PC-9000

Another radio by a small, independent US manufacturer is the Patcomm PC-9000.  Although this model is no longer available, it does turn up on the swap pages and ebay occasionally.  It is difficult for a small US company to compete with the Big Three imports, note the demise of Index Lab and some of the smaller QRP companies.  But, Patcomm along with Ten Tec, Elecraft, and a few other companies due offer many amateur radio products that are made in the USA.

    The PC-9000 is a solidly built HF transceiver covering 160 thru six-meters.  Power is 40-watts high and 5-watts for QRP.  As with the PC-16000A, it has a dual digital readout send and receive which comes in handy for split frequency and CW work.  The switched capacitor filter (SCAF) is a nice feature that varies the bandwidth from 350hz to 2.8khz.  Those familar with the Index Lab, which also used this method, will appreciate the SCAF on CW.  An impulse type noise blanker is also standard on the PC-9000.  CW can be operated with an external keyboard, paddle, or straight key.  

    CW operation has a couple of quirks.  The built-in keyer defaults to 25-wpm when you turn the rig off.  The paddle plugs into a jack on the rear.  But, to use a straight key you need to wire a connector for the microphone plug on the front panel.  Since the rig is no longer being produced, these quirks are something you will need to get used to.  

    A couple of other features that were originally going to be offered with the PC-9000 was to add Morse and RTTY decoding and RTTY sending with the keyboard interface.  And, a memory upgrade to increase the memories to 10-memories per band.  These features were never incorporated by Patcomm for the PC-9000.  These features are available on the PC-16000A, and to a lesser degree, on the PC-500 dual bander.  These options were probably dropped due to cost factors.  It is difficult for a small independent US company to compete with the Big Three importers, unless they are supported by the amateur users and buyers.  
 
    I now use the PC-9000 primarily on six-meters FM.  When I first got the rig, I used it on HF QRP, but have since  added the PC-500 for QRP, which I will provide a user report on in a later posting.  However, if you can find a PC-9000 rig it will make a good entry-level HF rig and does reasonably well on six-meters.  Another plus is that Patcomm is very responsive to both email and telephone queries.  

Cheers,  Bob,  K9FOH

You may reach Patcomm at:

www.patcommradio.com  and email:  patcomm1@aol.com


Ex:  KR6FJ, Okinawa;  KA2BL, Japan;  KA1DX & KA1BL, Marcus Island;  KA1CQ, Iwo Jima;  G5EBA, England.