New Radio!

timbo

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Well, I figured I'll be holed up in my house for the foreseeable future other than going to work. I was in my shack last week and realized my two HF Radios were getting a little long in the tooth. The IC-751 (not "A" model) was given to me broken many years ago. Actually I received two non working 751's and so I made one working one out of the two. The other is an original Icom IC-706 which I bought one of the first ones that HRO got back in the day when I was working there. I think it was around 1995 or 96.

I will probably sell the IC751 but not sure about 706 yet...

Anyway, I took a trip down to HRO yesterday and bought a Kenwood TS-590SG. Some of the customers coming to HRO when I worked there would call them Kenmores :rolleyes: (seriously).

So far a pretty nice radio. It's a good weekend to test it out as the bands are pretty crowded being that it's the SSB WPX contest this weekend. The DSP filters work really well.

I got it hooked up to my computer so I can control it with HRD and also hooked it up to my SignaLink so I can get on PSK, RTTY, etc.

There are tons of features in this box...it's going to take me a while to go through the menus and customize the settings to my liking.

One thing I found out almost from the get-go is that these radio's internal tuners can't tune my open wire feedline antenna, even through a 4:1 balun. It could be feedline length anomalies but I'm not going to futz with it. I just put my Dentron MT-2000 tuner in line and disable the tuner in the radio and just use the external tuner. I have found that if I get the external tuner in the ball park, the internal tuner can handle the "fine" tuning if I move too far away from the resonant setting on the external tuner, particularly on the lower bands.

I am probably going to homebrew an Off Center Fed 80-10 antenna when the weather warms up and see if the internal tuner likes that better.

1585508450237.png
 
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Nice rig. I have one. Killer receiver.
Indeed it is....I used to have a TS850 and the receivers are very similar. Of course the 850 didnt have DSP and roofing filters but i had it hooked up to a Timewave DSP outboard unit at the time. Not quite the same, but for that era, it did a great job.
 
Well, I figured I'll be holed up in my house for the foreseeable future other than going to work. I was in my shack last week and realized my two HF Radios were getting a little long in the tooth. The IC-751 (not "A" model) was given to me broken many years ago. Actually I received two non working 751's and so I made one working one out of the two. The other is an original Icom IC-706 which I bought one of the first ones that HRO got back in the day when I was working there. I think it was around 1995 or 96.

I will probably sell the IC751 but not sure about 706 yet...

Anyway, I took a trip down to HRO yesterday and bought a Kenwood TS-590SG. Some of the customers coming to HRO when I worked there would call them Kenmores :rolleyes: (seriously).

So far a pretty nice radio. It's a good weekend to test it out as the bands are pretty crowded being that it's the SSB WPX contest this weekend. The DSP filters work really well.

I got it hooked up to my computer so I can control it with HRD and also hooked it up to my SignaLink so I can get on PSK, RTTY, etc.

There are tons of features in this box...it's going to take me a while to go through the menus and customize the settings to my liking.

One thing I found out almost from the get-go is that these radio's internal tuners can't tune my open wire feedline antenna, even through a 4:1 balun. It could be feedline length anomalies but I'm not going to futz with it. I just put my Dentron MT-2000 tuner in line and disable the tuner in the radio and just use the external tuner. I have found that if I get the external tuner in the ball park, the internal tuner can handle the "fine" tuning if I move too far away from the resonant setting on the external tuner, particularly on the lower bands.

I am probably going to homebrew an Off Center Fed 80-10 antenna when the weather warms up and see if the internal tuner likes that better.

View attachment 342899
Nice rig but I'd be hesitant to get rid of the Icom IC-706.
 
Nice rig but I'd be hesitant to get rid of the Icom IC-706.
Yeah, I am hesitant. I have the remote kit for it to be used in a vehicle which is hardly used. It also makes for a nice spare radio and could be used as a "bugout" radio if necessary.
 
Nice radio! I had one, sold it and bumped up to
a 950S Digital got that one before they went ballistic.
Also got a 2000 new. I like both of them quite a
bit. It will be a long time before my shack sees
any new rigs.
AE1Y

Hows about a shack photo?
 
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Nice radio! I had one, sold it and bumped up to
a 950S Digital got that one before they went ballistic.
Also got a 2000 new. I like both of them quite a
bit. It will be a long time before my shack sees
any new rigs.
AE1Y

Hows about a shack photo?

I'll post one soon. I'm trying decide if I want to tear it all out and rebuild it. There's a total rats nest of wires behind the desk. "Wireless" is really a misnomer.

Maybe I'll do a before and after...right now, it's kind of a mess :rolleyes: .
 
I'll post one soon. I'm trying decide if I want to tear it all out and rebuild it. There's a total rats nest of wires behind the desk. "Wireless" is really a misnomer.

Maybe I'll do a before and after...right now, it's kind of a mess :rolleyes: .

Join the club! A mess behind the radios is a right of
passage for a ham! Even a photo you don’t like, other
hams will love. Every ham loves to see haywire as bad
as their own.
 
Yeah, I am hesitant. I have the remote kit for it to be used in a vehicle which is hardly used. It also makes for a nice spare radio and could be used as a "bugout" radio if necessary.

I would not sell a 706 or an mkII, at this point. The radios are hardly worth anything (few hundo at best) so you're better off just keeping them, especially if you have the remote kit. I sold a mkII last year because I was hard up for cash at the time but I wish I had been able to keep it. Great boxes.

-Mike
 
Join the club! A mess behind the radios is a right of
passage for a ham! Even a photo you don’t like, other
hams will love. Every ham loves to see haywire as bad
as their own.

Yeah, I know...If you want some real laughs, google "messy shacks". Some are truly a scream o_O.

Here's one to get you going...LOL. I think I can see a few radios in there somewhere.

1585597741244.png


Can you say distracted driving???

1585597865064.png
 
The first photo center top.
I have that same sound box!
It’s been so long since I looked at it I’m not even sure what it does?

Nice Shack!
 
The first photo center top.
I have that same sound box!
It’s been so long since I looked at it I’m not even sure what it does?

Nice Shack!

Thanks! That box would be a Behringer Tube Composer audio dynamics processor...I have wanted to hook it into my audio signal chain but probably never will. It's basically a compressor, expander, and gate, either automatic or manual that works "ok". I've used it in recording stuff in my small studio but I have a piece of software now that works much better.
 
If you do decide to part ways with the 706, I might be interested. (Although, I would say "Dont sell it") I need a small HF rig as I dont have room for a shack (I have the top of a desk area at best) Congrats on the new rig
 
If you do decide to part ways with the 706, I might be interested. (Although, I would say "Dont sell it") I need a small HF rig as I dont have room for a shack (I have the top of a desk area at best) Congrats on the new rig

I think I'm going to hold onto it for now. I may make it into a portable unit in some sort of road case. It is a handy radio for what it does. I use it through an LDG autotuner and it works quite well. It doesn't have all the bells and whistles that the new radios have but then, it's over 20 years old too.
 
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