Best Buys In Used Ham Radios

[KA7NIQ]

A TS-830 or TS-530 should fit that bill, as might one of the older Omnis. If the WARC bands aren't important, the old 520 is hard to beat in terms of bang-for-the-buck; I used a 520 and then a 520S for several years until I upgraded to an 820S a few weeks ago.

I once owned a Kenwood TS 520 and liked it a lot. But he does not want tube finals, and wants WARC.

[AG6JU]

perhaps joining club who has good HF set up is one alternative to buying own radio, where I live there is a Radio STN in Queen Mary ship in Long Beach, they are always looking for volunteer to operate. The most of the club STN have much better set up than many personally owned STN do.

[WB2WIK]

I hope the friend already has some decent antennas, as $500 for a "station" won't go far at all...but for a rig alone, it will.

I also hope he already has an adequate regulated 13.8V power supply also, as the small solid state rigs need one and that alone can be $100 or a bit more. And if he doesn't have reasonably well engineered antennas, he'll likely need an antenna tuner for any of the SS rigs that don't have one built in: There goes another couple of hundred dollars.

One advantage of the older hybrid rigs is they all had built-in power supplies. Another advantage is that when they fail, they're easy to work on and have no proprietary components so they can almost always be fixed. Another advantage is with tube finals and a pi-net, you often don't need an antenna tuner because the rig can load pretty well into mismatches without damage.

The friend is being pretty picky for such a budget. I'd recommend sinking whatever's required into antennas first and then picking up an old hybrid rig and just having fun.

[KC9QVL]

Maybe an ft-840 simple cheap used rig

[KA7NIQ]

I hope the friend already has some decent antennas, as $500 for a "station" won't go far at all...but for a rig alone, it will.

I also hope he already has an adequate regulated 13.8V power supply also, as the small solid state rigs need one and that alone can be $100 or a bit more. And if he doesn't have reasonably well engineered antennas, he'll likely need an antenna tuner for any of the SS rigs that don't have one built in: There goes another couple of hundred dollars.

One advantage of the older hybrid rigs is they all had built-in power supplies. Another advantage is that when they fail, they're easy to work on and have no proprietary components so they can almost always be fixed. Another advantage is with tube finals and a pi-net, you often don't need an antenna tuner because the rig can load pretty well into mismatches without damage.

The friend is being pretty picky for such a budget. I'd recommend sinking whatever's required into antennas first and then picking up an old hybrid rig and just having fun.

He has a power supply, an old Astron, and he has an Imax 2000 vertical that will work, with a tuner, from 20 meters up.
I agree, he needs a hybrid rig with that budget, especially since he dont have an antenna tuner.

[KA4DPO]

The Kenwood hybrids will load between 15 and 200 ohms resistive and can handle a 2:1 SWR. If he insists on getting a solid state rig then take him to a hamfest and buy him an inductor, a big variable cap, some knobs, and a piece of plywood to build an L-network tuner. It is incredibly simple and he can load the bedsprings with it.

[K0RGR]

I didn't mention the IC751 because I do consider it a bit ancient - but we had a shootout between a 751A and my IC-746 and IC-7000 at last year's Field Day. The 751 was at least as good or better than either of the newer rigs. The one thing that made a difference, however, was the DSP function in the 7000. But the 751 did a better job of digging SSB signals out of the mud than the 746, but the 746 is nicer to listen to.

I had a 751 for many years, and I really liked it on digital modes. It was OK on CW but the QSK function wasn't great - it was too slow and would lose dits or cut dahs short at higher speeds. If you didn't use the QSK mode, all was well, but contesters like QSK. Still, if you can find one in good working condition perhaps with a narrow filter, it's a really good rig for a refugee from the 1980's. I actually used mine mobile for a long time.

You also asked for dogs to avoid. I think the IC-725 falls in the bow-wow category. The stock receiver is just terrible. A few loud signals anywhere on the band will overload it something awful. There are an extensive set of modifications available that will help the receiver considerably, but I still wasn't impressed with it. There was also a model of this that worked on HF +6 meters that I would avoid.

In the world of ham radio, there have been a few Edsels, but I think very few.

[KA7NIQ]

The Kenwood hybrids will load between 15 and 200 ohms resistive and can handle a 2:1 SWR. If he insists on getting a solid state rig then take him to a hamfest and buy him an inductor, a big variable cap, some knobs, and a piece of plywood to build an L-network tuner. It is incredibly simple and he can load the bedsprings with it.

What about an old Ten Tec 544, remember them ?
He says he found one for 300.00 ! Since he already has a power supply, all we need for him now is a tuner !

[KA7NIQ]

I didn't mention the IC751 because I do consider it a bit ancient - but we had a shootout between a 751A and my IC-746 and IC-7000 at last year's Field Day. The 751 was at least as good or better than either of the newer rigs. The one thing that made a difference, however, was the DSP function in the 7000. But the 751 did a better job of digging SSB signals out of the mud than the 746, but the 746 is nicer to listen to.

I had a 751 for many years, and I really liked it on digital modes. It was OK on CW but the QSK function wasn't great - it was too slow and would lose dits or cut dahs short at higher speeds. If you didn't use the QSK mode, all was well, but contesters like QSK. Still, if you can find one in good working condition perhaps with a narrow filter, it's a really good rig for a refugee from the 1980's. I actually used mine mobile for a long time.

You also asked for dogs to avoid. I think the IC-725 falls in the bow-wow category. The stock receiver is just terrible. A few loud signals anywhere on the band will overload it something awful. There are an extensive set of modifications available that will help the receiver considerably, but I still wasn't impressed with it. There was also a model of this that worked on HF +6 meters that I would avoid.

In the world of ham radio, there have been a few Edsels, but I think very few.

I wonder how much used Icom 751's sell for ?

[KG4NEL]

I've always liked the looks of the Ten Tecs. Very "radioy" looking