New HF handheld?

It is over 20 years ago that Yaesu introduced the revolutionary FT817. Since then, absolutely nobody has introduced another handheld for HF/VHF. The nearest were the IC-705 from ICOM and the Elecraft KX2 and KX3. In the meantime we have seen several VHF/UHF FM and digital handhelds come and go. I guess these attract a better return on investment, although I am surprised.

We are overdue a multimode, multiband true handheld. In my view they could do a handheld covering 10m, 6m (with 4m in Europe), 70cm and maybe 23cm. With the right features, this could be a real winner. 10m will be good for several years and the VHF bands could do with a shot in the arm.

Both ICOM and Yaesu have SDR receivers. Can we expect a new multimode/multiband rig?

Nevada bargain on 10m Multi-mode radios

See http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk/amateur-radio/transceivers/mobile-transceivers/alinco-dr-135dx-uk .

Nevada is selling Alinco multi-mode 28-29.7MHz radios on special deal at £99.95. For "export only" they can be expanded to also cover CB frequencies. Such expansion is not legal in the UK. At less than £100, this is a very good price for a 10m multi-mode rig.

I admit I "lifted" the original image from the Nevada website. As it was Javascript, I was unable to link, as I had wished, to the original images. If using this image on this blog is a problem, it will be immediately removed, although I hope Nevada see this as free publicity.

Chinese all-mode, all band handheld for under £300

The Yintong HVU1 is an all-mode, all band 1.8-1296MHz handheld designed as a real competitor to the FT817, KX3 and Ten-tec Argonaut VI and priced at around £299 in the UK and $299 in the USA. It comes with a 3 year warranty.

Small in size (about 80% the volume of the FT817) with Li-Ion battery, internal auto-ATU, OLED colour display, speech processor, DSP audio processing, with full support for digital modes like PSK31, JT65 and other WSJT modes. Power out is 5W pep on all bands apart from 1296MHz where the power is 2W pep. Control of the rig by PC is via USB. Free CD software is supplied with the rig to allow easy memory programming and to set up digital mode interfacing.

It is just about everything QRPers have been looking for at a price that people can afford, except that I woke up and realised I'd been dreaming.

Happy New Year everyone .............and dream on.