Lab599 Discovery TX-500 - A different perspective

I can't adjust most of those things on my modern vehicle because automotive manufacturers, along with many consumer tech companies, actively subvert the ability of shade tree mechanics and tinkerers to repair their own devices. They withhold access to schematics, parts and other services behind the "authorized repair center" disguise...which is only intended for them to charge exorbitant prices for minor fixes.

 

Demonstrably untrue. There is a cottage industry of folks doing custom performance tunes on a chip for people (and if those folks can do it for others, you can do it for yourself with the right tools). Custom as in, they're matched up to the specific engine configuration, including non-standard aftermarket bits, of the car in question. All those tunes do is change the fuel and ignition settings, the same sort of stuff folks used to do with carbs and points-based distributors.

I have a very detailed service manual for my newest car, a 2013 model. I've owned such manuals for many of my vehicles (they can be quite expensive, so I didn't buy one for every car). No, you can't go to Autozone and get one, but they're available.

It's different today, you use computers and electronic tools, but it's not impossible.

Chris

 

Tuners are easy mode even in mobile/portable use and they are never as effective as a resonant antenna. Mobile I run a screwdriver as I wasn't happy with a tuner. If I need to I keep single band antennas tuned in the back I can switch to.
I use a tuner at home with my multi band but still have resonant antennas for the bands I use often. Portable I run resonant antennas and the boat Is the only thing I actually need a tuner 99% of the time.
Tuners are great but not the end all as they are now.
Issue is a tuner is a band aid and if you use a proper antenna even portable you will not need a tuner. Too many always need a tuner to operate and that's not a good thing. Portable you need to know how to cut an antenna on the fly and many don't have a clue.
I don't run Mil radios portable, just the 817 and 891 along with QRP guys kit. Had them for years without issue. My problem is this radio is not waterproof and calling is water resistant isn't close. Like needing a tuner its drives a false complacency that should be instead good practices in the field.. It's a hobby radio like the rest of them. It's an expensive gimmick just like the connectors it uses.

 

I agree, I only just bought my first radio with a antenna tuner in it, and I have yet to use the ATU. I have owned lots of radios over the last 40 years, I have never seen the attraction to ATU's, a resonant antenna is so easy to build or buy why settle for bad performance antennas?

Joel
N6ALT

 

With a non resonant Doublet antenna of 2x Lamda 5/8 and a tuner you have definitely a better signal than with an ordinary and resonant Lambda/2 dipole. In many situation a tuner has less loss than can be measured. Many OM have little knowledge of losses in tuners and spread false information. If you want to know more about tuner losses, you can use the program TLW from the ARRL Antennna Handbook and calculate how high the loss is in different antenna situations.

73, Peter - HB9PJT

 

Perhaps newcomers would say: ".. If you do not understand ChatRooms, bridges, talk-groups, and color codes.. you are not really a ham.."
Or ".. if you cannot use Excel or LibreOffice to clean up your frequency database from dups and overlaps ... you are not really a ham..."

Perhaps at a less practical, and more aspirational level -- I believe it is the intent of US Gov, when encouraging to study and giving us the license, that we can maintain a certain level of proficiency and self-reliance when operating equipment that's compatible, in its capacity, with reasonably modern commercial and defense applications.

With regards to multi-purpose QRP radios, I think they should be under 600$ and should be all band (down to 70 or even 13cm), with everything necessary to operate it in the field, with exception of a battery.

So neither this radio or the new Icom 705 fit into that arbitrary bracket.

I am certainly not a radio engineer, and I suspect making and providing long-term support for a sophisticated radio is very hard to achieve on a small company scale.
Unless, the radio is constructed using mostly open-source designs that are evolved independently.

It is unfortunate that the barrier of entry is pretty high now, but just like in the world of CPU ISAs, open source is lowering the barrier and making impossible possible for small boutique shops.

So cheaper, yet highly functional radios will be more and more accessible.
Unless FCC will go onto the path of FDA and will create enough barriers to entry, to only allow in large multinationals that can afford the required exuberance.

 

Aren't you the same ham that praised the 817 for its robustness? The TX-500 is arguably better in all the areas I believe you find valuable.

As usual Julian did a fantastic job covering the details of the radio and explaining why portable operators would appreciate it, take note.

 

I would suggest you research "right to repair" and how large corporations are continually marching into a world where these cottage industries will be impossible.

 

While reading your post, I immediately thought of Tesla and International Harvester. It's technically possible for both manufacturers to remotely brick your purchase should they detect you've tampered about. Both manufacturers have been in the Internet news related to this, as well as restricting parts availability.

If someone gave me a Tesla, I wouldn't even drive it. I'd sell it immediately. You couldn't even pay me to own one.

 

I'm very familiar with it. That said, at least for the automotive market (excepting specialty manufacturers like Tesla), there is significant push-back against the concept and there are multiple bills at the state and federal level intended to preserve owners' right to repair.

Yet there is at least one non-Tesla repairshop/used-Tesla-dealer who plies his trade without Tesla's support. He has managed to reverse engineer the entire car and buys wrecked Teslas in order to provide a reasonable cost repair alternative. IIRC, he has found a way to circumvent Tesla's remote update/control mechanism, while providing a means to updating the cars (that last bit needs to be verified, going off memory).

That said, the remote bricking/control, right-to-repair or not, is coming to all. Ford is looking at doing remote OTA updates on their F150s and I've personally been involved in attempts to monitor security status on cars in operation (much the way most companies monitor the security of their IT and OT environments), as well as reporting against those security issues. At this point in time the intent is not nefarious, but it's intrusive all the same. Yes, I used the big hammer of a number of privacy laws against those projects.

Chris

 

Its not arguably better. Its near twice the cost. We know you get yours cheap if not free but for a portable op cost is a factor. Many reasons in the field to lose a radio so for your little magic box of wonders I can buy two 817s and not worry about being down or having to have my warranty rejected by ICOM Or that Russian outfit with limited experience to go on. Sometimes common sense wins and in the field it pays double.

 

Comparing apples to apples (new radios), the price difference is far less than "twice the price". At HRO, the Lab599 is $790 and the FT-818 is $610. The Lab599 just hit the market, so the price will likely drop over time, reducing the delta further.

Chris

 

I was mistaken on the 599. That seems reasonable but the 705 is not. I will have to take another look at the 599 but wont be interested in Icoms offering.

 

No one mentioned the IC-705. I knew you were confused TX-500 is a fantastic replacement for the 817/818

Oof. The TX-500 I reviewed was a great radio. Very fun. No one offered me it for free or at a discount.

 

I thought you said HRO loaned it to you for the purposes of a demo / review?