17 Sept 2015

QRP commercial rigs

The FT817 successor may be announced at Dayton next year. If correct, this is about 3-4 years too late.

The ICOM IC703 is not being replaced by the 10W version of the IC7300 outside of Japan. Personally, I do not understand the major Japanese manufacturers. Surely there is a worldwide demand for a 5-10W SDR based, radio?

It seems the huge world-wide QRP market is not being well addressed by the Japanese. It is their loss.  I think they are all nuts!

Ten-Tec seem to be struggling with their latest Argonaut judging by recent price cuts. See http://www.rkrdesignsllc.com/products/transceivers-receivers/ten-tec-model-539-argonaut-vi-qrp-1-10-watt-transceiver/ .

No, personally I think we are seeing QRPers getting a rough deal of late.
at 20:41
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7 comments:

G0FTD said...

The Ten Tec model is an odd rig.
It's all HF, except 12m and 60m.
I can understand that 60m might not be priority, but 12m is plain daft,
especially since the price is very high compared to the superior FT817.

Besides, Ten Tec are not really Ten Tec any more, and their offerings
and quite small compared to it's past.

If I had a rig from them now, I would worry about sales and repair in a year.

The future of the "new" Ten Tec is yet to be proven.

Gimme an FT817 any day.

Fri Sept 18, 11:22:00 am GMT+1
Roger G3XBM said...

I agree!

Fri Sept 18, 12:08:00 pm GMT+1
G0FTD said...

And while we're having a good moan, what about the CW filters rip off.

£450 for an FT817, £130 quid for a CW filter, disgusting !

I now do everything I can to buy from China or elsewhere as a matter of principle
these days. No way am I gonna put my cash into the UK dealers pocket with their
rip off attitudes.

de Andy

Fri Sept 18, 01:30:00 pm GMT+1
John said...

Hello Roger.
I note the points made above and might add such things as no VOX, no 6m and so on. However, I am mindful of the fact that an amateur in the USA can buy the Argo for 845 dollars. At this mornings conversion rate that works out to £546, rather than £999 which is being asked for in UK. As someone who is mainly interested in working QRP with CW I would probably jump at one for £546. Reported to be a first class CW machine with the facility to wind down the power output to whatever level one wants. Something which is not readily done on most rigs.
For now will stick to my nice Argonaut 515 line-up.
As a separate point. I have noticed that with the strength of the Pound against the Euro it pays to check the cost of buying from WIMO and elsewhere in Europe, rather than from UK dealers. Significant savings on more expensive items.
Regards.
John - GW3OIN.

Fri Sept 18, 02:25:00 pm GMT+1
Roger G3XBM said...

I bought a FT817 narrow CW filter from Greece It was much lower cost (for the same item) than if bought in the UK.

Don't forget VAT at 20% and import duty is added to goods from outside the EC sold in the UK.

Fri Sept 18, 04:24:00 pm GMT+1
G0FTD said...

I recently bought a useful CW filter from China for £20 all in for my FT817.

Sadly they seem to have disappeared off Ebay.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sis.html_nkw=CW%20SSB%202%207K%20narrowband%20filter%20compatible%20FL%2052A%20YAESU%20FT%20817%20857&_itemId=121443048644 is one xample, but dearer.


However there's also TXCO units too, for about £15 all in, and they are receiving
perfect reviews,and at a MUCH lower cost than the original part.

73 de Andy
https://sites.google.com/site/g0ftdradio/home

Fri Sept 18, 04:54:00 pm GMT+1
G1KQH said...

The Ten-Tec like the Elecraft stuff is overkilled by price over here..

You can now get the Chinese X1M QRP rig for £227 from a UK dealer:

https://www.sinotel.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20&products_id=154&zenid=1av45g1r07k4uuam9minepiua2

Plus the revamped Chinese X108G for £389.99 again from the same dealer:

https://www.sinotel.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20&products_id=183&zenid=1av45g1r07k4uuam9minepiua2

Saying all that you can currently get the FT-450 from around £500 and the FT-817 for around £403 with cash back, so who would buy the Ten Tec ?

Fri Sept 18, 06:35:00 pm GMT+1

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