Base Station VHF/UHF Rigs

Does Yaesu make a full-size base station rig that includes 2-meters, 220, and 440? I know they make several with 2M/440, but never seen any with 220 as well. I realize that a different antenna would be needed for each band.

 

GRP:

Actually, a quarter-wave ground plane for 2-meters will work well as a 3-quarter-wave ground plane on 70 cm. You would need either a separate antenna for 1.25-meters or a combination antenna that includes that band as well as the other 2-bands.

Glen, K9STH

 

The 736r (now discontinued) could be configured for 2/220/432 operation. I am not that familiar with the Yaesu line but very few Japanese radios include 220 as a matter of course.

Danny, W0JMP

 

Does any company currently make an all-mode VHF/UHF multi-band rig, like they do with HF? Most HF rigs have all the HF bands, but I've never seen the equivalent in a VHF/UHF one. I would really like to see one with 6M, 2M, 220, 440, 900, and 1240 bands all in one. How difficult would it be to make such a rig?

 

Not a big enough market.

This is why transverters are so popular. All you need is one HF monoband rig (or multiband) and add transverters for the higher bands you wish to use. It's what almost everybody does, and the "building block" approach allows one to invest in the other bands slowly, over time, rather than spend thousands of dollars all at once.

 

I remember asking a similar question in 92 or 93. I first licensed in '92. I asked the Elmer if there was such a thing as a transciever that had HF (10-160) AND my then beloved 2 meters. He said no, and it would not go over well as having all one's eggs in one rig was risky. Hams need to be able to communicate somehow even if one rig goes down, he opined.

LOL

 

Well HF+6+2+70cm rigs have been popular for many years now, with the old FT-100 and original IC-706 and many rigs that followed; however I must agree I don't particularly like that solution, as often when I'm on HF I'm "monitoring" 6m and 2m at the same time, and those rigs won't let you do that.

But adding in "more bands" starts getting very costly and one that would also cover 222-902-1296 MHz in addition to all that is likely to be in the $5K range even to run fairly low power on UHF. That's what "limits the market."

I do have an FT-736R which works 50/144/222/432 MHz all in one box. Damned thing including the two extra band modules (it only came with two, the other bands are optional) worked out to about $2800 in 1987 dollars. That was a lot of money back then. But, I still have it and it still works, so I guess the "cost per year" isn't bad.

 

I can understand the desire to have a multi-band mobile VHF/UHF rig. But, I never understood the desire to have one at home. Even in my extremely small space (a picnic table), I have separate radios for 10, 6, 2, 1.25, .7, and .33. I don't have anything to compare them to, but why wouldn't they work better than a single radio with all those bands?

I even manage to have a complete HF station, two more 2m rigs, and a large computer all in that space.

 

SDRs are the future, and can already be done today

I too am not a fan of all bands in one box approaches, especially if you are serious about the bands 6M and up. In addition to losing one radio meaning losing all bands, you really do want to have the ability to be listening, and be watching both 6M and 2M at the same time. And better yet is doing that same thing on 1.25M and 70CM along with 6&2. Being able to do that really does make a difference for how much stuff you will find and work in openings and in contests on 6M and up.

And if HF is also in the radio, and you are using it on HF then you have no means to monitor any VHF weaksignal segments at all. You just can't do a very good job on those higher bands that way. And even radio like the FT-736 still only allows being on just one band at a time. I almost bought one used from a local fellow in the early 90's. I am so happy in retrospect that I didn't do that, because the FT-736 in reality just can't do all that much.

I had for a short while run a IC-820H in the late 90's, and even though it could listen on both 2M and 70CM at the same time, it still wasn't very convenient for properly watching both bands at the same time. Shortly thereafter I picked up a DEMI transverter for 1.25M and coupled it with a decent HF radio, it totally blew the doors off of anything from the JA big 3 for RX performance. Within a year or so after that I was 100% transverters on all bands from 6M-70CM and have never looked back.

About a year and half ago I replaced all my transverter IF radios on 6M-70CM with 4 PC-based SDR's. I ended up spending only about $1500 more than the inflation adjusted price of the FT-736 with the 6M-70CM modules in it. But unlike the FT-736R with just receiver on one band at a time, and no scope, I can easily listen on up to 8 receivers simultaneously, have 4 truly good 192kHz wide simultaneously running spectrum / waterfall displays, and have random access tuning to any signal on any of the 4 bands at any time. And I also ended up 100W on HF with one of the IF SDRs, plus 3 more SDRs that can listen, or even output low level power as transmitters on HF-6M as well. And since the transverters are all 10 plus years old now, they are still continuing to amortize nicely.

If I wanted to have similar 4 band simultaneous coverage by trying to use DC-daylight, or older V/UHF all modes, it would have actually cost more, and/or not be nearly as capable. You pretty much need to buy and dedicate one per band, and then try to figure out how to get good spectrum displays on them, never mind a second receiver per band. So for a truly serious 6M+ station the traditional all modes or DC-daylight radios are a dead end.

But everyone has to start somewhere, so the DC-daylight radios do offer a good value for getting some kind of capability on a lot of bands for a pretty low amount of dollars. After all having something on the bands is still better than nothing.

 

Keep an eye on this one

Depending how this pans out, it may be the solution that you are looking for. It is certainly one to watch.

http://www.crosscountrywireless.net/sentry.html

Disclaimer: I have no association of any kind with this effort. I am just following it with interest because of what it represents.