Well, at least I can still read and figure a few things out but geeez it is getting more complicated… I got a new Ham radio last Friday… It is about the same size as my old Icom 706.
As I have said, I have sold off some gear to save the money for the new radio… but it is my Christmas to myself… early ? yes due to the big sale they had last week…
I spent much of Monday afternoon getting it hooked up and figuring out how to make it work on my digital modes… I do a lot of digital modes now, which is way different than the old talking stuff. Actually it is very much like texting but I generally have no limite on how much I can type into a message to send, other than operating JT65 and that is much smaller than texting or even twitter… the limit in JT65 is 13 characters per send and the send takes 48 seconds to send those 13 characters.. yep, slow , slow, slow… so you don’t discuss anything but calls, signals, and TU (thank you)… ha!
Back to the new radio… since I expect to take it in the motorhome and wanted something comparable to the old 706 I ended up getting the Icom 7100…
It is only slightly longer than the 706, uses some of the same attachments, connections, etc… but it has this odd control head… I wasn’t sure I would like the angled touch scree, head but it is not too bad. Just wish it had been color screen…It is basically a computer controlled radio in a box that does about a 1000 times more than my old radio… The problem with that is getting it to talk to the computer, work properly and run with all the new digital software I use… I just thought the 706 was hard to get set up with the sound cards, and all but this has 10 more things I have to set to get it to work like the old one but uses one less attachment and hooks direct to the computer via a USB cable…It also have a lot more buttons on that angled control head and multiple more menus to get to…
I have it working on HF digital just fine.. made a bunch of Jt65 and PSK contacts in the past 24 hours… I still have to figure out the Digital FM (a totally different function) and how to get it programmed with all the repeaters and stuff for the upper end use on it..
This is like getting a new computer and then you have to get all your old software and favorite things on it to make it function similar but better than the old one… I am old enough to not not like the resetting up of new computers or radios, I gerneally just want to have it working, but still young enough and want new stuff enough that I keep getting new ones… ha! I do remember several years ago I really jumped into getting new gadgets but now??? it is work to get it to the point that I think I know what is going on… and how it is working… along with making it do what I wanted.
I got a lot to learn and a lot to yet get implemented into this new radio… so will be busy this next month spending a some time on it… although I need to focus on getting 3 more special contacts made on a very low Ham band… I only lack 3 to finish up my quest for having contacted a Ham in all 50 states on the bottom 9 bands we have to operate on… the last three are really going to be hard and I am not sure I will get those? But I am to try … Such is Ham Radio.. always something to work on or play with… keeps me out of trouble… sort of…
WD0AJG