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Old 02-03-2019, 10:56   #1
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What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

I am interested in hearing what HAM/SSB/Marine radios CF followers have and use on board. Would like to know if with or without automatic tuners. And are you happy?

I am not interested in the issue of marine VHF, DSC, AIS, etc. for this posting. And let's not talk at length about antennas and grounding. That makes my head hurt.

I am trying to decide on a common platform(s) for use afloat and ashore.

FWIW I realize that Marine radios like ICOM M-802 are channelized while terrestrial HAM radios have a VFO knob, that radios can be MARS modified, that transmitting on marine bands and HAM bands requires different licenses - which I have, etc.

At present I have ICOM IC-7100 and Kewnood TM-D710GA (for APRS). (And lots of antennas) Pleased with the Kenwood. Not so much with the ICOM.

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Old 02-03-2019, 13:26   #2
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

An unbelievably great-buy handheld for land and nearshore is BaoFeng UV-5R VHF/UHF dual band radio for $25. Buy a longer whip for another $15. The SSB I have onboard is an old timey ICOM 710 with tuner, Pactor modem and KISS ground plane.
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Old 02-03-2019, 13:35   #3
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

I like my Kenwood 480hx but it does not really outperform my old Icom 710-rt. It has more filters, dsp and even lf recording buthen I can’t copy a station on my 710 then 9 out of 10 I can’t copy it on the 480 either.

Of course a ham radio has all the luxury controls that one gets used too etc.

Also, you have the Kenwood d710 which is nice to have next to the 480. Can command the hf remotely via the 710, do cross band repeating etc. Ihave the d710 as well, plus a couple of Kenwood APRS HT’s
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Old 02-03-2019, 13:36   #4
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

FWIW, I've been using an Icom 746 on board for around twenty years. Zero issues with it, but I suspect that a newer rig with better noise suppression might be better in many of the kinda noisy QTHs we anchor in.

The rig is opened up for non-ham usage in emergencies, but we've never needed that feature (touching wood quietly). It has an internal tuner, but we use an external manual tuner to match our antenna, which is the entire rig, fed from the port shroud chainplate. An auto tuner and computer control of frequency might also be nice to have, but we've managed with this system for a very long time.

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Old 02-03-2019, 14:34   #5
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

I have 3 HF transceivers, two on board and one ashore.

IC-718 is ashore.... cheap and cheerful... simple to open up for marine HF so that its there if you ever need it. Simple to operate ... only con is that its a bit bulky compared with...

The IC-706 Mk2G that I have on the boat. It comes with a remote head so you can the display and controls at.. say ... the chart table and the body a few metres away in a locker or some such. Works good.... Also opened up for marine HF.

My other on board radio is the 710.... pretty bulletproof ... big and bulky ... is opened up for the ham bands so legal on both ham and marine.... Major con is that is 'channelised' ... which is good in one sense - idiotproof.... designed to be used by sailors - but you can't just spin the dial as you can with ham. Once all the frequencies are in that you want to use that isn't a real issue but as I say you can't just spin the dial to see whats out there.

Tuners....? Icom AT140 and AT141
Ants? An Australian Moonraker whip on the 706 and backstay on the 710.
Grounded to s/s water tanks and a dynaplate

If I could only have one of the three on the boat I would probably pick the 718.

I've also owned a couple of IC 735s.... very nice radios but getting long in the tooth now....
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Old 02-03-2019, 15:47   #6
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

Have an ICOM 718 Ham Radio. It's a simple to operate radio without extensive menus that you have to go through to make it do something. It was in production for more than 20 years which says something for it. Bought it used for $400 already opened up for Marine Band use. Basically a simple but effective ham radio that doesn't cause me a ton of frustration like my iPhone.

If I was going to buy a newer radio would look at an ICOM 7200. It's recently gone out of production but is a 'modern' design with a face that is marinized similar to the 802 marine radio. Believe the replacement is a 7300 but don't know what it's strengths and weaknesses are or weather they continued the semi marination of the chassis.

There is something to be said for a radio that you can move around and use. Have a Heil headset that I use with the 718 that gives me some mobility but no controls other than push to talk. Because of the layout of the boat's interior, there is no convenient place to locate the radio where I can sit in front of it and tune through the bands or change settings

Have an SGC-230 tuner which has worked wonderfully out of the box. It tunes from the RF output from the radio so you just have to key the mike and it automatically tunes for the antenna. Has some memory so acts almost instantly on previously used frequencies. Had an ICOM tuner but that required a select a tune signal from the radio which was non functioning on my IC-718.
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Old 02-03-2019, 16:10   #7
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

Hmmm; a lot ;-) currently an ICOM 756 ProII, Icom M802, Yaesu ft100D and Kenwood TS50. Just spent some time with an Icom 7300 and suspect that will be my next rig

SGC500 amp, Palstar Tuner (QRO) and an SGC230 and an Icom at140 plus a Kenwood AT130 portable tuner...
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Old 02-03-2019, 17:19   #8
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

Quote:
Originally Posted by roverhi View Post
If I was going to buy a newer radio would look at an ICOM 7200. It's recently gone out of production but is a 'modern' design with a face that is marinized similar to the 802 marine radio. Believe the replacement is a 7300 but don't know what it's strengths and weaknesses are or weather they continued the semi marination of the chassis.
I have both the Icom 7200 and the 7300 (at separate land-based locations), plus the Icom 710RT on the boat. I like them all, but they are quite different radios. My ham radios aren't modified for marine band operation, but the boat radio is opened up to allow ham use.

The 7200 looks ruggedized, but I don't think it's really any more robust, it's more of a styling thing. It works well as a ham rig, and has a reasonable number of features.

The 7300 has a really nice full-screen display, with plenty of features that make ham operation more convenient. The chassis is nothing like the ruggedized-look of the 7200. It has a Software Defined Radio (SDR) architecture and can show you a panaoramic and waterfall display of an entire ham band. touch-screen and knob/button operation. Most of these features won't be useful in traditional marine operation.

Both the 7200 and 7300 have great USB interfaces (computer USB, not Upper Side Band USB), that let you easily control the radio and access the audio input and output via computer program. This is quite useful for WFAX reception, Winlink email (using a software modem), or other digital ham modes. You will still need an external PACTOR modem to use Sailmail SSB email though.

The 710 puts out 150W, compared to the 100W of the ham rigs. It doesn't have adjustable filters, or many other ham-style features. It is definitely not convenient for casual ham use, but you can upload new firmware that lets you tune the radio frequency by spinning the channel selector knob and pushing a button to lock the TX frequency to the new dialed-in RX frequency.

The newer Icom M802 marine radio apparently does let you spin the frequency dial much like a ham rig.
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Old 02-03-2019, 17:25   #9
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

For me it is real estate. My first radio was a Kenwood TS-50S. It gave up the ghost and was replaced with an ICOM IC-707. Both have small footprints. Another option would be any HF radio that has a detachable control head. This will allow the radio to be located somewhere else.

I should add that I purchased a Yaesu FT-857D for home use. But before that, I was looking at the Alinco DX series for its size.
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Old 02-03-2019, 20:18   #10
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

Icon 718, pastor 2 pro with 3 firmware update
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Old 02-03-2019, 22:36   #11
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

Icom IC 78 with an AT 140 antenna tuner using a back stay antenna.

I think it might be targeted at the off-road 4WD people here in Australia rather than the marine market but it's a fairly compact radio, works well and has survived in the marine environment for about 3 years so far.

Previous boat had an IC 710 but it's too much radio for listening to weather reports and the occasional contact with other yachties in remote places.
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Old 02-03-2019, 23:50   #12
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

The IC-78 is identical to the IC-718 except.....

that out of the box it is able to transmit on all frequencies.... and there are a few 'front button' differences...

https://www.eham.net/ehamforum/smf/i...?topic=29889.0
https://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/hamhf/1664.html

Only for sale 'for export' from the US.... not sure where you would find a new one off the shelf ...Singapore maybe?
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Old 03-03-2019, 01:12   #13
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Elliott View Post

.....The 710 puts out 150W, compared to the 100W of the ham rigs. It doesn't have adjustable filters, or many other ham-style features. It is definitely not convenient for casual ham use, but you can upload new firmware that lets you tune the radio frequency by spinning the channel selector knob and pushing a button to lock the TX frequency to the new dialed-in RX frequency.......
G'day Paul,
any leads on where to get that firmware? Hope that -unlike the cloning software to open up the 710 - it doesn't involve DOS and Windows 98

Moving right along... back to the 78 and the 718.

Interesting that the 718 is sold as a ham radio..... while the 78 is considered 'professional' being marketed to embassies and overseas aid organisations , etc.

Edit... https://www.rigpix.com/protrx/icom_ic78.htm

For Raymond ... I think Paul up at Hervey Bay used to sell the 78.... not sure if he is still in business
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Old 03-03-2019, 01:40   #14
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

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Originally Posted by Jim Cate View Post
FWIW, I've been using an Icom 746 on board for around twenty years. Zero issues with it, but I suspect that a newer rig with better noise suppression might be better in many of the kinda noisy QTHs we anchor in.

The rig is opened up for non-ham usage in emergencies, but we've never needed that feature (touching wood quietly). It has an internal tuner, but we use an external manual tuner to match our antenna, which is the entire rig, fed from the port shroud chainplate. An auto tuner and computer control of frequency might also be nice to have, but we've managed with this system for a very long time.

Jim N9GFT/VK4GFT/WDJ4598
Jim.... if I've told you once I have told you at least 2 or 3 times..... sigh...

Buy one of these... https://www.bhi-ltd.com/noise-cancel...ers/dspkr.html ( I have this on the boat ) or one of these https://www.bhi-ltd.com/noise-cancel...t-in-line.html which is what I have down on the campo....

Works good... but still doesn't let me hear the Comedy Net these days..... I give it from 0740 to 0750... then back to me moos....
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Old 03-03-2019, 01:55   #15
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Re: What is your favorite radio for Marine SSB and Terrestrial HAM?

Quote:
Works good... but still doesn't let me hear the Comedy Net these days..... I give it from 0740 to 0750... then back to me moos....
_
Well damn, PIng, all these years I thought you were saying "back to my muse"... some kinda artsy fartsy thing. What a disappointment!

But ya know, I've not bought any ham gear for a long time... maybe I should give your kit a try!

Jim
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