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Reply to Roy Anderson about Amateur Radio

Hi Roy,

Thanks for your email and good luck with your exams.

There are many enthusiast "QRP" operators who get around the world with less than 5 watts, so don't be  too worried about "only" having 10 watts. Having said that low power operators will often use the most efficient modes of transmission - this is why Morse Code is so popular with QRP operators. It's far more efficient than voice modes.

Having said that, SSB is far more efficient than AM or FM since, as you will learn, if you haven't already, SSB concentrates all your available transmitter power into one sideband, rather than wasting what power you have over two sidebands and a very wasteful and unnecessary 'carrier'.

Given favourable conditions you should be able talk all over Europe.

The bad news is that, as you may know being an SWL, the sunspot number is currently at absolute minimum. This means that propagation on the higher short wave bands - which make for superb long distance low power operation - is almost non existent at the moment. This forces operators down onto the lower bands which can then become rather congested.

However you may benefit from from 'Sporadic E' on the high HF bands such as 28MHz in the late spring / summer months which can be very exciting since QRP signals often come in like locals.

As for your transceiver then, unless you want to spend thousands of pounds, the Icom IC 706MK2G and the Yaesu FT857D are obvious choices since they cover all the popular and well used bands of interest and have many facilities that would have been completely unheard just a couple of decades ago - and certainly nowhere near the reasonable price that these sets sell for today.

Each radio has pluses and minuses - e.g. the 857 has some very nice and useful audio tailoring facilities that the 706 lacks and, I'd say, the DSP on the 857 is more pleasant on the ear than the 706. However FM audio quality is, to my ear, more pleasant on the 706 and I also find the ergonomics on the 706 slightly more appealing.  If I had just one I'd be quite happy with either model, they are both absolutely amazing really, but on balance I prefer operating the 706. In the end it's really down to personal choice which one you choose - you really would be happy and flabbergasted by the abilities of either transceiver.

Successful operation is not really about how big your radio is or its brand or model number.  There's a lot of hype over equipment that tries to persuade you that so-and-so £3000 radio will "get you out" much better than some other radio - but as far as the transmitter goes, if both radios are 100 watts then one is not going to give a bigger signal compared to the other - a 100 watt radio is a 100 watt radio (Just as 10 watts is 10 watts; 50 watts is 50 watts) no matter what particular radio you have; It's what you do with your 10 watts or 50 watts that counts....

1/ Audio processing is important - but there's another area that you'll be persuaded to spend a fortune on. You do need some processing - "audio compression" - to make the most efficient use of your SSB signal, but radios such as the 857 and 706 have compression built in and that's really all you need as a general operator. If you get into exotic and extreme DX and you are operating the radio for many hours every day, then maybe spending £thousands might become worthwhile.

2/ The most important area to devote you attention, time, study and money to is your antenna and earth system. Improvements you your antenna will be far more rewarding than constantly changing radios - as, arguably, too many operators seem to do!!

The key to putting out a good signal - especially if you are using QRP or Foundation power levels - is to use the most efficient antenna possible. This usually means using a "resonant" antenna, i.e. one that is tuned for the particular band of interest. As high as possible helps greatly too. This will ensure that your transmitter power is used as efficiently as possible.

Your antenna really is the area where you should concentrate your efforts - no matter what power you are using. Just a seemingly small 3dB loss of antenna efficiency is like reducing your transmitter power from 10 watts to 5 watts!

Think tuned Dipole, Inverted V, or Inverted L or something like that.

You will see all sorts of rubbish advertised in the press and on the internet  that claim all-band coverage. e.g. the Q-Tek Penetrator and similar physically short wide band antennas promise all band miracles.  Impossible! These compromised antennas may seem attractive since they claim to offer you all of the HF band in an aerial that's only a few meters long. Trouble is they are far too short - relative to the wavelengths that you're interested in - to be usefully efficient. Maybe as much as 90 percent of your 10 watts will be wasted  as heat generated in the loading coils of such antennas. Do you fancy working with 1 Watt??

With low power - or any power really - the key is to use an antenna that is resonant on the band that you are using. This will ensure that as much of your very valuable and limited transmitter is transferred to the ionosphere and not wasted by converting it to heat inside the expensive but often useless branded antenna.

Ignore anyone who tries to tell you that a Q-Tek or especially an "Antron 99" make good amateur radio antennas. Unfortunately they do not. Full stop. You could make several much more efficient tuned antennas that will work much better for the price that these and similar antennas will cost.

Buying a superb radio like an IC706 and using a poor aerial is like buying a 50 inch plasma TV and feeding it with a set-top television aerial!

You will learn a lot about radio, propagation and antenna design by making you own aerials. You'll also save a LOT of money too!

Do bear in mind a couple of simple truths:

You could build the most efficient antenna in the world, but if the sunspot numbers are low and propagation is poor it will *seem* like the worst antenna in the world when you don't hear anything on it!! (- So  wait for conditions to improve.)

Alternatively you could use an incredibly inefficient antenna - like a QTek Penetrator or Antron 99 etc etc etc - and make some worldwide contacts - simply because sunspot numbers and the propagation might be at their peak and be offering exceptional propagation conditions on a particular band. - Sometimes when propagation is excellent you can hear multitudes of stations on a 'piece of wet string'. It doesn't make wet string a good antenna of course!!!!!

It's for these reasons that it is absolutely and entirely impossible to make any useful comparison between one person's anecdote about their antenna with someone else's anecdotal story about their particular aerial.

Good luck with your exams. Following the study courses you'll easily pass the Foundation and the Intermediate. With a little more application you could attain the Full Licence in a year or so.

Whatever radio you get, an 857 or a 706, you'll love it, but don't forget your resonant and efficient aerial!!
 
73 Mike


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