Lab599 Discovery TX-500 - A different perspective

I have first hand experience just recently with Samsung who bricked my DVD player remotely and I never tampered with it. They bricked it with one of their automatic updates which was apparently corrupt. If you search the web for this you will find that Samsung bricked thousands of their products all around the world with corrupt automatic updates. I had to send it back to Samsung for them to install new chips and do factory reset. If your device is connected to the net and it's a Samsung, it probably has stopped working.
Sorry...I know this is a little off topic. Back to topic...Julian, very nice review.

 

Stated goal? Gatekeeper? LOL dude your funny.

 

The NEED for tuners is a fairly recent effect caused by the total switchover to solid state finals in TX for our transceivers. Tubes could take a certain amount of power coming back and dissipate it as heat. Granted, that was wasted power, but is the reason why excursions of SWR above 2 were not critical. In the last 30+ years, power transistor finals almost always have feedback mechanisms to pull back or power down as the SWR approaches 2, hence the NEED for something that used to be an OPTION, and not a particularly preferred one.

Its pretty easy to do coax length matching for those obsessed with QRP radios with low SWR needs , or build/buy a simple, lightweight tuner.

 

Thanks for the overview/review Julian.
I've been patiently waiting for this radio to go into production, it will replace the FT-817 in my BOB.
The target demographic of this radio is obvious to me, as well as you, however, others seem to keep trying to compare it to radios that are not in this class...this IS a "green radio" class xcvr.
If you don't like it, don't buy it...belly ache and whine somewhere else; buy a different radio.

 

I think there may be many reasons why young people are not really interested in amateur radio. Have you looked at the ‘image’ of AR lately?
Look at the pictures on QRZ.com for a start... Huge towers that cost many thousands of pounds/dollars, radio equipment that cost similar, and some fat old geezer sat in a chair from which he may no longer be capable of moving. Wonderful!
It shouts “money!” and “inactivity”. Not calculated to interest many youngsters, then.
Thank goodness for SOTA and some similar set-ups to put an opposite view, but they don’t get seen much by young people.

If you want youngsters in the hobby then YOU have to go get them. No one will do it for you.
Les g0nmd

 

Have you looked at the "image" of young people lately?

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-t...nes-group-picture-series-people-23494676.html

 

OK, if you don’t want to mix with youngsters, leave them alone, and they’ll let your hobby die with you. Les

 

Don't assume. In our family, I'm "the fun uncle." All my nieces and nephews are now adults and have children, and young adults (!), of their own. I frequently clown around with my grandnieces and grandnephews. Their laughter and smiles are contagious and good for the soul.

 

Yes, everyone knows that young people are into frugality, self denial, scrimping. Nothing attracts them more than privation and minimalism.

 

Interesting in that International's new name makes our military overland equipment... Yes if it falls in enemy hands they would brick it just like was done with Avionics on planes we sold some decades ago...

 

The Tiny House movement shows you are correct for many young people.

 

Well, then the obvious way to attract them to amateur radio is with oatmeal boxes, magnet wire and diodes!

 

Back to the thread, just bought a Wolf River SOTA antenna, I have a 12 AH Bienno LiFE PO4 battery, really thinking of this radio in a Pelican case would be the ultimate portable station, no tuner needed, no battery needed, expensive though, 73 Geoff

 

Dis you watch the entire video? There is a battery pack incoming, but it would have been nice to have one during my time with the radio. I think one reason the kx2 gets little use, is because it's so fragile. It was never designed for real field use, and now there is a cheaper more rugged alternative to Elecrafts "pretend" portable radio

Operating in the cold, I don't like needing to go outside the shelter and tune the antenna. In that regard a tuner is nice. As a portable operator it is also a no-brainer having the most efficient antenna possible, which isn't incredibly difficult to set up in adverse conditions. So I this isn't a pro/con, but as an individual choice or preference. Does that make sense?
As for the price of the radio, it's about 400 bucks less than a kx2.
73
Julian oh8stn

 

The g90 is a magnificent radio. I don't have any arguments with you there. The thing I tried to get across and my video was the ruggedness of the tx500. I love my g90 and it's been an absolute blast. But when I need a radio to go out and rough conditions, the cold, the rain, and I don't want to carry a Pelican case to protect it, I think I'll be carrying the tx500. Excellent thing is there's lots of options out today for every budget. Thanks for the awesome comment and perspective. It's very much appreciated.
73
Julian oh8stn