[NLRS] question of transverters vs radios

[Phil Lefever]

At 03:48 PM 1/9/2006, you wrote:
>    Here's  my  situation.   I  have a 706mkIIG with no special filters or
>    features, a FT736R with just 144 and 440 and no special features and a
>    1.2GHz  transverter  by  MM.   Basically  I  have 6, 2,  and .7 meters
>    covered with ssb and 23 cm if I ever get it hooked up.  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.

Mike,

Personally I own a DEMI 222 transverter and I have used a 736R on 220 for
a couple contests.

The particular 736 I used didn't perform well, I suppose there could have
been something amiss with this unit. My issue was hearing spurious signals
through the band at times. The W0ZQ beacon, which is REALLY strong at my
house, could be heard all over! The transverter has never had this problem.

As John pointed out, you could buy the transverter kit and interface for
less then the $375 price or the rare-as-hens-teeth 736 module. Yes that is
in kit form, but like John I found the assembly to be quite easy and there
was almost no tuning. It seems that many of us seem to be shy about building
kits these days, from time to time we all need to remember which end of a
soldering iron to hold ;) Interfacing the transverter isn't nearly as hard
as you might think too. Once you interface one transverter its easy to
just switch the IF to add more silver boxes too.

With the age of the 736 and the availability of modules decreasing I'd
likely work to find a more current solution myself.

73

Phil, KB0NES