[Yaesu] Best $600 contest rig

[Steve Harrison]

At 05:59 PM 9/20/2006 -0700, Glen Zook wrote:
>If you want CW and AM on 160 meters the Heath DX-100
>and DX-100B transmitters and the RX-1 Mohawk both did
>cover 160.  But, both date from the 1950s.

Boy, talk about old-time....  ;o)))))))

>The SB-301 does have a noise blanker that works fairly
>well on ignition type pulses

Yes, I rember that. But mine would often get triggered off by my severe
line noise.

>and a little on power line noise.

Yes, mine worked to some extent on some types of line noise but was
frustratingly-ineffective on the majority of my noise. That was the main
reason I eventually bought my FT-301S  8-))))))))))))))))))  But yanno, I
can't rember just how well my 301's blanker really worked. My FT-221R's
blanker worked great, though. I sometimes used my 301S mobile with a
homebrew 100W amplifier and it worked great on ignition noise. Today, I bet
a 301 would barely fit on the passenger seat of a so-called "modern" car
;o\  ;o\  ;o\

>But, during any contest use of a noise
>blanker is definitely going to cause a lot more
>problems than it is going to cure.

>Back in the 1970s I placed very well in all sorts of
>contests including CW and SSB using the Heath "twins".
> I still have a set as well as using a Collins 75S-3A
>and 32S-3 these days as my primary station.

IIRC, you, I and Pete Grillo (can't rember his original W2 call nor his
later K6 call) used to butt heads all the time when you lived in
California, especially in the California QSO Party, CD Parties and W/VE
Contest. I was WB6PKA and later, N6KA. I'm still a bit peeved at losing to
Pete in the '76 California QSO Party  ;o\  ;o\  ;o\

>I definitely agree that the Collins KWM-2 series is
>VERY bad for CW (but works fine on SSB) since it uses
>side-tone generation.  This usually produces at least
>3 signals when used on CW.

They just didn't do it right; sidetone generation has been used since then
in many other radios with no problem. But one of the secrets is the
transmitter's audio and modulator chain has to be very linear. And you're
effectively using the same method today with either HSCW/HSMS or the other
V/UHF weak signal "data" modes.

Steve, K0XP
ex-WB6PKA, ex-N6KA