[Elecraft] Transverters

[Doug Faunt N6TQS +1-510-655-8604]

   From: "Mark J. Dulcey" <mark@buttery.org>
   Date: Tue, 06 Aug 2002 17:57:49 -0400

   Mike McCoy wrote:
   > At the risk of appearing naive and/or dumb, I just don't 'get it' when it
   > comes to transverters.
   > 
   > I guess if you wanted to convert from microwave 'inexpensively' you don't
   > have much choice. But otherwise, if you want to listen/operate on a
   > particular band why not just get a radio designed for that band instead of
   > 'hacking' a rig that wasn't originally intended for it? First, as cheap as
   > VHF rigs these days are I just can't see how umm... 'forcing' an HF rig to
   > operate on VHF would be money better spent. I certainly can't think it would
   > perform as well as a rig specifically designed for 2 mtrs. Secondly, given
   > we're on the downward side of this solar cycle I'd say give it a year or two
   > or so and I suspect 6 mtr rigs will be cheap too ;)

   First - WHAT radios designed for the band?? VHF and UHF all-mode 
   transceivers are a nearly defunct class of radio. None of the major 
   radio manufacturers has so much as one of them in their product lineup 
   currently; the only currently available VHF all-mode transceiver that I 
   know of is the Ranger RCI-5054DX. True, we do have the new class of HF 
   radios that include one or more VHF bands (and sometimes 440 MHz), such 
   as the FT-100, the IC-706, and the QRP favorite, the FT-817 - but those 
   are all considerably more costly than a single-band transverter.

Add to them the FT-847, FT-897, TS2000 and IC-746, but none of them
will do 222 or 1.2GHz (or 900MHz or 2.4GHz).

   Third, the HF rig + transverter approach may actually work better than a 
   dedicated VHF rig. Many of the all-mode transceivers that have been 
   marketed over the years are seriously lacking in one or more ways. 
   Limited dynamic range and poor IF filtering are common problems. The 
   inexpensive Ten-Tec transverter may not outperform a typical all-mode, 
   but the higher-priced spreads like the DEM transverters will.

And features: I have three radios here (and one out on loan) that will
do all modes on 2M and three of them will do 70cm.  I'm still on the
lookout for a reasonable 2M downconverter so I can use my 756PRO
bandscope.

   Finally, you might be looking to get on 222 MHz. There isn't much out 
   there in the way of all-mode radios designed for the band, aside from 
   the rather scarce 222 MHz module for the FT-736; even the new 
   HF-through-UHF radios skip over it. But you can buy a transverter for 
   222 MHz; DEM has one designed for that band, and there is a published 
   article on modifying the Ten-Tec 2m transverter for 222 MHz.

W1GHZ has designed a very neat and small 5W 222 transverter to fit
together with the FT-817, and I suspect it could work well with the
K2, also.

73, doug