6-Meter Starter
Joseph Mowery
I have had my ticket for about 7 months now and worked
strickly VHF. I am now studing my code for Advanced
(already have passed written) and I want to start working
the 6m band. I am looking for a good all mode 6m rig.
Any suggestions (Doesn't have to be new, pref used).
Joseph Mowery
am
now studing my code for Advanced (already have passed written) and I
want
pmb...@hotmail.com
Joseph Mowery <jmo...@crosslink.net> wrote:
> Original Had a typo.
>
> I have had my ticket for about 7 months now and worked
> strickly VHF. I am now studing my code for Advanced
> (already have passed written) and I want to start working
> Any suggestions (Doesn't have to be new, pref used).
>
If you are going the route to advanced, include HF with
your 6m hunt. ICOM has a few that will do this... 746 I believe.
Anyway, the propogation on 6 is up and down, sometimes it's there,
and other times not. HF on the other hand, is always active.
Once you get your 5wpm, get on 15m daytime, 40 and 80m nighttime,
and operation 5wpm in the novice sections of the band. That'll get
your code speed up to 13 and get you the advanced you desire.
With a dual purpose radio (of which you'll be spending just about
that amount on a single band 6m rig), you'll have the room to
move around on the low bands when you're ready. You can listed on
W1AW code practice nightly to gain your code speed too.
Hope this helps you make your decision, good luck on your upgrading.
Vic
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Joseph D. Mowery
that I picked up used with an AT-500 tuner, external speaker, 5BVT
antenna, keyer, ICOM power supply. Just looking for a inexpenisve
6m unit. Have you used any transverters on HF for 6m?
Gary Coffman
>I already have the HF covered (160m - 10m) with a used ICOM IC-751
>that I picked up used with an AT-500 tuner, external speaker, 5BVT
>antenna, keyer, ICOM power supply. Just looking for a inexpenisve
>6m unit. Have you used any transverters on HF for 6m?
TenTec has one, $95, that goes from 20m to 6m. Good unit.
Gary
Gary Coffman KE4ZV | You make it |mail to ke...@bellsouth.net
534 Shannon Way | We break it |
Lawrenceville, GA | Guaranteed |
Joseph Mowery
Gary Coffman
>Have you used any transverters?
Yes. I have a large stack of SSB Electronics transverters covering through
1.2 GHz used in my primary operating position (these are really nice high
performance units, but expensive). I also have a number of Microwave Modules
transverters used with 56 kb RF modems for the GRAPES network (these aren't
so high performance, but they're plentiful on the used market). I don't have the
TenTec 6m transverter, but I've seen it in operation, and know people who use it.
They're uniformly happy with it (considering its cost). (There are two models,
one transverts from 20m to 6m, the other from 2m to 6m. The latter is an
attractive way to add 6m to a 2m all mode station.)
I'd note that most of today's equipment isn't designed to operate with transverters,
so expect to have to do some modifications or adaptations in order to use one.
I even had to modify my IC735, which has transverter jacks but has a very very
low level output, in order to drive my transverters. For rigs that don't even have
transverter jacks, more extensive modifications may be needed.
Depending on the particular transverter, the IF port may be split or combined.
In most cases, split ports are easier to adapt to your radio, especially if it has
a separate receive antenna input already. Other transverters have split RF
ports for transmit and receive antennas. This allows easy implementation of
external amplifiers and mast mounted preamps, but is a pain if you intend to
mast mount the transverter and use it barefoot.
Personally, I like everything split and brought to a RF patch panel in the
station so I can easily configure the system any way I want it. But that isn't
always the best setup, and is prone to patching errors which can fry equipment.
A more positive switching arrangement, which interlocks control functions with
RF paths, is more foolproof.
In summary, use of a transverter is seldom plug and play. At one time,
transverters were the only reasonable way to get HF rig features on VHF
and UHF. That's no longer true. But transverters can still be a cost effective
way of extending the capabilities of a HF rig or 2m all mode to other bands.
Joseph D. Mowery
Thanks for the information. My HF rig (ICOM IC-751) has outputs for
use with a transverter. But, like you said it is very low level. It also has a
seperate antenna input if you want to use another antenna than the one that
you are transmitting into. The only all mode 6m rig that I have found is a
Kenwood and its cost new was ~$900.00. That is a little out of my reach
just to talk on 6m. Looks like I will have to be ordering a 6m transverter
from Ten-Tec in the near future.
Thanks for all your help.
Joe
73's KF4YYA K
Gary Coffman
>Gary,
> Thanks for the information. My HF rig (ICOM IC-751) has outputs for
>use with a transverter. But, like you said it is very low level. It also has a
>seperate antenna input if you want to use another antenna than the one that
>you are transmitting into. The only all mode 6m rig that I have found is a
>Kenwood and its cost new was ~$900.00. That is a little out of my reach
>just to talk on 6m. Looks like I will have to be ordering a 6m transverter
>from Ten-Tec in the near future.
I expect that the same trick I use on my IC-735 will also work on your IC751.
What I do is take the coax that goes from the main board to the PA, unplug
it at the main board end, and route it to a connector I added on the back of the
radio. This is labeled (by me) as PA IN. (I just chassis mounted a double
female RCA adaptor, so no wire cutting or soldering is required. The mod
can be reversed in a few moments when you sell the radio.)
I unplug the transverter socket cable from its main board socket and plug it
into the driver socket located near it on the same board, IE the one from which
I unplugged the PA cable. This connector on the rear panel, originally labeled
"transverter", is now called Exciter Out. The level of this signal is just right for
driving most transverters, and now appears on the transverter jack any time
you transmit (IE you don't put the radio in "transverter mode" at any time,
ignore that section of your operating manual, it no longer applies).
When the radio is used on HF, just put a jumper between the two connectors
and all is as normal. When you want to drive a transverter, pull the external jumper
and connect the transverter IF IN port to the driver out signal now coming from
the transverter socket. The transverter IF OUT port is connected to the separate
receive antenna connector already on the radio. The radio's PA isn't driven
in this configuration, which is Ok since it is stable with no drive. It'll just sit
there drawing a small idling current.
This works just perfectly for transverters with split IF ports. (For those with
switched ports, I go into the transverter and split the ports myself. This is
almost always easy to do, and as I noted in the previous message, I prefer
transverters to have split IF ports anyway.)
I played with other approaches, including adding a broadband MMIC
amp to boost the Icom transverter drive signal, but that doesn't work
because Icom originally expects the transverter port to be bidirectional,
and the MMIC blocks that (you can't use the separate receive antenna
input when the radio is put into "transverter mode" either).
The other alternative would be to put a booster amp internal to each
transverter so that the original Icom signal level could be used. But
when you have a stack of transverters like I do, that looked like more
trouble than it was worth. It'd also mean I couldn't use the transverters
with other radios which *do* put out enough signal to drive them. (They'd
be overdriven now due to the added amp.)
So basically all I did was move two cables and add a connector, and
that gives me full transverter capability at the proper drive levels with
the Icom rig. (Icom only outputs 30 uW transverter drive normally. I don't
know what they were thinking. There isn't any available amateur transverter
which will work with that low a drive level. Most want 5 mW, which is
what you get from the pre-driver stage of the Icom. Perhaps Icom intended
to market a transverter that would work at the 30 uW level, but never
did for one reason or another.)
This sort of modification will also work for radios which don't have
transverter jacks. Most radios have a pre-driver stage on one board,
and the driver and PA stages on a separate big heatsink. So there
will be a coax between them that you can relocate.
One thing that you *do not* want to try to do is to use the radio's
power control to lower its PA output to a level usable by a transverter.
There are two reasons why this is a bad idea. First, power control
is just wire ORed with ALC, and it suffers from transient overshoot.
So every time you transmit, you spike the input of your transverter
momentarily with up to 100 watts. That will eventually cause something
in the transverter input to fail.
Second, HF rig PAs become very dirty when operated at very low
drive levels, so you'll have a nasty transverted signal if you generate
drive this way. If you must use the HF rig PA, then use a power attenuator
following it so that you can operate it at near full output. It will then meet
design spectral purity specifications. (Note that you'll have to rig a way
to bypass this attenuator on receive, or use a split IF transverter and the
separate receive antenna input of the radio.)
My swap a couple of cables mod is much easier and simpler. It is also
foolproof. Even if you mix up the cables, nothing bad will happen to either
the radio or the transverter. They just won't work until you get the cables
plugged into the right sockets. This is a blessing to me since I use a
RF patch panel for all my radios and transverters. A mispatch when I'm
reconfiguring the station won't blow anything up.
Simon Lewis
<ke...@bellsouth.net> writes
>On Mon, 11 Jan 1999 19:48:23 -0500, "Joseph D. Mowery" <jmo...@crosslink.net>
>wrote:
>>Gary,
>> Thanks for the information. My HF rig (ICOM IC-751) has outputs for
>>use with a transverter. But, like you said it is very low level. It also has
>a
>>seperate antenna input if you want to use another antenna than the one that
>>you are transmitting into. The only all mode 6m rig that I have found is a
>>Kenwood and its cost new was ~$900.00. That is a little out of my reach
>>just to talk on 6m. Looks like I will have to be ordering a 6m transverter
>>from Ten-Tec in the near future.
>
A few ideas.
The ten tec is 14 Mhz in I believe. Check that the 751 will output a low
signal at this freq. Some radios will only transvert from 10m.
Check out www.rf-kits.demon.co.uk for a high performance 10 - 6m tvtr -
look for the DX50 and matching amps.
Secondly - whats wrong with an FT690? Cheap second hand and I have
worked many stations on 6m with very low power. Worth considering.
Good luck!
73 Simon
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