News from LDG Electronics

Review by THOMAS WITHERSPOON at QRper

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 03:21:26 GMT

A review by THOMAS WITHERSPOON from QRper

Here's what Thomas Witherspoon has to say about LDG Electronics Z-100.

"No surprise here as the Z-100 Plus is a well-loved ATU that’s been on the market for quite some time already. At $150 it’s a proper bargain of an ATU. Unlike the mAT-705 Plus which only pairs with the IC-705, the Z-100 Plus is RF-sensing and can pair with any transceiver on the market."

Video from Thomas Witherspoon

Here’s a video of the entire activation including pairing the Z-100 Plus with the IC-705 for the first time:

ICOM IC-705 ANTENNA TUNERS & HOW TO SAVE $230 posted byW7PDJ Phil

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 02:59:14 GMT

TLDR – THE 20-WATT OPTION.

TLDR – THE 100+ WATT OPTION & WHERE I SPENT MY MONEY.

The Problem

The Icom IC-705 antenna tuner cable is non-standard, but standard in a normal consumer way. All the existing cables on the market for the older radio use a weird proprietary interface to the radios.

The IC-705 uses a simple headphone cable! Thankfully! Sadly, this makes it hard to find a tuner, but it turns out there are options! They are just not documented, till now!

My use case is a little different than that of most other Hams so I ended up going with a bit more expensive option, but if you are on a budget you can save yourself $230 on this transaction and buy a killer antenna or the like!

MY THOUGHT PROCESS

The Icom IC-705 is really a slick 10W QRP radio, but I see it as a great entry point into HF and UHF portable radio. I personally use mine as a base station radio doing NVIS EMCOMM along with Digital Modes like FT8 and WSPR.

I have purchased two Chameleon Halfwave End Fed antennas. My primary mobile is the LEFS 8010 Sloper; thankfully this does not need a tuner. For my base station setup, I have another Chameleon Antenna, the EMCOMM III v2 which does 160 through 10 and definitely requires a tuner.

The need for an antenna really stumped me, because the options for the IC-705 seemed really limited until I figured out an undocumented secret from LDG. Most of their antennas support tuning over a standard TRS plug (yep a double-ended headphone cable connected to the IC-705 and your LDG tuner will work!).

The standard offerings from Icom, Elecraft, MAT-Tuner and the like were either too QRP (only supporting up to 10 to 30W) or were not portable enough (no batteries) or were just too expensive for my budget!

In the table below, I highlighted in red my issues with each of the tuners and how they compare to my chosen tuner, the LDG Z-11-Pro-II which so far has been pretty fantastic! The tuner offers great performance, lots of stored memories (for fast tuning) long-lasting battery support (up to a year or so) and 125W at a sane price of $184.95 (at the time of this article being penned).

The 125W power support allows me to keep my options open for a future more “base” radio like an IC7300 or something similar.

Anyway, let me know what you think in the comments below and I hope to hear you on the HF waves! 73 W7PDJ – Phil

PORTABLE ANTENNA TUNERS FOR THE IC-705

I went through and captured by requirements for an antenna tuner for the IC-705. I have future plans to purchase a 100W HF radio, so most of the QRP tuners are out, but I still wanted to be able to go into the wild and use my radio. Also, I didn't want to have any custom cabling so I prefer tuners that are TRS compatible.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

These are additional tuners from LDG that will likely work with the Icom IC-705, but they were way out of my price range or power requirements. I list them here because I confirmed that they all have the TRS tuning cable supported by the IC-705 so in theory, they will work.

LDG Z100A
LDG AT-100PRO-II
LDG AT-200PRO-II
LDG AT-600PROII
LDG AT-1000PROII

This article and review was originally posted by W7PDJ. View the original article at this link... https://w7pdj.com/icom-ic-705-antenna-tuners/

THE PROBLEM

The Icom IC-705 antenna tuner cable is non-standard, but standard in a normal consumer way. All the existing cables on the market for the older radio use a weird proprietary interface to the radios.
The IC-705 uses a simple headphone cable! Thankfully! Sadly, this makes it hard to find a tuner, but it turns out there are options! They are just not documented, till now!
My use case is a little different than that of most other Hams so I ended up going with a bit more expensive option, but if you are on a budget you can save yourself $230 on this transaction and buy a killer antenna or the like!

2 Way Radios

adpronaugle@gmail.com (Deborah Naugle) — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 06:10:46 GMT

2 Way Radios

Frequency Considerations for Recreational 2 Way Radios

If you are in the market for 2 way radios for personal use, you have an immediate and important choice to make: What radio frequency band do you require?

Frequency! 2 way radios obviously utilize ‘wireless’ communication methods so when using a 2 way radio you are transmitting and sending your message through the air — the same air that is currently carrying television signals, commercial radio signals, Ham radio signals and literally thousands of signals from other private 2 way radios. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has the job of controlling all of these communication signals so they don’t run into each other; to accomplish this they have reserved frequency bands for use by certain types of communication (signal sending) devices. There are two frequency bands in use for recreational 2 way radios, these are called Family Radio Service (FRS) and General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS).

In 1996, the FCC reserved a set of radio frequencies they called the Family Radio Service (FRS) band, specifically for short-range 2 way radios (radios that operate no more than 2 miles away from each other) with a small power output (up to 500 milliwatts or one-half watt).

About fifty years before the FCC created the FRS band they had reserved a set of frequencies for higher power 2 way radios that operated over a longer range this is the General Mobile Radio Service (GMRS) band. The GMRS band is for radios with a power output between one and five watts and a range over 2 miles. The FCC regulates the 2 way radios that operate on the GMRS band and requires users of this type of radio to obtain a license and pay a fee. The GMRS license is good for five years and costs $80.00; the license must be obtained by an adult (the radios operating under the license may be used by minors but only with the licensed adult’s knowledge and permission). Go to the FCC’s Internet page at: http://wireless.fcc.gov/services/index.htm?job=service_home&id=general_mobile for more information on GMRS licensing.

When buying 2 way radios, your choice is between a set of radios that operates only on one of these frequency bands or a set of radios that is able to operate on either one of these frequency bands. This determination will obviously have to be made based on the maximum distance the radio users will be from each other. If the radios are to be used within two miles of each other, FRS will be the best (and least expensive) choice. If a greater distance is consistently required, 2 way radios that operate on the GMRS frequency band will be required. If the need for distance is uncertain or if you want the option of occasionally transmitting up to five miles a FRS/GMRS hybrid is the radio set to choose.

Radio Sports For Die Hard Hobbyists

adpronaugle@gmail.com (Deborah Naugle) — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 06:10:45 GMT

Radiosport as a term is sometimes used as two separate words, or as a single word. It refers to the use of amateur radio equipment or the “ham”, in short, as a part of playing some sort of game. It might be group event or a single person event. It can involve other competitors in real time like a race or like a performance or achievement over a given time frame.

The contests are usually sponsored events, and can last anywhere between a few hours and 2 days, the world wide contests being two days usually. It can be local in a specific region, or may involve traveling a long distance. It can be a cumulative contest taking place over many weekends, or a sprint contest which lasts only a few hours. The rules are specific for the event and they include which stations (which regions) may participate and the like.

This is usually called radiosports. This can be any of the following.

Dx-Contest: This is when stations are to make two way contact with as many stations as possible over the longest distance possible. This is called the International DX-Contest today. Awards may be given for the following accomplishments. The “Worked All States Award” if the entrants make contact with someone from every state in the USA. The “Worked All continents Award” is given for making contact with someone from every continent. “Worked All Zones Award” is the same concept with time zones. Other awards include the DX Century Club award, and the UHF/VHF Century Club award.

Another event is an Amateur Radio Direction finding using radios . A specific number of transmitters needs to be found from a specific region in a map before reaching the end line. This relies on the athletic ability of the ham operator as well as some direction finding skill with radios.

Fox Oaring or Bunny hunting: This is similar to the previous contest but involves more short range equipment of the hams, and so it relies more on the direction finding skills of the contestant rather than the athletic ability. It’s more technical in nature than the previous contest, and the radio can detect signals only 100 meters or so away, so the contestant must locate the transmitter hidden in an area of 200 meter radius.

A more severely restricted game than the Fox Oaring is the Radio orienting contest in compact areas. This requires very high technical skills.

There is another form of the amateur radio direction finding, or bunny hunting, that utilizes transportation with vehicles over long distances. The hams have to travel in their vehicles to the specific region and find the transmitter. Whoever finds the transmitter first and reaches the finish line is the winner. A variation is that the one to find a specific number of transmitters hidden in different places first is the winner. This relies on the traveling skill, orientation skill and the equipment efficiency too.

These events are called ARDF contests, which is short for Amateur Radio Direction Finding Contests. Contests or radiosports are just a part of the hobby activity. Entering contests is not a requirement, but there are many who pursue this almost obsessively, and collect winning certificates by the dozen in fact. On the other extreme are those that are equally passionate about being a ham, but do so purely for communication and satisfaction. The significant thing about hams that needs to be mentioned here is that the hams can and do make regular contact with space stations. Many astronauts are licensed amateur radio operators and use their radios for educational purpose as well as an emergency backup.

So what was once spanning a small region locally in the beginning now has penetrated into space! What was once only Morse code based has now evolved into greater variations involving voice, digital transmission and so on. It is exciting to see how much radio transmission has changed in recent years.