Amateur Radio/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
- SignalStick - 2m/70cm, bendy, cheap at $22
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