[NLRS] question of transverters vs radios

[Dave Aho - N9TTX]

Mike, 

    John has good points there also in favor of the
transverter...in that you could have a liason radio,
and just adding transverters later to the existing SDR
setup.  I do have the single radio/multiple band
problem when running the high bands and the liason is
2m.  It is nice to listen to two rigs when sending a
beacon on say 1296 and listening on 2 to see if the
other guy can hear or has tuned me in.  Although that
is being rectified soon.

        Dave...N9TTX

--- "John P. Toscano" <tosca005 at tc.umn.edu> wrote:

> 
> 
> Mike (KB0OZN) wrote:
> > 
> >    I was thinking
> >    of buying a 222 MHz module for my 736r at a
> cost of $375 from ebay.  A
> >    similar  transverter  from  DEM  would  be
> ~$400 but require alot more
> >    effort to interface it.
> 
> The DEMI 222-28CK (complete kit) is only $295 ($100
> savings) and I found 
> it very easy to assemble, even though I would not
> have the courage to 
> tackle something like their 10368 MHz transverter
> kit.  My fingers are 
> just not that nimble.  If you also bought the AOS-28
> interface ($70) or 
> the TIBCK interface ($50 kit, trivial to assemble)
> then you would need 
> nearly no effort at all to interface it to the
> IC-706.  And if the 
> SDR1000 urge does finally overtake you, then you are
> basically ready to 
> go with one transverter already, just remove the
> AOS-28 or TIB and make 
> a few simple connections.  If your 1296 MHz
> transverter requires very 
> low drive power (milliwatts instead of watts), it
> would be fairly easy 
> to interface to the SDR1000.  To connect to the
> IC-706, you still need a 
> way to drop the transmit power low enough and
> (probably) split the IF 
> Tx/Rx, such as the AOS-144 or another TIB.  Then
> you'd have 222 and 1296 
> on the SDR quickly, and still have the other
> radio(s) for 50, 144, and 
> 432 MHz.  And for VHF & up contesting, I find it
> really handy to split 
> the bands over at least 2 radios, so I can use one
> band for liasion 
> while working on the others.  That's probably less
> of an issue with the 
> SDR1000 as the IF, either you see the other guy's
> signal on the 
> bandscope and click on it to tune immediately to it,
> or if no signal is 
> seen, flip back to the liasion frequency and tell
> him it's a bust. 
> Still, unless you need to sell everything else to
> afford the SDR1000, 
> you can keep one or more of the other radios on the
> air too, e.g. IC706 
> for 50 MHz, FT736 for 144 and 432 MHz, SDR1000 for
> 222 and 1296, etc. 
> Then, as you crave higher performance on existing
> bands or more bands, 
> add more tranverters at will.
> 
> I will grant you, however, that it is nice to have
> one radio that does 
> as much as possible, so it is enticing to simply
> plug in a 222 module 
> into the FT736 and be done with it all.  (I wish my
> FT847 and/or 
> IC706MkIIG could do 222 also, along with the
> existing 50, 144, and 432 
> bands.  But as the old saying goes, "jack of all
> trades, master of none"...)
> 
> The other upside of adding the 222 module is that it
> would probably 
> enhance the resale value of the radio if you ever do
> decide to part with 
> it, since the band modules are not easy to find. 
> And I really hope that 
> Jerry finds some free time to write up the module
> modifications for the 
> 2006 Proceedings of the Central States VHF Society. 
> I'm sure we would 
> love to publish a well-done writeup of the sort.
> 
> Good luck on the quest!
> 73 de W0JT
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> 


I modulate, therefore I am!
               ...73, and all that jazz,


                 Dave...N9TTX


Always remember:  "It could be worse.....it could be raining."
                             Marty Feldman from "Young Frankenstein"



Come to the Central States VHF Society 40th
Conference in Minneapolis on July 27-30, 2006!
Info at www.csvhfs.org

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