I've been considering a good table top reciver ( no ticket) for some swl and dxing.. Could you recommend a goodset for listening( orshould I go for a transceiver and just get my ticket)? We had Icom icr-7000's in the military for a general hf/vhf use receiver.. I liked that one alot., are the ham bands still analog voice (am,fm,usb, lsb, cw?) or has digital modulation made inroads??? Like I need one more excuse to plop my ass in a chair!
Get the transceiver and be done with it, no point to setting yourself up for another buy later when/if you get the ticket. There is/are a couple threads here on the forum that talk about different bits of equipment for comms that might point you toward some brand or another. Yaesu is one that got high marks back then. Somebody must correct me on this, but I think analog is still the way to go in the above 10 meter bands. Digital rules in the shorter wavelengths, 6 and shorter require repeaters for distance work.
What he said! Icom and Yeasu both make some good small footprint rigs with normal power. The ic7000 is a great radio, the 706mIIg is another great radio if you can find them. Yeasu makes the 857 and 897 which are comparable to the 706. As far as digital; In my neck of the woods digital is just catching on. I have no digital radios persay...most of the digital radios operate on 2M-70CM, and there are very few machines (1 or 2)that are in operation. Therefore the distance ability is somewhat limited without repeater accessability. The digital "modes" which have been available for some time are beginning to come into their own on both HF and the upper freqs. By digital mode I mean PSK31, Olivia, Domino EX and others. They run under the noise levels, and unless someone is looking for you, the are quite secure, and more so if you encript your message after SHTF.
Check this site out. Pretty good . But yes go on and get your ticket ,you will be glad you did.. GlobalTuners - On-line remotely controlled tuners
