[Icom] Thanks Icom from VHFers

[Siu Johnny]

It is no reason why 6 metre should be left out.  Purely from marketing point
of view, HF+6 metre is a very marketable combination hence more sales or
perhaps lower price.

During my past communications with ICOM Japan, I have been constantly
reminding them the inclusion of 6 metres in their forthcoming flag ship.

From technical point of view (bear me for a moment that I am not a radio man
by profession), a good 6 metre rig will demand both good sensitive and
selectivity.  Unlike HF, 6 metre DX signals are usually weak and the band
condition is not stable at all.  On the other hand, during 6 metre band
opening, local big guns are hunting for rare DX.  Therefore, the rig has to
both outstanding in sensitive and selectivity.

In other words, the components and circuit design used in 6 metre rigs
should at least be as good as a pure HF rig.  With the advancement in
electronic technology, the inclusion of 6 metre in HF rig could not be any
problem in radio design but increase marketability instead.

I agree to ICOM's approach of including 6 metre in their HF rigs.  On the
other hand, I do not appreciate Yaesu's past approach of including 6 metre
in their VHF rigs (e.g. FT736R - hold your fire Yaesu friends).  I have the
feeling that the design of VHF / UHF should put more emphasis on
sensitivity.  Selectivity is more tolerable because the band segment is much
wider than HF.  For example, the sensitivity of IC910H is 0.11uv but the BDR
and 3rd order intercept is only sufficient.  You would not expect a BDR of
over 125db in VHF/UHF rigs.

The above is my own opinion and I hope it would trigger more thoughts from
other experienced OMs.

73

Johnny Siu VR2XMC

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Manship" <mjmanship@iquest.net>
To: <icom@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 27, 2003 7:28 PM
Subject: Re: [Icom] Thanks Icom from VHFers



> I would rather they left out 6 meters and concentrated
> on the HF bands.
>
> 73 de Mike W9OJ
>