in order to function properly. Among all the commercial designs on the market, the Hustler 4BTV-5BTV-6BTV are likely the best bang for the buck products currently out there, although Butternut HF6V-HF9V, Hy-Gain 12AVQ-14AVQ-18VS and DX88, and others can be good deals, too.
The products listed, and other popular commercial models, have one thing in common: They are not ground-independent, and have no factory supplied counterpoise. They are trapped or loaded, base-fed antennas that not only work better with radials, they work only with radials.
Any antenna can make contacts. Good ones make stronger, longer-distance contacts more reliably. With a 100W transmitter and a good antenna, many of the signal reports you receive should be `Wow, great signal - very, very strong, S9+ here.' If you don't commonly get such reports, you're definitely missing out on a lot of stuff that could be worked, but you're not going to hear it, and it's not going to hear you, either. A simple, inexpensive vertical antenna can produce such reports, repeatedly. The difference between a vertical that does get the `you're blowing me out of my chair' reports and one that doesn't is simple deployment.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Sunday, January 4, 2009
My thoughts on the FT-920
Back in November '08 I purchased a Yaesu FT-920 from a ham in Moberly, Missouri. Many thanks to James, KBØNHX for stopping by on one of his trips to Jefferson City to pick it up for me and save me the shipping costs. Always wanted to try one of these. Several folks I know that have owned them will not part with them. Some I know that have tried new rigs have sold them and kept or gone back to a FT-920. I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and why this is such a loved radio by many. The first impression of the radio is it's physical size. It's a large radio compared to any current model radios in it's price class. It's equivalent in size and shape to the Yaesu FT-1000MP which it is modeled and styled after. The first FT-920s came out in the late 90s. The one I purchased has a serial number indicating a 2002 vintage.
After using the rig for a while I realize the appeal of having all the most used controls on the front panel. Being one that has only used menu-driven rigs (FT-857D, FT-450) I see the appeal of having frequent settings at the tips of your fingers. However, also being one that sometimes prefers computer-controlling my radio, having this ability is not the overwhelming benefit for me as it is for some. Full CAT control of the FT-920 is really not possible as most of the controls are not "soft pots" which are required to make all the necessary adjustments via a computer interface. The FT-857D was very much computer controllable. The FT-450 is as well but current software needs to have the bugs worked out of it where it comes to the 450. Guess this is a project waiting for me someday.
The internal ATU is a feature I can get used to. Only having a manual tuner until this point the ATU is as convenient as an automatic transmission on a vehicle. Some prefer standard some prefer automatics. I have to say that I like using a manual tuner but the convenience of an ATU is an appealing feature. Along this line having two easily switchable antenna ports is also a plus. I would note that this feature can be added to any radio by purchasing an LDG AT-100pro or 200pro automatic tuner that have two antenna ports. Sooo.. I consider this a $200 feature as that is about what one of the LDGs costs. One thing my non-ATU equipped FT-450 does for those using manual tuners is that the VOICE/CS button can be reprogrammed to transmit a 10w carrier for the purpose of tuning. When pressed it also switches the radio's meter into SWR mode. A very handy feature not many rigs have.
Overall I like the radio and I like using it. Will I keep it forever? Probably not, but I don't tend to keep anything forever when it comes to electronics. Also it does not fit my current (but open to change) vision of how I want my shack to operate. I like the radio and I'm sure I will have it for a while. At least until the new wears off of it for me. I may even invest in some of the INRAD filter options for SSB and digital/CW use to see if the rave about those is mostly hype or the real deal. The combination of the 920's very good AF-DSP, crystal filters, and IF Shift may be a winning combination. I know many say that the best IF-DSP does not truly compare to a crystal filter. I suppose that's true, but having the ability to tune your passband down to 50hz for a single PSK QSO like you can on some IF-DSP rigs sounds appealing to me. I'm sure I will put this to the test in time. There is much more to this rig than any I have owned so far. The things you can do with it outstrips any by way of rear-facing connectors and such. I've yet to use it on digital modes, but that will happen soon... as soon as I can decide on what interface to get for it or if I should just build one for my own satisfaction of doing it myself.
One great feature that I've gotten used to is the dual-bandstack registers. If you don't know what this is, as I did not, look it up. It's a very convenient way keeping a couple well-used frequencies close at hand. Prior to this I would use "VFO B" for such things. The dual registers eliminate that need. This along with the direct frequency entry keypad are things the smaller rigs just don't have. I do wish however, when using "memory" mode for stored frequencies that bumping the VFO did not change the frequency. When working FM it's best to just hit the lock button and use the UP/DOWN buttons to change the channel. I bought the rig for SSB and not FM anyway so that's just an observation and not a complaint.
Since it's so hard to get objective, unsolicited audio reports on the bands I'm not going to comment on TX audio reports. I've gotten good audio reports on all the radios I've owned. In my opinion the only way to tell what your audio really sounds like it to have a way to self-monitor in another receiver. With that said I will say that good audio is more of a practice than a piece of equipment. Talking effectively into a mic is something I think most folks have to learn how to do.
Someday, I'll post up how it works as a digital mode rig.
After using the rig for a while I realize the appeal of having all the most used controls on the front panel. Being one that has only used menu-driven rigs (FT-857D, FT-450) I see the appeal of having frequent settings at the tips of your fingers. However, also being one that sometimes prefers computer-controlling my radio, having this ability is not the overwhelming benefit for me as it is for some. Full CAT control of the FT-920 is really not possible as most of the controls are not "soft pots" which are required to make all the necessary adjustments via a computer interface. The FT-857D was very much computer controllable. The FT-450 is as well but current software needs to have the bugs worked out of it where it comes to the 450. Guess this is a project waiting for me someday.
The internal ATU is a feature I can get used to. Only having a manual tuner until this point the ATU is as convenient as an automatic transmission on a vehicle. Some prefer standard some prefer automatics. I have to say that I like using a manual tuner but the convenience of an ATU is an appealing feature. Along this line having two easily switchable antenna ports is also a plus. I would note that this feature can be added to any radio by purchasing an LDG AT-100pro or 200pro automatic tuner that have two antenna ports. Sooo.. I consider this a $200 feature as that is about what one of the LDGs costs. One thing my non-ATU equipped FT-450 does for those using manual tuners is that the VOICE/CS button can be reprogrammed to transmit a 10w carrier for the purpose of tuning. When pressed it also switches the radio's meter into SWR mode. A very handy feature not many rigs have.
Overall I like the radio and I like using it. Will I keep it forever? Probably not, but I don't tend to keep anything forever when it comes to electronics. Also it does not fit my current (but open to change) vision of how I want my shack to operate. I like the radio and I'm sure I will have it for a while. At least until the new wears off of it for me. I may even invest in some of the INRAD filter options for SSB and digital/CW use to see if the rave about those is mostly hype or the real deal. The combination of the 920's very good AF-DSP, crystal filters, and IF Shift may be a winning combination. I know many say that the best IF-DSP does not truly compare to a crystal filter. I suppose that's true, but having the ability to tune your passband down to 50hz for a single PSK QSO like you can on some IF-DSP rigs sounds appealing to me. I'm sure I will put this to the test in time. There is much more to this rig than any I have owned so far. The things you can do with it outstrips any by way of rear-facing connectors and such. I've yet to use it on digital modes, but that will happen soon... as soon as I can decide on what interface to get for it or if I should just build one for my own satisfaction of doing it myself.
One great feature that I've gotten used to is the dual-bandstack registers. If you don't know what this is, as I did not, look it up. It's a very convenient way keeping a couple well-used frequencies close at hand. Prior to this I would use "VFO B" for such things. The dual registers eliminate that need. This along with the direct frequency entry keypad are things the smaller rigs just don't have. I do wish however, when using "memory" mode for stored frequencies that bumping the VFO did not change the frequency. When working FM it's best to just hit the lock button and use the UP/DOWN buttons to change the channel. I bought the rig for SSB and not FM anyway so that's just an observation and not a complaint.
Since it's so hard to get objective, unsolicited audio reports on the bands I'm not going to comment on TX audio reports. I've gotten good audio reports on all the radios I've owned. In my opinion the only way to tell what your audio really sounds like it to have a way to self-monitor in another receiver. With that said I will say that good audio is more of a practice than a piece of equipment. Talking effectively into a mic is something I think most folks have to learn how to do.
Someday, I'll post up how it works as a digital mode rig.
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