[1000mp] QST Review of IC-746PRO

[Jeffrey Pawlan]

Several years ago I was so infuriated with the ARRL review's whitewashing
otherwise lackluster to downright unacceptable performance that I phoned them
long distance and discussed their procedures and reporting for over an hour.
Nothing was changed as a result.

One of my serious pet peeves about their reporting procedure is that completely
contrary to both industry standard and FCC part 97 rules intent, they report the
2 tone intermods levels relative to an IMAGINARY carrier level by combining the
power of the two tones. My background and work every day is as a Consulting
engineer in RF/microwave/wireless communications equipment design and I would
never report to a customer that the intermod products are n dB down from an
imaginary power level; they are always relative to the actual tone levels. In
fact, several radios tested by the ARRL if reported this correct way would NOT
pass the FCC equipment requirements.

Another major deficit of the ARRL testing is the apparent lack of concern about
the phase noise (which is never shown wider than 22KHz) and also the obvious
spurs in the phase noise sidebands.

I am not certain, but there may be a correlation between the reviews and the
booking of classified ads upon which the budget is highly dependent.

Jeffrey Pawlan, WA6KBL
Pawlan Communications
http://www.pawlan.com