Need Help Choosing a New or Used Radio?

How to Choose a New (or New-To-You) Ham Radio

So you’re thinking about buying a new (or used, new-to-you) ham radio but you’re not sure which one to get? Let me tell you how I have made that decision and see if it doesn’t help you.

Maybe you just received your Tech license and want to get on the air. Perhaps you recently upgraded your license and have HF privileges. Perhaps you started out with an older rig that works okay (like I did… my first HF radio was a Heath HW-9) but want something a little more sophisticated. Perhaps you’re into the HF digital modes and find that your current rig is either not stable enough or perhaps lacks some features that will help you to communicate. Or perhaps you just want the latest and greatest rig that will find ‘em, work ‘em, and log ‘em (don’t laugh… some of the newer rigs come pretty close!).

For purposes of this article, I’m going to assume the role of a newly minted General-class ham who wants to get on the HF bands and make contacts using all of the popular modes (SSB, CW, and HF digital modes like PSK31). While I can’t afford the new top-of-the-line rigs, I sure want performance… frequency stability, crystal filtering, computer controllability, and good sensitivity and selectivity.

Here’s where the choices get interesting. Today’s new mid-level rigs such as the Icom 746 Pro, the Yaesu FT-920, and the Ten-Tec Jupiter are as good as or better performance-wise as many top-of-the-line rigs built back in the mid-1990s. Better yet, they have more QRM-fighting features and are generally easier to use than many of these rigs. So, if you want to buy a brand-new radio and don’t want to spend more than $1500, then there are a lot of choices and it’s really hard to choose badly.

However, there are some recently-discontinued used rigs out there that, while not at the top of the heap anymore, were the performance leaders just a few years ago. I’m talking about rigs like the Icom 756 Pro, the Yaesu FT-1000 MP, the Kenwood TS870, the Drake TR-7, and the Ten-Tec Omni VI and VI+. Let’s refer to these rigs as "yesterday’s best." These rigs are so good that it’s doubtful that a QSO couldn’t be made on one of these if it could be made on one of today’s top-end radios. If you don’t mind buying used, then you can often get one of these babies for about half of what they sold for new.

Unless you’re feeling nostalgic or you’re into the electronics repair hobby, try to stay away from any older rigs that require tubes. Rigs made before the mid- to late ‘80s can be good operators, but they generally either need work or will need work. If you’re the kind of guy who likes changing oil (rather than doing it to save money) then perhaps you might want an HW-101, Ten-Tec Corsair, or Kenwood TS-520. The nostalgic bit goes double for rigs like the old Collins radios… fine in their day but their cost is way out of proportion to their performance.

One big advantage of buying used is that if you buy your radio at a fair price, you can probably sell it in a year or two at the same price. Many hams let the other guy take the depreciation on a new rig, buy it used, and then sell it if they decide they want something else. This is a good way to spend some time with several different radios and find out what features are really important to you.

Too many hams seem to make decisions on rigs by seeing how many buttons they can buy for the price. Too many manufacturers forget that, while adding features gets your rig a longer ‘checklist’, what’s important are the benefits not just the features. Keep that in mind as you read the following.

I wouldn’t buy a rig that didn’t have electronic digital tuning. Analog tuning went out with the slide rule, for the same reason that the slide rule was replaced by the calculator (simpler, faster, and more accurate).

Nearly all rigs in our two categories (new mid-level, "yesterday’s leaders") have dual VFOs, and allow for operating ‘split’ (transmit using one VFO freq, receive using the other VFO’s freq). This is a very important feature for operating DX and contesting, and I wouldn’t get a rig that couldn’t be operated this way. You can approximate split mode via RIT and XIT (receive- and transmit-incremental tuning, respectively) but you will be limited in the amount of frequency offset you can run. For example, many European SSB ops will transmit below 7100 kHz in the 40 meter band while listening above 7150 kHz to work within our band requirements, and without split capabilities (or a separate receiver) you will not be able to work them.

I mentioned selectivity earlier as an important feature. Selectivity is the ability to dig out signals in a crowded band. Selectivity and sensitivity combine to allow you to dig out a weak signal (DX) in a crowded band full of powerful local signals. Mechanical and crystal filtering, along with passband tuning and DSP, are all features that help to improve selectivity.

One feature that I think is very important is having crystal filtering that can be used in any mode (not just in CW). Sure, no one’s going to run voice with a 500 Hz filter… but it sure is useful to fight QRM while running PSK31 in USB. But, not many rigs will allow you to use CW filters if you’re not in CW mode. The Ten-Tec line is one exception to this.

Passband tuning is another way of eliminating QRM by moving the center of the roofing filter in the passband. You can visualize this as being similar to cutting out a rectangular hole in a piece of paper the size of your computer monitor, placing the hole up against your monitor, and then moving the piece of paper left and right against your monitor to screen off one side or the other from view… that’s how passband tuning basically works in your radio. It can be especially effective in SSB.

Noise blankers allow you to eliminate regularly occurring QRN such as car ignition noise, although at the expense of some sensitivity. If you plan to operate mobile, or live in an area with a lot of interference it may be a necessity. Nose blanker circuits do not work well on random noise such as lightning-induced static that is often heard on the low bands… but DSP does.

A notch filter is another QRM-fighting tool that allows you to eliminate noise at one specific frequency. This works great if someone decides to tune up or transmit a narrow-band signal close to your frequency during a CW or HF digital QSO. Most notch filters work in the audio frequency-handling part of the rig, so while you may eliminate the noise it may still affect the receivability of your desired signal due to AGC pumping (that’s why crystal filtering and passband tuning are desired features).

DSP noise reduction is a fairly new feature (introduced in the last decade) that can really make a difference. It’s amazing to hear a blurry indistinct CW signal suddenly pop out of the background noise when you push the DSP button. I would find it hard to go back to a rig without DSP once having had it, although in my opinion this isn’t nearly as important for the HF digital mode or SSB operator. Note that newer rigs have more advanced DSP that will make a noticeable difference on SSB.

My first recommendation for anyone who is not knowledgeable about radios is to do some research. If you’re thinking about new rigs while reading this article, then you’ve undoubtedly found that eHam is one great source of information on radios. Use the Product Reviews, along with several grains of salt, to evaluate some of the radios you’ve heard about or have some interest in. You can also check out the vendors who run ads on eBay to get a good idea on what a competitive price is for the rigs that interest you. While doing so, be sure to click through to the manufacturers’ websites to see what they have to say about their products.

Used radio purchasers can also find a lot of great info in the Product Reviews section. But it’s hard to find manufacturer’s ads and websites that tell much about discontinued rigs. I’ve found that the ARRL website, www.arrl.org, has a great amount of information available to members in their Product Reviews section. This one feature is well worth the price of membership to ARRL (and you get their great magazine for a whole year, too!). Looking through the list of HF transceivers here on eHam, and then reading the original ARRL product review provides a wealth of information.

For pricing information, eBay is a wonder resource. You can often find radios on there for less than anywhere else… but caveat emptor. eHam’s classifieds are also worth searching through.

Chances are, if a radio was well-reviewed by ARRL and has a lot of support via good reviews here on eHam, then if it has the features you like you will be happy.

Well… I still have the HW-9, although I haven’t used it in a couple of years. Most of my HF operating is either HF digital or HF CW, so that has influenced my buying. This is one radio that I will probably sell in the future to buy something more usable (to me).

My new HF rig is an Elecraft K2 that I built from a kit. I have just about every option for this radio (again, built by me). My primary reason for buying this radio is that I wanted top-notch performance and I wanted to build my radio. I am also a fan of QRP operating, and I learned early on that low power operating is easiest when using a great rig. When I want to operate QRP or when I want to take a radio with me on the road, the K2 gets the nod.

My primary rig in the shack, however, is a used Ten-Tec Omni VI/Option 1 that I purchased from the second owner after he decided he wanted to try a new Ten-Tec Jupiter (he now has a new Ten-Tec Orion). (This rig is basically an Omni VI+ without the second 9 MHz filter position… read more about it in the eHam Product Reviews section.) In raw performance, the K2 and the Omni VI are roughly equivalent, but the Omni VI has several of the features listed above that make it easier to use on crowded bands. It also has DSP, which was unavailable until recently on the K2.

Both rigs have been used successfully for DX in all modes, CW, SSB, and HF digital. Both rigs have the advantage (to me) of coming with complete schematics… and I will add that the knowledge and confidence I obtained from building the K2 has allowed me to successfully diagnose and repair the Omni VI without having to send it back to the factory. Both rigs would suffice as the sole rig for a station… and I would venture to say that if it’s technically possible to make a contact (open band, etc.), then I won’t be prevented from doing so by my choice of rig. And, having operating limitations being a function of something other than my rig is what I want as a ham.

I’m a big fan of Ten-Tec and so you’ll find them in my recommendations. However, I think that all of the major players in the ham radio market build a decent radio.

For used rigs, I would strongly consider buying Omni VI/Option 1, as I think it is perhaps the best bargain in a used rig. It works great for any HF mode but especially shines for CW and HF digital mode use (and it can even be improved by an owner who’s willing to tinker). I also think that a used Icom 756 Pro is a good buy, especially for the SSB or HF digital operator. Going a little lower in price and performance, a used Icom 746 Pro, Kenwood TD-570SG, Yaesu FT-920, or Ten-Tec Jupiter (my choice, because you can update the firmware via the Internet and have the same radio that is shipping today) is worth looking at.

At the next level you have rigs like the Yaesu FT-847 (jack of all trades but master of none, an okay rig for HF operating but allows for VHF/UHF satellite operating), the Kenwood TS-570DG (same as the –S model but without 6m), the Ten-Tec Paragon and Paragon II (good rigs but can be troublesome), and the Ten-Tec Pegasus (requires a computer to control it… basically a Jupiter without the front panel… but usually available for several hundred dollars less than the Jupiter). The Kachina (also requires a computer to control it… the first rig of its type) is also available in this price range, but support can be problematic since the manufacturer has gotten out of the HF radio business.

Decide what features are important to you, learn which radios have these features, see how well the manufacturer implemented these features via ARRL, eHam, and other sources of product reviews, and get pricing through eBay, eHam, and other sites. Then… take the hundreds of dollars you saved and put up a decent antenna!

HV FUN GUD DX ES 73 OM DE KD7KGX AR SK CL

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