Any Ham Radio Operators on FHC?

Took my general test today and passed with a 94%, 2 wrong. Ordered a DX Commander The other day, and trying to decide if I want to get a Yaesu 991Z, or an Icom IC7300. Both great radios. If anyone has experience with either, or even better, both, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Link to antenna...

Multi-band 80m-6m HF Antenna /P ALE Compliant Antenna Survival Prep SOTA Kit | DX Commander - Amateur Radio - Ham Radio

The extra wire that comes with this antenna will be used for an 80 meter element in an inverted L configuration. Although there is a load coil that can be made to run on a 40 meter element and get the 80 meter band out of it, which I may do later on.

 

I have the 7300, I also just got an 80m DX commander, but I haven’t installed it yet. I like the 7300 and it is a great high value option in my opinion.

I think the 7300 performed better than the 991a in reviews by QST, who use a consistent process. The 991a is getting kind of mixed reviews in general, but I have no experience with one.

The DX commander I have , I believe is the sam model, it replaces the 30m element with an 80m inverted L. The 40 has a fold back that matches on 15m. I can give you a report with how it works for me, but it may be a few weeks before I get it installed. I was unaware of the coil option, where did you find that?

 

It was early and I forgot to add, congratulations on your passing the general! Excellent score too.

 

Congrats bigfrank


No personal experience with either radio, but I've not heard complaints on either one.

I'm assuming you mean the 991A
I like the fact that the Yaesu is an all mode radio. Hard to go wrong with that.

If you Google "Roly coil" there are good YouTube videos on how to make one.

roly coil - Google Search

 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the IC7300, even though I have been a Yaesu sort of person. After spending lots of time talking to people, and watching vids, it seems like the right rig to buy at this time.

Of course this one is coming out, but on the surface, it doesn't look like much more than the 7300 and who knows when it will actually make the US market.

The New FTDX10 Compact HF/50MHz 100W SDR

I would like to hear your report on the DX Commander. Please post it here. I will do the same, but it may be a month or so now as I am not going to buy a radio just yet. I have decided to, and am currently, studying for my Extra ticket. I wasn't going to do it, but decided to go all in and give it a try. With about 60% of the question pool looked at, my head is swimming. But I have 3 weeks until testing, so we shall see.

On the coil, Callum's buddy Roly came up with one. His other buddy Mike has some up with an 80M and 160M coils. Here is Mikes rendition of the two. He has a build video and a testing video worth watching. Both of his coils work on the DX Commander's 40M element.

80 meter coil version 2

80 and 160 meter coils from the same guy

 

Thanks Chaz. You beat me to the Roly coil build video!

The all mode was a big deal, and also being able to use the digital C4FM. But in all honesty, the 7300 has a lot of features that I like. And I have a Yaesu FT7250 for that already in the shack, plus a Yaesu FT2D HT that I can do all that with. So I think the 7300 is going to get the nod.

 

From all I've heard about the 7300, it's hard to imagine you not enjoying that radio.

The one thing I really liked with the Kenwood is that it has 2 antenna connections, as well as a receive antenna port as well.

I went with it since I want to experiment with different antenna's.

Now.. Had I been able to purchase the IC-7610, it would've been a done deal.

 

Yeah, 2 antenna ports is a plus. For about $30, there is an add on for the 7300 for a receive antenna.

 

I wasn't aware of that. A well spent $30 in my opinion.

 

I have a friend who uses an SDRPlay unit to add a second antenna functionally.

 

Rather, I meant receive antenna.

 

Some interesting software, and other links valuable for DX HF radio propagation..

VOACAP Quick Guide: HF Propagation Prediction and Ionospheric Communications Analysis

 

I have gotten the Dx Commander up and running and I think I could tune it a little better on the upper bands, but 40M is perfect and everything else is usable.
I adjusted many of the elements for a focus higher in the band. I don't think GB has all of the range we do. I know they don't go past 3.800 on their 80M band allocation.
I am going to redo the elements omitting the 80m element and designing around coils as a second set. The inverted L might be difficult to plan for in portable use. Right now I have "80" tuned in a wide smile curve and it is centered over the whole of the US 80M band. This effectively gives me ideal swr on the low end of 75M. If I go to either extreme I get very high swr, but it is adjustable by tensioning the horizontal portion. If I raise it off the ground by increasing tension on the pulley at the far end, I move the best swr down the band. If I reduce tension it doesn't really go much higher in the band, bit the top of 75M is less than 3:1 so it will tune in the 7300 unless tighten up the pulley to focus on the data portion.


In use I find it quieter than my 172 feet 14 gauge wire
Attached to an AH-4. Certain signals come in stronger from one or the other and interestingly the vertical works better for very close like in town and very far, but at least on conditions I've seen lately, if someone is in eg. New Jersey, they hear me better with the end fed than the vertical. But Florida was better with the vertical. So I like having the option to switch back and forth.

I am considering adding an SDR receiver so I can avoid doubles and hear some things I would otherwise miss. If possible I would like a switch that flips whichever antenna is not transmitting to the sdr input.

Also considering a beverage for noise nulling.

 

Thanks for the update. I got mine in the mail, but haven't done anything with it yet. Going to cut the and solder the elements and radials and get all the other stuff ready.

Did you find that you had to make the elements longer or shorter for phone and digital than the directions called for? I don't want to have the elements too short and have to redo them. I will only be doing phone at first, but will probably do digital later on. Not concerned with CW. How many radials did you install?

I'm going to use it as a permanent antenna in my yard, so I'll be doing the 80M inverted L Hoping it works out for me. Later, I want to put up a long doublet, and will probably get a tuner. The MFJ 939i sould work fine for what I'm going to do for awhile, and at $169, it's a great piece of kit to have. Eventually want to do some portable work on HF and will get something like a Yeasu 897 or the ICOM equivalent. The MFJ ATU will work for those with possibly only a cable change.

Keep us informed on the progress. Mine should be going up in the next couple of weeks. Ordering my radio and other gear this coming week or maybe even this weekend. Have it all in the cart, just have to get the nerve to press the buy button!

 

I had to shorten them all, if you cut as directed (10cm long) you might cut off quite a bit on some less on others. I treated it like a fan dipole and tuned low to high, very slowly (it was easy to cut off but if you cut too short it means a new element) with a nano vna. And went back through several times.

Everything affects almost everything else. The fold back even made a difference when trimmed shorter for final heat shrinking. I noticed this on 20. It seemed to make the curve wider rather than just move up the curve.

I have wire left to make more radials. I may cut a 30 meter element, recheck it and cut some of the worst elements longer again, and use other wire to add more radials. Right now one bundle of 5 is cut the same as the 40M element, One bundle at the 20M length, and one at half that. I think I could definitely improve it with more radials and I intend to try that first, but my other wire is thicker so I may use that for the radials so all the elements are the same. I think I have room for improvement on the radials but at some point returns diminish.

I saw he used eighth waves to arrive at 2 wavelengths at the lowest band at least IIRC. I may take that route and add shorter radials now to fill in the density of the ground plane. Right now it goes off only on a 170 degree arc if I added shorter ones I could increase the coverage area as well. I was also considering for semi permanent installation experimenting with staking down some welded wire or hardware cloth or something like that instead. I think it would be less intrusive.

I labeled every spreader and labeled measured points on the wire as well. So I picked a center frequency for phone and data and figured out with the velocity factor the length required and marked that, I marked the listed length from the directions and then added the foldback, which was not clear on the directions whether that was additional or subtractive, and cut it longer still. I ended up with most having the listed length after the foldback.

I believe as you go up the bands the longer elements load the shorter elements a little and effectively lengthen them sometimes. Maybe one could use the software Cal used to model the loading.

I also tensioned 40 and 80 to the top most plastic double eye spreader otherwise the 80m element loses tens8on along the pole and the horizontal portion can't pull it because the angle is so sharp.

 

Thanks for the info. I guess I'll cut mine at the stated lengths and start there. I do want to be in the middle of the phone segment of the band as that is what I'll be doing most. I have a Nanovna, so I can use that to start I guess.

Cal says to use 30 3.5meter radials. I'll cut my elements, then start on the radials. I do plan on doing an 80m element, and will run it to a pole across the yard that my 2m/70cm antenna is on.

I thought about doing a guy wire (cord) just on the 40m side of the top double eye so the 80m element wouldn't bend over the pole when I tensioned it. We will see when I get it up and look at it.

 

I started prepwork today on the DX Commander Classic. Got all the elements cut, 25 3.5m radials cut, soldered and heat shrinked. Marked all of the plates for the elements Will work on the other preps later today. Need to do some studying for my Extra test, which is this Saturday.

 

Good luck


Are you testing online?

I like the DX Commander info you guys are sharing.

Haven't been on the radio much lately.

 

No, they are testing here. Just have to follow the covid stuff.

 

Not sure what part of CT you are in (East/West) but your soil conductivity is either a 1 or a 2. Where I live is 8. Numbers for regular soil are .5 to 30. I'm going to start out with 25 3.5m radials. That is 86 meters of wire in the ground. A full wavelength for 80m. If I read your post right, that is about what you have down now too, just in different lengths. Since I won't be doing a 160 element via the DX Commander, I think I'll try that first. I may but up a half wave doublet for 160m at some point with an antenna switch. But that will be for much later...

Link to soil conductivity. Download the large map and you can zoom in and read it good. It's big!

M3 Map of Effective Ground Conductivity in the United States for AM Broadcast Stations