Icom Japan have been working on a concept of a new radio looking to revitalize the use of the SHF (Super High Frequency) bands. Recently a concept model was shown off at Dayton Hamvention. But is it really going to be a viable product for the Ham Radio market?
Why? Honest to goodness there is NO activity on 440 in my area. Yes! I'd like to see it utilized but I doubt it will ever happen.
amateur allocations are outside of the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz bands for wifi... Mostly. But amateur privileges mean we can run high power there, not just 100mW or whatever the consumer grade devices run...
So no body knows about the GEO -SAT that covers Eu and Mid-East that was paid for by the Mid-East Sponsor ??? This device makes it a perfect radio for that Geo-Sat ...
Unlicensed use of the 5 GHz band includes everything from 5.150 to 5.350 and 5.470 to 7.125 GHz except the little band from 5.895 to 5.925. That latter part is open to amateurs and is also available to vehicle systems (DSRC/CV2X), though that sees more talk than action. Unlicensed use is subject to a complex set of rules that vary by sub-band; see FCC rule 15.407 (which is very long). Some frequencies are much busier than others. The part above 5.85 is new. 2.402 to 2.450 is of course also available unlicensed and that's the really noisy place were Wi-Fi and Bluetooth live, among other things. The 2.300-2.310 portion is much more promising for amateur use.
An SHF DX Primer The 10-, 6-, and 2- meter bands open for DX periodically and regularly. So do the 2.3- and 5.7-GHz bands. The difference is that it is impossible to accurately predict when, and the direction of, 10-, 6-, and 2-meter openings whereas predicting multi-hundred kilometer DX on 2.3- and 5.7-GHz (and even 10-, 24-, and 47-GHz) is a commonplace with modest power levels (under 1-watt at 10-GHz!). When comparing HF DX to SHF DX, consider the refracting mediums. At HF and "lower" VHF, it is usually the ionosphere...a medium that is invisible to the human eye. At SHF, it is the anomalies of the troposphere that are quite visible to the human eye and tracked constantly by the National Weather Service: rain storms and snow storms. The National Weather Service out of Buffalo NY transmits in the upper 3-GHz band. Clearly, that RF is both reflected and scattered over long distances or one would not be able to detect storms that are 100's of km's away. At very modest amateur power levels, the same thing happens. Two stations can point at the same rain or snow cell and communicate while experiencing the "magic" of Doppler effects depending on the geometry of the cell and the path involved. Take a look at K0SM's rainscatter.com to see a website designed to assist SHF operators to identify good opportunities for DX. Be patient as it loads. Search YouTube for the call signs of VA3ELE and VA3TO for videos of them making contacts with many stations over many 100's of km's on these bands. Join the Midwest Microwave email group: https://groups.io/g/Midwest-Microwave or the 10-GHz-Up email group: https://groups.io/g/10GHz-Up to learn more about just how easy it is to get active on these bands, and the DX that they are capable of. Oh, by the way...even "bouncing" signals off of aircraft is a mode that can be used to communicate over long distances at these frequencies.
QO-100 uses 2.4 and 10 GHz, not 5 GHz, but a different version of the head using and indeed, that could be a good market for ICOM to go after. 73 Ed. https://amsat-uk.org/satellites/geo/eshail-2/ Narrowband Linear transponder 2400.050 - 2400.300 MHz Uplink 10489.550 - 10489.800 MHz Downlink Wideband digital transponder 2401.500 - 2409.500 MHz Uplink 10491.000 - 10499.000 MHz Downlink
I see quite a few comments on here but very few from people who have actually operated on these bands. I have been active on all the UHF/microwave bands in the weak-signal (CW/SSB) segments from 902 MHz through 47 GHz, including the 2.3 and 5.7 GHz bands. They are NOT line-of-sight. I frequently make QSO's over several hundred miles through 10 GHz. Sometimes when there is a decent tropo opening, it can extend to 500 miles or more. And there are areas where other services cause noise and signal interference problems on some of these bands, but there are areas where they don't, either. I speak from 15 years of experience. That being said, this equipment by Yaesu is likely to be pretty expensive if it ever hits the market. You can build transverters for these bands for about $150 apiece. For those who don't want to go through that trouble, they may be useful. I would stick with my transverters.
Too bad AMSAT never got one over North America and South America like was discussed in detail decades ago. I've been active all the way up to 10 Gs over the years, but my lack of enthusiasm has dwindled. So the real challenge is for ICOM, is to get me back interested.... .. HI
Propagation at those frequencies is always interesting. Back in the 90's a certain cell provider bought our 2 gig microwaye links out because we were causing them issues. They were in Seattle and we were 100 miles away on the other side of the Cascade mountain range. Seems our side lobes had enough poop to bounce signals off the rock faces of some peaks. They installed 6 gig digital links for us as part of the purchase price. Even at 6 gig one of our west shots could be heard in Seattle.
I suspect that this proposed radio borrows heavily from some of the products that Icom does in this market space: https://www.icomamerica.com/en/network/ Did they say at Hamvention or elsewhere that they specifically plan to have any "non digital" modes like SSB or CW? The bits info that I have seen so far made no mention of those modes in any published literature. Just "USB" shown on the panel of the control head. As far as that goes, very little info about planned modes at all.
