DO I NEED A TOP-END RADIO?

SO MUCH - FOR SO LITTLE

Goodness knows, I've had some amazing radios in my shack over these last few years and they varied wildly in cost, from £40 to £4,000. They've ranged from tiny, plastic kits to huge, metal boat anchors! From button-less to button-overload. From old Superhets to modern SDRs. I've enjoyed them all.

I've usually bought wisely but sometimes bought foolishly, overall though, I've done pretty well out of it - managing to find some outstanding bargains and selling them on for profit after playing around with them for a few months. I've been doing the same thing with motorbikes most of my life. It's my 'thang' 😂

But I find myself returning to the same three radios over and over... the bargain Hermes HL2 PLUS, the highly regarded Elecraft KX3 and the magnificent Icom IC-705. 

 

The ELECRAFT KX3  is a classic! It's a transceiver that everyone knows about and it's always been held in very high regard - not least of all because of that stunning SDR receiver. The beauty of the KX3 is that it is perfect for use in virtually any environment - at home as a Base Station, in a National Park on a POTA outing or even at the top of a mountain hunting for SOTA chasers. 

I've had three over the years and when I've sold them (thinking that I've found something better), I always end up buying another one - they're just too good to go without!

The LCD screen on this light, compact radio is exactly the same size as the screen on Elecraft's Base Station K3S and it's especially good outdoors because it's very easy to see even in the brightest sunlight.

The radio has 32-bit variable DSP which works extremely well and you'll find that most secondhand KX3's out there have the optional (and very worthwhile) KXFL3 Roofing Filter installed, (perfect for those who love contesting).

If you're going to use the KX3 as your only radio (and many do), you'll be pleased to learn that there are a range of amplifiers out there which can be hooked up to facilitate making this a great Base Station, not least of all Elecraft's own KXPA100 which can be bought with a built-in ATU. 

I'll never forget the very first time I switched on a KX3 during an outdoor event - I thought something was wrong with the radio because it was stony silent! 

I thought it was broken - but no - it just wasn't tuned into a signal yet and the noise floor was so incredibly low, there wasn't a peep to be heard! That made me smile so much and a friend who was with me (G0UXF) was staggered! He'd never seen a KX3 in action before. It was a bit of a revelation. 

When first introduced it was Rated No.1 and still stands about 12 places above popular radios like the Icom IC-7300 in the Sherwood Receiver Table. In fact it sits above the mighty IC-7610, IC-705 and many other expensive Anans and Flex radios! Even the latest KX4 is below it in Sherwood's performance ranking 😮 It's that good!!

The KX3 that is currently in my possession came with…

• KX3 Transceiver (MINT++)
• MH3 Microphone (£90)
• KXFL3 Roofing Filter (£160)
• KXAT3 ATU (£270)
• Palm Paddle Mini Morse Key (£50)
• MFJ 401D Keyer II (£50)
• SotaBeams Bandspringer Midi (£26)
• Sotabeams Guy Set (£21)
• Inline Volt/Watt/Amp meter (£24)
• Manuals, Power Lead, USB Leads, etc.

That’s a pretty valuable collection there and considering that I sold a used KX3 for £1700 last year 😝, I was stunned to see someone accept my very cheeky offer of £650 for this package 😮.  I could easily sell off some of the extras on eBay and bring down the purchase cost even more!

So to summarise, the KX3 is still one of the finest receivers available - it has excellent filters and DSP, making it perfect for pulling out the weakest of signals and therefore a potential contester's rig. It's small and light enough to be carried to the top of a mountain and can also be used as your main shack radio with an amplifier. You can attach an Elecraft Panadpter or something like an RSPDX to benefit from a large scope and waterfall on your home PC.

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The ICOM IC-705 is kept permanently in my RuckShack ready for my outdoor activities. It's currently the most advanced portable radio of its kind and has a stunning feature-list which makes it incredibly versatile. Despite its endless capabilities, it costs just £1350 new, which is a bit of a bargain in my eyes. Secondhand models are sometimes available for as little as £800 - a saving of £550 😮

Yaesu have finally dragged their ass out of bed and announced the FTX-F1 and that might be added to my collection, but let's never forget that Icom was there first (4 years ahead of time)! Without the magnificent 705, Yaesu would probably still be selling the FT-818!

I've heard that the new Yaesu will have 4M but I'd bet my last penny that even though they've had 4 years to consider how they're going to beat the Icom, they will still be behind the 705's massive feature-list. 

They did the same thing with the FT-DX101D (vs IC-7610). For those interested in a 705, the lowest secondhand price I've seen is £799. That's a hefty chunk of money for many people, I know, but you'll not get a better All Band, All Mode, Portable SDR.

Many people cannot get past the fact that this is a QRP radio, but the truth is, the IC-705 could very easily be the only radio you ever need. If you're a QRO guy, simply add an amplifier and you've then got one of the most advanced and most feature-rich base stations on the market! Just read the full review here.

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The HERMES LITE 2+  and its matching software, cannot be matched at this price-level. Nothing comes close!  It's absolutely outstanding and you don't fully appreciate how good it is until you have used it alongside some pretty darned expensive rigs.

The HL2 not only performs well, but it gives operators the software that they dream of : THETIS. It's fully customisable and is constantly being updated in response to user suggestions and requests. There's not much that you can't do with Thetis and best of all is the stunning noise-reduction! 😮

All this outstanding performance can be had for as little as £200 if you buy a used HL2 or £350 if you buy new (with carriage and taxes). It beggars belief! Every ham radio enthusiast should have one in their shack.

Needless to say, the 5W power output will be a stumbling block for many people, but a reasonably priced amp will sort that out. Personally, I have no issues with running low power and actually like the challenge, but I do understand that many people prefer to run QRO. 
 

Lashing out on a 100W amplifier can soon ramp up the cost of this outfit - that's true - but there's lots of cheap 50W amps out there for next to nothing, and some are really quite good! I have an MX-P50M which I can highly recommend. I only use it up to 25W and it works really well, putting out a surprisingly clean signal. For operators with higher level licenses, 50W should be more than enough to get you around the world! I spotted a Neptune 50W amp the other day for £165, but it had already sold before I could get a look-in.

The only thing the HL2 lacks is a tuner, but I am aware of one guy (Larry, WR9R) who has actually built one into his HL2 enclosure using one of the Chinese Auto atu PCB's commonly found on eBay. Here's a link to his post. I take my hat off to him - it took some effort!

Personally, I use a cased ATU-100 that I bought at a rally for £35. I guess I could follow Larry's lead and transfer the innards to the HL2, but I probably won't bother - this unit sits neatly next to the HL2 in my shack. I bought one of these previously from eBay and when I unpacked it, it was DOA. Needless to say, I opened this one up in my car before leaving the Rally and it was all fine. They're a cracking little unit if you can get one cheap enough, but bear in mind that it needs a full 5W to tune and my HL2 doesn't quite produce that on every band.

For the newbies amongst us, the tuner always goes just before the antenna, so in this case, it would be RADIO-AMP-TUNER-ANTENNA.

I've said it many times before - I like to use a computer as part of my radio hobby, so the fact that the HL2 is a tiny remote box with no screen, no buttons, dials or switches, is fine by me - I'm totally relaxed using a mouse and keyboard. And that brings me to my next plus-point about the radio - it is operated remotely at all times!

You can access the radio from virtually any computer or tablet, whether at home in the shack, in the bedroom, in the garden or away on holiday. Nine times out of ten though (especially in the Autumn/Winter months), I'll be sat at my main Desktop PC with a large hi-res screen in front of me, a full-size keyboard, wireless mouse and a USB microphone. The large computer screen provides all the real estate for Thetis, Logging software and a Notepad. 

My choice of microphone for use with this setup is the award winning Elgato Wave 3. It's a peach of a microphone and perfectly suited to human voice. It works really well in modulated modes or sideband, with a near perfect midrange pickup. These normally cost around £150 but (as usual) I got mine for around half that price from a podcaster on eBay. One of the reasons I searched for a Wave 3 was that competing mics in this price-band didn't have an onboard MUTE button and there were reports of other mics being prone to hum if touched.

To be fair though, virtually any USB mic will work pretty well, including the microphones built into your laptop or tablet. Sure, they won't give outstanding results, but they'll get you on air making contacts!  You can of course use a regular fist-mic plugged directly into the radio if you prefer, but you need to have the HL2 PLUS for that, because the vanilla HL2 has no microphone socket.

So in conclusion, the HL2 is a must have radio in anyone's shack! For a couple of hundred quid, you'd be crazy not to get one. If you're a bit of an experimenter, this is your dream radio!

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ICOM IC-7100  Oops!! I forgot about this one! It's another one of those amazing all-rounders that many people overlook. It is unique in that it's the only 100W radio in the world (to my knowledge) that covers HF (160M-10M), 6M, 4M, 2M and 70cm, plus DSTAR!

It is perfectly suited to be used as your Base Station, as a mobile in your car and even as a Field Day or POTA radio. Incredibly versatile. I fitted an IF-OUT to mine to provide me with a Panadapter. You can read my comprehensive review here. You can usually find a minter for around £700 or less.

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Thanks for visiting the blog! It would be great to hear from you in the comments below...

73, Tom, M7MCQ.