Practical Amateur Radio

Ben Hunter writes "I am somewhat alarmed by the offerings Icom and Yaesu have made to the HF community over the past few years. These HF transceivers fulfill the entertainment aspect of amateur radio, but they are not well suited for any sort of practical communications.


Practical aspects of amateur radio include emergency communications and portable communications. The primary problem with all of these HF transceiver is the receive current draw. They consume far more power than can reasonably be expected for required receive functions.

I believe that a large portion of amateur radio operators are interested in practical communications and that there is no technical obstacle to this end. I loved my Icom-706, but I sold it because I could not support it in portable/emergency situations. It drew 2 Amperes of current and would shut down if the voltage dropped much below 11 Volts. The FT-100 specifications indicate similar operation.

I have now purchased 2 Yaesu FT-817s. With the light turned off, these transceivers only draw about 0.25 Amperes. 5 Watts of transmit power has worked remarkably well, but it just is not enough to achieve a high probability of success.

The most tempting HF transceiver on the market today is the Alinco DX-70. I borrowed my Father’s DX-70 for testing. I was impressed with every critical function on the DX-70 including heat dissipation. The receive current with the light turned off was about 0.5 Amperes. This is more than it should be for critical receive functions, but it is manageable for portable/emergency communications."