Now is the time

 We are in the middle of July, continuing to prepare for the hurricane season, but ham radio continues to thrive and flourish, irrespective of the doom and gloom mouthed by some hams who I suspect should know better. I do not know what is wrong with them, but it seem to be a phase that some people go through. I notice that the fallout of the pandemic has sent many hams into retirement, and health care facilities that do not allow them to be as active as they once were. It is a dramatic lifestyle change, and I do empathize and hope that the ham fraternity could fabricate a system that would allow this growing number of ham radio operators, to remain active on-the-air for years to come. This does not happen in the Caribbean with a different culture and geography.

Ham radio is taking off as the world continues to embrace the passing of the pandemic, and everyone gets more comfortable accepting their new normal lifestyle. Last week Yaesu introduced the world to their third transceiver in this "series", the FT-710 which seems to be catching everyone's attention. Yaesu seems to have solved the manufacturing difficulties of the pandemic, and moves fast forward, trying to set the pace and challenge the fittest. The big three know their market and provides adequately for their customers. Here is the FT-710 coming in September to the US market.

I suspect that this is the new entry level radio and may be priced appropriately in the 1k range based of the pricing structure of the previous products. I suspect that Yaesu is trying to corner the ham radio post pandemic market, and we always looked to see who would be courageous enough to try this, and it seem to be working for them. Even though I have not checked the stats I suspect from the chat groups that hams are going for these latest radios because of their quality and price. I am tempted to buy all three available models, on price alone. I have never owned a Yaesu before so this is something to look forward to. Here is the FTDX10 which is a step up for most hams from the Icom IC-7300.

I always had a serious interest in he DX on the far side of the planet. Japan and the pacific is not the easiest place to contact from the Caribbean without high power and investment in a tower and an antenna of worth. I suspect that you can get away without investing in tower and antenna, but the radio has to be one with the best affordable receiver. Recently I came to the conclusion that the best investment in these hard times of recovering from the pandemic, is the FTDX101D, and a Butternut vertical antenna with elevated radials of four, six, or eight per band. Here is the FTDX101D, and on YouTube can be found all the user reports that you need.

I buy all ham radio equipment from the USA because those products have to meet the FCC requirements to be sold to the USA consumers. The FT-710 comes in three [3] models but only one model is sold on the US market, after it meets the FCC requirement. For new ham radio operators, it seems to me that Yaesu plans to offers the cheapest radio that can help you to get "the best of amateur radio" for the money. Of course, if you like another brand names like Icom, Kenwood or Flex, by all means go for them. I am a Flex lover but that does not stop me from adding Yaesu radios to my station. The Flex 6700 can do all that the other radio can do and still more, but it costs more than twice as much as the FTDX-101D. In ham radio get what makes you happy, and enjoy the hobby. 

I am all for building, setting up and testing my own vertical antenna system, which is easily done with a good rig experts antenna analyser  made in the Ukraine but available from the USA. My RigExpert antenna analyser, is strictly for HF. I am a single band operator, two or three bands at most, 80 meters, 40 meters and 20 meters. The Butternut antennas are suitable for your personal style of operating, and if you have any questions DX Engineering has all the answers. Between Google and YouTube, I suspect that you will find all that you need to know about your Butternut antenna. However, if you wish to experiment with your personal maximum antenna designs, buy the aluminum tubing, the antenna construction tools, connectors and all the antenna hardware you need, and I can guarantee that you will never regret that decision.

The one item that makes it all come together is the coax cable that connect the radio to the antenna. All kinds of coax cables are on the market, some expensive, some cheap, some surplus and some premium. Buy the cheapest coax cable with the lowest attenuation at the frequencies you need. My operating frequencies are from 3.5 MHz to 14.2 MHz, [80, 40, 20 meters] so I am looking for the cheapest coax cable with the lowest attenuation for this frequency range. If you work in the VHF ranges, check for cables with the lowest attenuation in this range, and you cannot go wrong.

Coax cables https://static.dxengineering.com/pdf/dxe_coax_compare-chart91120-rev7.pdf

The ham bands continue to peak with the sunspot cycle. This is the time for all ham radio operators to maximize their ham radio activity, and make DX contacts as they have never done before. Congratulations are in order for one of or ham radio operators, Oliver, V44KAO, who recently received his award for making DX contacts. I hope this can motivate the rest of us ham radio operators in V4 to get active on all modes and all bands, there is a world out there waiting to hear from the amateur radio operators in V4.

Congratulations to Oliver, V44KAO

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