Equipment Ideas

I recently got my General license, so I'm planning on buying a base transceiver that can do HF, and an antenna for it. Here are some options I've found.

Base Antennas

  • EARCHI end-fed - $56
    • 6-40m, 30 foot wire
    • Requires antenna tuner
    • Doesn't come with a coax cable
  • KF4LES has a 68ft OCF dipole he’s willing to lend for science
  • Comet CHA-250B - $380
    • Vertical multiband 6 - 80m, “plug and play”
    • Comes with hardware to mount to a pole, could fashion a roof stand out of metal or PVC
  • Buddipole - adjustable to a whole lot of bands, 2m down to 40m, up to 250W
    • Overview of the system
    • reviews are poor, say it’s finnicky and narrow bandwidth
  • mag loop anteanna - expensive!

HT Antennas

Base Transceivers

  • QDX - all USB controlled, HF only, $65
    • USB CAT control, USB audio
  • QRPGuys AFP-FSK - $80
    • No USB interface, knobs for tuning and jacks for audio
    • Different filter boards for different bands, comes with 20m, 30m, 40m, must build others
  • FT-991a - "shack in a box" - HF 160m to 10m, 6m, 2m, 70cm. $1200
    • built-in antenna tuner
  • IC-7300 - similar to FT-991a, more user-friendly, no 2m/70cm, $1200