For convienence and versality I guess a DC to Daylight rig is the way to go but I believe a rig designed to do it's job on one band will most always have the performance edge.

As far as the audio problem....if something obvious does not leap out at you, try an email to Scott Malcom    mts@toledotel.com.

He is THE ICOM GUY. If there is an inherent audio problem he will know about it...if not he will set you on the right path to fix it.  If it needs a trip to the hospital, he is reasonable, quick and very good.

PS. I like chewy peanut butter best then chocolate chip and my call book address is good (hi)

One of the first things I noticed about PSK was the incessant over use of "macros".

All they have to do is load them all up, establish a contact and start pushing the buttons.

The computer takes over and vomits out line after line of pre-typed stuff about their wonderful computer and maybe a brief mention of the rig, antenna and location.

One French station had his all set up to run unattended. His station probably logged hundreds of QSOs a day without one moment of actual interaction with a human!

If you try to go keyboard to keyboard you will usually get a quick (probably 'macro'ed) 73 spiel.

With a bit of looking I found this in the 'Product Reviews'.

K4THN  Rating: 5/5  Apr 1, 2008 16:11  Send this review to a friend  
Final transistor update!   Time owned: more than 12 months  
Had this unit for about 8 yrs. I will add some info for the 202 I have found thru the years.

1- If your unit says "Realistic" it is an older model that may have a problem with the final transistor heatsink grease being insufficient, and when using a rubber duck with an external power supply, it may scramble the CPU due to poor RF shielding around the CPU, causing you to reset the unit.

2-If your unit says "Radio Shack" it is a later model that has factory updates to eliminate the CPU-RF fiasco.

3-In either case, I would highly recommend you ck your unit for heatsink grease under the final...many units have had the final fail due to overheating due to very little grease.

N4JTE is completely correct.....By the way, the same rules apply for "Aeronautical mobile".

I am pretty sure that is  the way it is designed as this usually allows true M.A.R.S. coverage because their frequencies are just a whisker above and below the ham bands.

What is the tounge-in-cheek "MARS mod" is to allow transmitting everywhere.

I don't know why hams feel the need to do this but it's the same with 'walkie-squawkies'...never know when some big earth endangering emergency will hit that will require out of band transmissions to save the planet.

The device is a 'capacity hat' which makes a shortened antenna appear electrically longer than it physically is and not "just for looks".

As each antenna installation varies you may be able to get by without it but you may have to adjust the antenna to compensate and sometimes the adjustments will not stretch out far enough without it.
 
Keep in mind the designer/manufactuer did not put it there just for birds to sit on.

If you can get a factory replacement fine, but in the past I have made my own with elements from an old TV antenna. After cutting, flatten one end of each about one inch, bend to a 90 degree angle and hold them in place with a radiator hose clamp.

I entered this review a while back about the West Mountain Clear Speech speaker...perhaps it may give a point to ponder......

"I seem to have a lot of HF noise in my area so any little bit of noise relief is a Godsend and the Clear Speech is a most welcome addition.

The multi level processing settings and the much faster digital processing has made great improvements over the original Am-Com units...not that they wern't good, it's just that now I think the West Mountian design has made them great.

When using the maximum setting the digitized voice qualities and some of the holes in the audio as it processes out particuliarly strong noise spikes does take a bit of getting used to but under those severe conditions it's usually 'fair copy' vs 'no copy' so you are still ahead of the game.

There is no product nor device that is going to pull a S-1 signal out of 20 over 9 noise so don't expect miracles but for most day to day noise it earns it's keep. It's fantastic on my base station so I can only imagine how invaluable it would be in a mobile environment.

One thing I wish it had was a by pass for the audio...as it is now when the unit's power switch is OFF no audio is passed. Obviously there are times when it's not needed and unplugging the speaker from the rig's 'speaker output' is the only option. At some point I may add an audio by pass switch but for now it is not that big of a deal."

G'day Bob,

Until a better suggestion comes along, try popping off an email to the JARL    http://www.jarl.or.jp/English/

Best 73,
Bob

I would suggest that you may want to really research the real and practical value of each piece.

When you are confident of your evaluations tell him...'this thing seems to bring between xxx and xxx on the used market'.  

From that point on..."let the seller beware".

Tom,  GREAT write up.  Only suggestion I might forward is it should be in giant letters in the 'Articles' section.

Perhaps VEs could staple a copy on every test they administer.

I don't know what it is but it seems to be the cause of the multiple posting.

I am very sorry for the multiple posts....I have no earthly idea why....it's never done it to me before.

I have the U-Verse with the wireless internet (for local laptops) and it has completely wiped out the lower half of 75/80 and all of 40.

From there on up, I have spikes all the way up into the 2 meter ssb frequencies.

I have heard some subscribing hams have not had a problem but didn't check to see if just the plain U-Verse box causes the problem or if it is only when the inter net conection is used as I have been lead to beleive they use two different style boxes.

Which ever it is, I have the problem and of course, AT&T just shrugs it off as not their problem. BTW, I have confirmed the AT&T box is the cause as unpluging the power to it completely eliminates it.

After filing a complaint with the FCC for Part 15 violations I now also believe that AT&T has the FCC in their pocket as they were even less attentive than AT&T.

I have the U-Verse with the wireless internet (for local laptops) and it has completely wiped out the lower half of 75/80 and all of 40.

From there on up, I have spikes all the way up into the 2 meter ssb frequencies.

I have heard some subscribing hams have not had a problem but didn't check to see if just the plain U-Verse box causes the problem or if it is only when the inter net conection is used as I have been lead to beleive they use two different style boxes.

Which ever it is, I have the problem and of course, AT&T just shrugs it off as not their problem. BTW, I have confirmed the AT&T box is the cause as unpluging the power to it completely eliminates it.

After filing a complaint with the FCC for Part 15 violations I now also believe that AT&T has the FCC in their pocket as they were even less attentive than AT&T.

I have the U-Verse with the wireless internet (for local laptops) and it has completely wiped out the lower half of 75/80 and all of 40.

From there on up, I have spikes all the way up into the 2 meter ssb frequencies.

I have heard some subscribing hams have not had a problem but didn't check to see if just the plain U-Verse box causes the problem or if it is only when the inter net conection is used as I have been lead to beleive they use two different style boxes.

Which ever it is, I have the problem and of course, AT&T just shrugs it off as not their problem. BTW, I have confirmed the AT&T box is the cause as unpluging the power to it completely eliminates it.

After filing a complaint with the FCC for Part 15 violations I now also believe that AT&T has the FCC in their pocket as they were even less attentive than AT&T.