Something happened during the COVID year. It appears the Big Three manufacturers (Icom, Kenwood, Yaesu) have abandoned the basic 100 watt HF rig market. The thought struck me as I was perusing the radio offerings on the Gigaparts website earlier today.
I define a 'basic' HF rig as a tabletop radio that cost less than $800 new and covers 80 thru 10 meters and offers 100 watts of output power. The basic rig doesn't have to have a tuner, or a sound card interface, but it should come with a CAT interface. Right now the only tabletop rig for sale that meets this criteria is the 'venerable' (that's my way of saying 'really old') Icom IC-718. This was my first rig when I got my General ticket back in 2002, and it was a few years old even then!
Icom IC-718. Older than many Amateur Radio operators, and still in production
In fact, you have to look down into mobile rig territory to find anything else that fits the basic rig definition, and that's the Yaesu FT-891 and the Icom IC-7100. The FT-891 is arguably a much better HF rig than the 718, but it's a radio with its own set of issues.
The Icom IC-7100 gets special recognition. Rebates put the street price right around $760 (retail is $860) and the price/performance ratio is very high. In my mind this makes the IC-7100 the single best option for a basic rig. It is a very, very good rig, and in the basic category it sweeps all before it. But it stands alone in a field that used to be fairly crowded.
The IC-7100. The best 'basic' HF rig currently available. But for how long?
In the past year or two a number of really good basic HF rigs were dropped by their manufacturers and replaced with... nothing:
Yaesu FT-450D
Yaesu FT-857D
Icom IC-7200
Alinco DX-SR8, and maybe even the DX-SR9
Kenwood TS-480
To be fair, most of these radios (with the possible exception of the IC-7200) were really old designs, and for many of them parts availability started to become an issue. Some radios, like the Yaesu FT-857D, were pushing a 20 year production life and needed a mercy killing. Others. like the Yaesu FT-450D were still very viable and competitive little rigs, and still had a lot of life left in them. The real problem is, the manufacturers didn't introduce anything to backfill the market gaps created when they stopped production on these radios.
At some point, maybe as soon as 2021, currently manufactured basic rigs like the IC-7100 and the IC-718 will be pulled from production. It's inevitable. Every radio goes out of production at some point. What then? Does the market definition of a basic HF rig move up to the $1,000 price point? Do one or more of the Big Three introduce a new 'affordable' rig? Do the Chinese step in with new categories of low cost 100 watt rigs? Do new players enter the market? For example, why haven't the Koreans played the ham radio market? They certainly have the technical and manufacturing expertise, and market presence (think Samsung, Hitachi or LG). Do boutique manufacturers like Elecraft or FlexRadio step up?
Or... are we truly seeing the end of the basic low cost 100 watt HF radio?
One thing's for sure - 2021 will be a very interesting year in Amateur Radio.
This happened a few days ago, and it is looking like a lone-wolf suicide attack that is not terrorist related. The bomber's motivations are still unknown, but there is some discussion about it being a targeted attack against AT&T. One thing is known - a single well placed explosion shut down air traffic control services at Nashville International Airport, and took out phone, internet and 911 services across middle Tennessee and parts of Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia.
To their credit, AT&T responded quickly and most outages were mitigated within hours. But consider this - a deliberate, coordinated attack against just two or three well selected communications nodes - AT&T, Verizon, Comcast or T-Mobile - has the very real potential to knock out regional communications and shut down services for an extended period of time. No cellphone, no internet (which carries a lot of voice-over-internet (VOIP) traffic), no landline comms.
On this blog I spend a lot of time discussing the very real and very likely communications threats posed by hurricanes, tornados, wildfires and earthquakes. Terrorist attacks are far down on my list, mainly because the US government does a good job of tracking coordinated terrorist groups like ISIS, and we generally know more about their attack plans than they do themselves. But every once in a while fate says "hold my beer" and hands us something like the Nashville attack. One bomb, millions without communications.
An alternative communications plan isn't just an interesting 'what-if' intellectual exercise. It's a necessity. Be ready.
It's long past time that the Icom IC-7300 gets its own post. It's odd that I've written about other HF radios I own, and have used far less, but I've virtually ignored discussing this excellent rig. Let's change that.
I've owned my IC-7300 for about three years now, and it's my 'daily driver'. I mean that - this radio gets used every day, and for a wide variety of tasks. I use it to talk on nets, pass digital traffic, monitor frequencies for activity, participate in informal rag chews, and when the mood strikes, participate in contests. It's had the 'MARS mod' (really, just a wide-band TX mod) and I've installed the RadioAnalog PTRX-7300 RF output board (discussed in an earlier post). Although the rig has its own built-in (and very capable) antenna tuner, I have mine hooked up to to an external LDG AT200ProII tuner so I can run digital mode communications (JS8CALL, MARS MSC2020, PSK-31 and others) at full 100 watts output. The radio is a digital mode workhorse, and has become a backbone radio for a lot of heavy duty cycle applications like message center operations and ALE within the MARS system. And it's no slouch on voice modes, either.
My dusty, smudgy IC-7300 working PSK-31 via Fldigi
With the IC-7300, Icom fundamentally changed the mid-range HF transceiver market. It is a moderately priced (currently a squidge under $1,000), high performance SDR with a very well thought out user interface and feature set. How good is the IC-7300? Five years after its introduction the IC-7300 absolutely dominates its market space, and Icom still sells them by the boat load. Literally, by the boat load. Yaesu and Kenwood still don't have anything on the market that competes with the IC-7300. To be fair, Yaesu just announced their new FT-DX10, which seems to be aimed at the same market space. The FT-DX10 feature set is impressive, and one-ups the IC-7300 in a lot of areas. But remember, Yaesu had five years to watch this market space, study the IC-7300, and develop their response. Oh, and Yaesu's introductory price on the FT-DX10 is almost $700 higher than the current price of the IC-7300. That means Icom will still be selling boat loads of IC-7300's a year from now.
Is the IC-7300 perfect? No, of course not. But its real-world flaws are few and far between and, on balance, insignificant. Some internet commandos gripe about a lack of 'dynamic range', or poor selectivity, or poor receive audio performance, poor auto tuner performance, or complex menu systems... well, some folks will bitch about anything. Here's my evaluation - in the real world, when you are focusing on communicating, the IC-7300 is an outstanding radio. But it's not just me saying that. Go read the ratings for the IC-7300 on eHam.net.
Personally, my only gripe about the IC-7300 is the lack of back-lit buttons. That's it.
If you are looking for an all-mode radio, and particularly if you are looking for a radio to run high duty-cycle digital modes, you really don't need to look any further than the Icom IC-7300.
Hey kids, let's play a game. It's called Global Thermonuclear War.
If you don't know the reference you need to hand in your Geek credentials
Too much? OK, I'll dial it back just a bit. Pick a scenario, any scenario, that is likely to occur where you live:
Hurricane
Earthquake
Wildfire
Tornado
Winter storm
And for the win:
A Carrington Event-level solar storm. Much like thermonuclear war, but more widespread and without all the mushroom clouds, or dead people (at first).
When the Sun gets pissed and takes aim at us all we'll be able to do is hang on and watch
In this blog I've spent a lot of time talking about establishing 2-way communications in scenarios like these, but let's assume, for some reason, you can't transmit. It could be because your transmitter is damaged, or atmospheric propagation is so disrupted that you can't get through to anyone. You still need to be able to listen - to monitor the airwaves on as many modes (AM, FM, sideband, digital, etc.) as possible to establish and maintain situational awareness, and to evaluate propagation.
The most fundamental tool in this scenario is a simple battery powered AM/FM radio. Nothing too fancy. One of the inexpensive wind-up emergency radios like the C. Crane Solar Observer will do fine. The point is to be able to monitor broadcast bands for updates.
A very capable little wind-up radio. Not very sensitive or selective, but ideal for basic situational awareness needs
A step up from this would be a radio that offers improved sensitivity and selectivity and adds shortwave (but not SSB) reception into the mix. Several all-band radios like the Tecsun PL-310ET get surprisingly good reception performance ratings. This inexpensive little radio (less than $50 on Amazon) has actually spawned a cult following among DXers.
This cheap little radio is so good it's developed a cult following among serious reception DXers
Most of these inexpensive radios only offer shortwave (AM) reception outside of the commercial broadcast bands. This is OK for basic situational awareness monitoring, but if you also want to monitor Amateur Radio, military, marine, SHARES, Red Cross or other activity in the sideband regions you'll need a radio capable of single sideband (USB/LSB) reception. This requires a bit more of an investment, but the options are still reasonable. The Eton Elite (formerly badged as a Grundig) is another 'cult' radio, with many claiming it offers best-in-class performance along with USB/LSB reception.
Eton Elite Executive. Offers both USB & LSB coverage. About $150 on Amazon
All of these radios will require an external longwire antenna for best performance on the lower bands, and to be honest, none of them are 'screamers' when it comes to low band reception, but they are good enough for the situational awareness mission. You can easily make a simple longwire antenna (nothing more than a piece of random wire with an alligaor clip on the end - just clip it to the external antenna), or you can get one of the inexpensive reel antennas made by Tecsun or Sangean. I prefer the reel models because they are easier to set up and deploy.
The Tecsun clip-on reel antenna. They also make a model with a 1/8" audio plug for use with radios with a built-in antenna jack. Very, very handy
One word of caution when looking for a radio in this category. Several excellent radios, like the Tecsun PL-880, use non-standard lithium-ion batteries rather than off-the-shelf AA or AAA batteries. In my mind this disqualifies them for use in the situational awareness role. If I can't run a portable receiver using replacable batteries that I can get at any grocery store, then I want nothing to do with it.
Many of you are probably asking, "Why not just set up my ham radio?" Valid question. One of the objectives with a situational awareness receiver is ease-of-use - something a non-technical family member could pick up and intuitively use. Most desk-top ham radios have somewhat complex operating interfaces, power requirements (12 volt battery or power supply) and antenna requirements, making them unsuited to the portable situational awareness radio task. There are a few, mostly small QRP rigs like the Yaseu FT-817/818 and the new Icom IC-705, that would fill the role nicely, but most other rigs require a specialized setup and/or don't cover things like the FM broadcast bands.
There are a few handheld Amateur radios like the Kenwood TH-D74 that could fill this role, but they are pricey and SSB reception is compromised by the antenna arrangement.
A strong contender in the situational awareness radio category is a simple SDR receiver plugged into your laptop computer. Something like the inexpensive RTL-SDR USB receiver ($25 on Amazon) offers amazing performance. These little receivers are all based on the RTL2832U chipset (hence the name 'RTL-SDR'). The computer software that controls the receiver is free and, although a bit complex, allows monitoring AM & FM broadcast bands, Amateur Radio bands, utility bands, just about everything bouncing around the ether (except for the cell phone frequencies, which are blocked by law). These receivers are optimized for performance in the higher bands (above 30 mHz) and performance is less than optimal on the lower bands, but still usable. I can't recommend these little USB dongles enough, and there's always at least one in my computer bag. Plus, they are just fun to play with!
These amazing little devices are no bigger than a USB thumb drive
The software that drives these RTL2832U chip based receivers is available on the RTL-SDR.com website, and the user has a huge number free and paid packages to choose from - more than 25 at last count! A great way to spend a lazy rainy day is fiddling around with one of these receiver dongles and the various software packages that drive them. And yes, there are Linux, Android and MacOS packages available.
While I admit that the software interfaces are not necessarily 'intuitive', many are easy to quickly figure out, with things like frequency changes or mode changes handled with a simple mouse click. Getting non-technical family members up-to-speed on how to use them should be quick and easy.
HDSDR software interface for RTL-based SDR receivers. One of over 25 packages available on the RTL-SDR.com website
If you want to step up in receiver performance, particularly on the low bands, there are more capable (and more expensive) SDR receivers available from companies like AirSpy and SDRPlay. I've been using an SDRPlay RSP2 for a few years now, and recently slaved it to my Icom IC-7300 using the RadioAnalog PTRX-7300 add-on board. I'll be upgrading to the new RSPdx model that offers much improved performance below 30 mHz., and the old RSP2 will go into my field kit bag for portable receiver operations.
RSPdx receiver, offering much improved low-band reception
So there you have it. This post is not a comprehensive treatise on situational awareness radio tools, it's just intended to get the thought processes started. Honestly, this topic deserves wider coverage and can quickly descend down the rabbit hole of emergency service scanners, military-grade receivers, beacon networks, magloop antennas, and tin foil hats.
So what's my plan if I need to go into the monitoring mode? Simple. I'll plop a very capable AM/FM portable radio (likely my trusty C. Crane EP analog radio) on the kitchen table for the XYL to use to listen to local broadcast stations, and I'll go down to the shack and fire up the SDRPlay receiver and start monitoring Amateur Radio frequencies in the 20, 40 & 75 meter bands.
I read today on the HP Calculator Facebook page that Hewlett-Packard (HP) has taken its HP-35s calculator out of production. I quickly checked Amazon and sure enough, they were down to just one in stock. Wanna' guess who bought it?
If true, if HP has closed down production of the 35s, it's a sad day. While the HP-35s was never a great calculator when compared to its predecessors, it was a very good RPN (Reverse Polish Notation) calculator and represents what may be the last in the line of classic HP RPN pocket calculators that started back in 1972, with the introduction of the HP-35.
I closely followed the development of the HP-35s, about a decade ago. The developers in HP's calculator division (at the time never more than two or three individuals) maintained a running dialog with HP calculator fans via the Yahoo email reflector, and they allowed fans to have direct input on the features and design. It was a very collaborative development process, and the HP calculator community was proud and delighted to have been included. The name HP-35s was deliberately chosen as an homage to the classic HP-35. When HP released the calculator I purchased one directly from the on-line HP Store. When it arrived I noticed that the display was slightly mis-aligned in the frame. I called HP support and the lovely lady sent me a second calculator and told me to just keep the first one. So I ended up with two - one for home and one for work.
My love affair with HP calculators started back around 1976 when my brother, who worked in a testing lab, started bringing home one of the HP-25's the lab made available for the technicians to use. At the time I was using a Texas Instruments calculator, probably a TI-51 or 55. Texas Instruments calcluators were significantly less expensive than HP's offerings and it was the only thing this struggling college student could afford.
But the HP-25 was a glorious instrument! Incredibly well built with that wonderful signature HP mechanical key 'click' that let you know, without a doubt, that your data had been entered or your operation had been selected. By comparison, Texas Instruments keypads were mush, and were notorious for crapping out, usually in the middle of a final exam.
And then there's HP's famous implementation of Reverse Polish Notation, or RPN. RPN is a calculating methodology that eliminates the use of parenthases in mathmatical operations, and instead uses the concept of 'stack registers' to manage calculations. Once you learn RPN and stack management you can fly through calculations faster and more efficiently that using TI's algebraic operating system. If you want to learn more about RPN you can skip over to the RPN Wikipedia page for more info.
My love/obsession with HP calculators was fed by the US Army. In 1979 I graduated from college and took a commission as an officer in the Corps of Engineers. I found myself tracked into the Corps' topographic field (today known as geospatial engineering). There soon followed some very heavy courses in geodesy, surveying and mapping. The Corps of Engineers had gone 'hog wild' for HP calculators and early desktop computers. In fact, when reporting for class at the Defense Mapping School's Mapping, Charting & Geodesy Officer's Course we were issued HP-31E calculators and given an hour of instruction on RPN before being tossed into the deep end of the pool - survey network adjustment using least squares.
Over the years I accumulated a fair number of HP calculators. Some I bought, some just floated in my direction. There has always been an HP calculator on my desk or in my briefcase since 1981, and I have two strong favorites - the HP-11C and the HP-32S. They are just excellent, rugged work-a-day calculating devices. Many consider the HP-11C one of the best calculators ever produced, and I have no argument with that.
Just part of my collection of HP calculators
Even if HP shuts down production of all of its calculators (sadly. a very likely scenario), the spirit of HP's classic calculators will live on. There are a number of excellent iOS and Android-based emulations of various HP calculators (many written using HP's own RPL programming language), and a company called SwissMicros is manufacturing a series of excellent HP calculator 'representations'; each SwissMicros model follows the layout and operating pattern of classic HP units like the HP-41, the HP-42 and the HP-15, but they are not straight clones and incorporate modern features like USB connectivity, SD card storage, advanced graphics, etc.
The SwissMicros HP-41 'clone'. I have a strong feeling there's one in my future
I'm also of the opinion that calculators and Amateur Radio go together like peas and carrots (as Forest Gump would say). Amateur Radio is, at its heart, a science-based hobby, and there's always a need for a calculator in the shack. And in my shack there will always be an HP calculator.
A few months ago I purchased the PTRX-7300 panadapter interface board for the Icom IC-7300 from DXEngineering. The PTRX-7300 is manufactured in Europe by a company called RadioAnalog. The board is installed in the 7300 (no soldering required!) and it 'sniffs' the incoming RF without otherwise burdening the radio (the 7300 doesn't even know it's there). The PTRX-7300 outputs that RX signal tap to an external software defined receiver (SDR) of your choice. With the SDR radio connected to a computer and running SDR software you now have a panadapter display that is shows not just the small slice of the amateur radio band visible on the IC-7300's front panel, you get to see the entire band in one view. Even better, the incoming RF line that the PTRX-7300 'sniffs' is tied to the radio's RX/TX circuit. When you transmit on the 7300 the RX circuit is shut down, so the PTRX-7300 is protected.
About a week ago I found the time to open up my IC-7300 and do the install. I had read reports and watched YouTube videos that talked about how easy the installation is. They were all right. It literally took me more time to get all the screws out of the IC-7300 case than it did to install the PTRX-7300. The board is extremely well designed and built, and very cleverly ports the RF 'tap' out through the radio's external tuner port. Don't worry, you can still use an external tuner. You just end up with an extra cable that you connect the tuner to. It all works just fine.
For an SDR, you can use whatever you want, even one of the inexpensive SDR dongles like the RTL-SDR. However, keep in mind that many of the SDR dongles are optimized for VHF & UHF frequencies and don't do well in the HF spectrum. I chose to use an SDRPlay RSP2 that I've had for a few years. The RSP2 is a single receiver/two anetnna input design, which works great in this application. The RSP2 has been discontinued, and is replaced in the SDRPlay lineup by the RSPdx. Hmmm... may have to ask Santa for an upgrade.
SDRPlay also develops the SDRuno software application that drives their line of receivers. This application is best-in-class for controlling SDR receivers (and not just SDRPlay units, but the software can also control other receiver models, like the RTL-SDR units). Even better - the application is free! The SDRuno user interface can be a bit daunting at first, but within just a few operating sessions you'll have it down.
So let's see how this all goes together.
The PTRX-7300 board installed. The install kit includes all necessary cables
The cable on the left is the external tuner extension. The cable on the right is the RF 'tap' cable that connects to your SDR
Everything buttoned up and showing the cabling
View showing the RSP2pro connected to the IC-7300. For convenience, I attached the receiver to the 7300 using double-sided tape
Once all the hardware is connected it's time to take a look at the software. The SDRuno application is Omni-Rig 'compliant', which means if SDRuno sees the Omni-Rig software running, it automatically slaves itself to the rig control software. All you have to do is configure your IC-7300 as RIG 1 in the Omni-Rig interface and the 7300 and SDRuno will be driven simultaneously by Omni-Rig. Change frequencies on the radio, SDRuno follows along. Change to a new band in Omni-Rig, the 7300 follows along. You get the idea.
Configure Omni-Rig to sync with the IC-7300 as RIG1. The RSP2 acts as a sub-receiver, controlled via Omni-Rig
When launched, SDRuno is a sea of floating windows, but that's one of the keys to its versatility. You can launch multiple virtual receivers, each with its own panadapter window, you can tweak the passband settings, you can install and manage frequency libraries, and lots more. Basic functionality is easy to figure out; the more complex functions involve a bit of a learning curve.
One of the neat features introduced with the newest version of SDRuno is the ability to use third party plug-ins. For example, SDRuno can not decode any digital modes like FT8 or PSK. It can hear them, but can't make sense of them. With the third party plug-in concept, a developer can make an FT8 plug-in and you will be able to decode FT8 traffic right within the SDRuno interface. The SDRuno install packages includes a few 'trial' plug-ins, and in the image below I'm running the DXCluster plug-in. It superimposes DX stations on the panadapter display, making it easy to visulaize them in relation to the spectrum. I'm really eager to see what other developers bring to this new plug-in environment.
Note the DXCluster indicators in the right side of the panadapter display. I'm using the DXCluster plug-in to display the stations on a 5 minute refresh interval
One of the neat tricks you can do with a dual-antenna input receiver like the RSP2 is run the receiver without the IC-7300 in the chain. This allows you to poke around the band and frequency segments that the IC-7300 can't handle, like VHF and UHF. The concept is simple, and there's no need to plug or unplug cables or re-configure software. Just choose 'ANT2' (antenna 2) in the SDRuno interface to bypass the IC-7300:
Wire up the IC-7300 and the RSP2 via the ANT1 connector on the RSP2 to make it a sub-receiver controlled by Omni-Rig
Want to explore frequencies beyond the IC-7300's capabilities? Just turn off the 7300 and switch over to ANT2. You'll have to push the audio through your computer speakers vs. the 7300
I'm still playing around with and tweaking this setup, and I have run up against a few issues users need to be aware of:
You need to set your matching baud rates in both the SDRuno interface and the Omni-Rig settings, and they must match what's set on the IC-7300. If all three don't match then SDRuno will kinda'-sorta' look like it's running properly, then stop responding. It took me a day or two to figure this out
For some reason, either SDRuno or Omni-Rig changes the IC-7300 CI-V Transcieve mode to OFF (default is ON). While this doesn't impact voice transmissions, it does lock out TX controlled by digital mode software like Fldigi or JS8Call. I'm still trying to troubleshoot this issue, but it's easy to reset the CI-V Transcieve mode back to ON from the radio's front panel display (it's under the 'Connectors' menu setting)
I have not tested this IC-7300 - Omni-Rig - SDRuno setup in conjunction with digital mode software such as Fldigi or Winlink; I'm not sure yet if you can simultaneously run another software application that requires control of the radio's settings. After I test I'll report back
So that's it for now. My overall opinion of the PTRX-7300 add-on board is pretty good. It's a very well designed and built piece of hardware that adds real capabilities to the IC-7300 setup. If you want a panadapter for your IC-7300 this is the most versatile and elegant way to get it. Highly recommended.
I spend a lot of time on the air each week, and most of that time is spent either sending digital traffic, or testing digital software setups, or troubleshooting hardware interfaces (damn you, Windows COM port management!), or giving instruction, or testing digital nodes.
Until recently all this digital activity was done using a collection of different radios - whatever happened to be on the bench. Sometimes it was a QRP rig, sometimes it was a 100 watt rig of one manufacturer or another, in one configuration or another. I eventually figured out that I spend too much time fooling around with radios and not enough time building software and operational expertise.
The other issue is that I never built the level of standardization I felt I needed for effective communications - a single system configuration that was easy to figure out and support. Most of what I do is on Winlink, Fldigi (PSK31) and JS8Call. The station needed to have three components - an effective HF rig, a VHF rig with a companion TNC for VHF Winlink, and a computer to tie it all together. So I made the decision to set up a dedicated HF & VHF digital station using on-hand equipment. I didn't want to spend a single dime on new gear, but I wanted the setup to be effective, and cool looking. Because looking cool is everything in EMCOMM. Like this:
"Private, patch me in to GlobeSat Niner-Six on the next ascending pass. I need to call Pizza Hut to see if they got my order"
Or, more likely, this:
I mean, a leather helmet, uniform blouse and field scarf are all 'de rigueur' for EMCOMM operations, right?
I was lucky in that I've got an excellent HF rig for the purpose - the Icom IC-7100. The 7100 is Icom's current rendition of the 'shack-in-a-box' concept. I traded into this radio about a year ago, attracted by it's ease of operation, good filtering, and the fact that it has a built-in soundcard modem for HF digital operations. I wrote about this IC-7100 in more detail in an earlier post. I did the MARS mod on it, and used it on and off as a field radio and in my shack as a back-up. But over time it got shuffled aside, packed away and almost sold before I came to my senses. I didn't know precisely why I needed to hang on to it, I just knew I needed to keep it around. It doesn't do any one thing spectacularly, but it does all things very well.
In this use a radio doesn't need any fancy front panel interfaces - no watefall displays, no band scopes. A simple frequency and mode display is all that's really necessary. The radio is driven by the software application - it's merely an extension of the computer. That said, the IC-7100 actually has a very good monochome touch screen display and the rig is extremely easy to use in the stand-alone mode.
HF digital modes tend to be full duty cycle (unlike SSB voice). Also, this is not a QRP operation; full output power is what's called for - key down, 100% power for extended transmit periods. Resonant antennas and/or robust antenna tuners are necessary. My end-fed long wire antennas are 'mostly' resonant on the ham bands, but often need tweaking with a tuner to get the SWR below 2:1. This means a tuner that can handle 100 watts at full duty cycle. Most tuner ratings are based on SSB voice duty cycles (which are often less than 50%), and most of those tuners would be damaged in short order by the 100% duty cycle of full power digital modes. This is why 100 watt tuners often state that they can only handle digital modes at 30 - 50 watts. I needed a tuner that can handle 100 watts at full duty cycle, so this meant a tuner that's rated for twice the radio's output power. I settled on the LDG AT-200Pro tuner. I'm using this model with another radio for MARS digital work so I know it does a very good job, plus it interfaces seamlessly with Icom radios using the appropriate cable from LDG.
What about VHF? The only real need I have for VHF digital is VHF packet for Winlink. The DSTAR capabilities are nice, but I've got an IC-D5100 set up specifically for DSTAR and it handles those chores better than the 7100 (except for HF DSTAR, something I have yet to try). Unfortunately the 7100 does not have a built-in packet TNC. But what radio does these days? Except for Kenwood the industry seems to have abandoned this market, and Kenwood's offerings are getting long in the tooth. This means an external AX.25 packet modem. I use a Coastal Chipwoks TNCX, but those recently went out of production. The old (but still manufactured) Kantronics KPC3+ seems to be the standard these days.
There are two VHF Winlink nodes in my county, along with a Winlink digipeater (KK4GQ-15). I can reliably hit the digipeater on 10 watts from my QTH. During exercises I've set the Winlink application to auto-connect with a local node every 30 minutes (a neat feature built into the software) and the radio just loafs along for hours on end, automatically logging in to send or receive waiting traffic while I attend to other chores.
The IC-7100 digital stack; TNC, radio & tuner on the right, the rig interface on the left
The EMCOMM football (Panasonic CF-31) on the left, driving the IC-7100 digital stack and external monitor
Of course you can't do digital without a computer, and I recently wrote a companion piece on what needs to be installed and running on an effective ARES computer. The EMCOMM football holds all the software and references needed to effectively run HF and VHF digial modes in a 'grid down' power out situation.
This dedicated digital station is extremely versatile. It can run:
Winlink on HF and VHF
Fldigi (all modes)
JS8CALL
D-RATS (DSTAR-based digital messaging)
MARS MSC and ALE
Conventional AX.25 packet
Digital voice (DSTAR) on HF, VHF & UHF
Conventional voice on HF, VHF & UHF
Now, it can't run any of this simultaneously - it's single mode operation only. But that's OK, because I rarely have a need to operate on multiple modes at the same time. When I do run up against that requirement I just use a back-up radio such as a VHF/UHF HT or mobile radio to monitor the second mode or a coordinating frequency, and then switch the IC-7100 between modes as needed.
Is all this capability unique to the IC-7100? No, of course not. You can easily achieve this with any combination of HF and VHF/UHF radios. The IC-7100 is just what I happened to have on-hand. Remember, it's not the hardware or software, it's the concept - broad capability and flexibility on digital modes. How you achieve it is up to you, and that's the fun of it!
