MARS Rig

[N3ZKP]

<< You can modify any radio to work the 5 MHZ band which then also allows you to work MARS, etc.>>

This is not entirely correct. There are many older radios in use that connot be modified to work on 60m.

Additionally, to be strictly legal on 60m, the radio has to be NTIA compliant as to frequency stability, spectral purity and bandwidth. There are more than a few radio in use (and still in production) that cannot meet the stability requirement without adding a TCXO and even then they may or may not meet the spectral putiry requirements. HTIA has a web site that lists compliand and non compliant radios.

Remember, 60m requirements are controlled by NTIA, not the FCC.

[AI4KK]

I am in the process of joining MARS, and it hasn't broken me yet. I paid approximately $500 ea for both of my HF rigs, an SGC2000 and an Icom IC-703+. Both are NTIA-compliant and offer full 1.6-30 Mhz coverage. Since the Icom is a little light on the output power at 10W (it works great as a backpack rig on SAR missions), I have been rebuilding a 150W amp with extra filtering and such to go with it, but even that only ran me $20 plus perhaps a bit more for the extra coils and caps.

Most of my gear has been bought on Ebay, and only from people with sterling feedback.