Request: Dayton HamVention Updates from the Field!

[cognetic]

Happy Saturday!
I'm hospitalized, just now able to use a keyboard (relatively safely), and missing the event...
How about some updates from the field??!!

Looking for the "take my money", newest/super refreshed, most advanced offerings from major and upcoming manufacturers, innovators, and up-starts!!
Seems like there has been a lull in our industry for many months, so I'm hoping for some good news in things to come... soon.
And, of course, the most whackadoo (above the "normal" with pics) for some humor won't hurt... too much. LOL

-cognetic

 

[AK9R]

The only newly-announced radios I've seen mentioned on various social media so far are the Elecraft K4 HF base radio, which is being discussed here, and the Yaesu FT-3DR VHF/UHF handheld, which is being discussed here.

 

[w2xq]

W5KUB is streaming video from Dayton. And there is an IRC chat too. See W5KUB.COM – Bringing ham radio to you for details. HTH a bit.

 

[prcguy]

The new K4 looks interesting and I suspect it might kick the new Yaesu FT-DX101D out of first place on Rob Sherwood's receiver test site when its finally available. I picked up a new Commradio CTX-10 and will be evaluating it over the next few weeks. Looks well made and solid so far but I don't have an HF antenna or any wire to test with while in Dayton. Swap meet was good as usual and I have about 100lbs of other peoples junk to get home somehow.

 

[AK9R]

I picked up a new Commradio CTX-10 and will be evaluating it over the next few weeks.

CTX-10 QRP-10W HF Transceiver

Seems pricey for a QRP radio. I have friends who are into QRP and I doubt they'd pay that much. What attracted you to it?

Swap meet was good as usual and I have about 100lbs of other peoples junk to get home somehow.

So, it was a good Hamvention.

 

[Hit_Factor]

The Icom IC-9700 was right up front, that's a new rig too.. A friend of mine was working in the Icom booth and he said there was heavy traffic yesterday and today.

Great day in Xenia, lower 80s, breezy enough to keep the bugs away, no rain.

73, K8HIT
Icom: IC-7300, IC-PW1, ID-5100A, ID-51A Plus 2, IC-R30, Hytera PD782G, Kenwood TH-D74, Uniden SDS100, DVMega, SDRplay RSPduo

 

[cognetic]

Y'all are great for responding!!

Thank you for the link, w2xq.

W9BU, the K4 looks enticing. And I like your question about the CTX-10. I bought the CR1a at the Hamvention when it first came out. We took my friends Eurocopter to the event and this was my targeted purchase that year. Liked the design but the performance over time has not been all that good and the knobs, rotors act very erratic.... and now they no longer support the radio.

prcguy, keep us updated on the Commradio CTX-10... I'm interested in the radio/QRP options and won't let my previous CR1a shy me away.... I liked the Commradio guy when I met him and like to support the smaller companies that are trying to innovate!!

Hit_Factor, thanks for the weather report! So, how much do you like the IC-9700 at its price point? Like the complementing design to the IC-7300... but man I'm not quite convinced yet at $1899. $1498 maybe $1599 and I just might bite.

Is it just me or is there a prolonged lull in advances, innovation, and progressive creation going on?
Maybe too soon until they sell off the older stuff? Business, market, demand, life-cycle stuff...
ICOM is pretty solid with their offerings so maybe no need to get out ahead too much of the others. I like what Yaesu puts out but personally prefer ICOM for performance and ease-of-use overall. Kenwood is always so klunky in terms of UI but usually has good performance. Where is the next game changing advancement? How about more self-contained small APRS with touchpad interfaces for mobile/marine/portable? Wifi integration for connectivity and firmware updates? I'm way over the CCR market flood and distracted newbie hams not knowing any better than what they can get on Ama*z*n for <$60.

Radio on...

-cognetic

 

[Hit_Factor]

I'll eventually get an IC-9700, but $2K seems steep. Maybe Black Friday will have better pricing. I can wait.

73, K8HIT
Icom: IC-7300, IC-PW1, ID-5100A, ID-51A Plus 2, IC-R30, Hytera PD782G, Kenwood TH-D74, Uniden SDS100, DVMega, SDRplay RSPduo

 

[prcguy]

I have an Elecraft KX2 which is a little more and two loaded KX3s with 2m which is a lot more, so the CTX-10 is actually the cheapest of my current QRP rigs. I was attracted to it by its size, looks and its American made and a curiosity on how it performs. I previously had a CR-1 and it was a good little radio, so I'm hoping the CTX-10 will not disappoint.

I had a couple of conversations with its designer and believe its been well engineered and it will be the first thing I play with out of all the junk I'm bringing home from Dayton. Then I'll offer it to Rob Sherwood for performance testing if he's interested.

CTX-10 QRP-10W HF Transceiver

Seems pricey for a QRP radio. I have friends who are into QRP and I doubt they'd pay that much. What attracted you to it?


So, it was a good Hamvention.

 

[AK9R]

The IC-9700 was announced some time ago, has been shipping for over a month, and is already being discounted by the major retailers, so I have a hard time calling it "new".

As for the pace of new radios hitting the market:

Icom has cranked out three SDR radios over the past three years: IC-7300, IC-7610, and I-9700. The 7300 has taken the HF base radio market by storm and appears to be a great value. OTOH, I think Icom is neglecting the VHF/UHF handheld and mobile market with nothing new. They can't compete at the low end.

Kenwood has always been slow to bring new radios to market (and, to their credit, you rarely hear anything about new models until they magically appear). The TS-890 was their last new radio of any kind and that was last year. The TH-D74 is a great handheld radio at the high-end of the market. OTOH, the TM-D710 is long in the tooth and due for replacement and, like Icom, Kenwood can't compete at the low end. Most Kenwood watchers were looking for TS-2000 and TM-D710 replacements at this year's Hamvention, but, nothing new.

Yaesu keeps cranking out new models like rabbits. A wide range of handhelds and the FT-4 and FT-65 are competitive at the low end of the handheld market. The FTdx-101 is at the top of Rob Sherwood's HF radio chart. Who knows if they can keep this up. And, lately, Yaesu's problem seems to be keeping up with demand. They discounted the FTM-400 this past winter and many dealers ran out of stock.

 

[cognetic]

W9BU, that's a nice summary which resonates with my own perceptions/opinions.

ICOM maybe doesn't HAVE to compete with the lower end (found a comfortable niche) and should keep doing what they are doing based on my consumer experience. In my mind, those AROs that appreciate better quality and are used to more professional/industrial-commercial grade migrate here eventually.

Agree with Kenwood comments. However... My experience with the TH-D74 has been that it is rather fragile after having two suffer severe trauma with relative "normal" use. Good features and performance, however. Needs better design to house those RF/electronicy bits... Always have had a "like" for Kenwood.

Yaesu is like a rabbit!! It is somewhat amazing how they keep the range (low to high) and new products coming without sacrificing (much) any quality. I like their portable HF radios for mobile, marine, and portable ops.

-cognetic

 

[w2xq]

Cognetic, welcome. And to add to your like-to-see innovations, I'd like to see bluetooth programming of at least handheld radios. Do so using Android and iOS tablets, dumping the need for Windows PCs.

 

[cognetic]

Cognetic, welcome. And to add to your like-to-see innovations, I'd like to see bluetooth programming of at least handheld radios. Do so using Android and iOS tablets, dumping the need for Windows PCs.

YESSS!!!!
Emphatically, agree. That would be so cool and a wonderful advancement in UI. Imagine a software app with your various radio groupings, easily transferable programming from device-to-device, frequency management, channel banking, on-the-fly changes, etc. Heck my radar detector has this already!!

A reachable example... RT Systems could build a common cross-platform (Android, iOS; WIN 10, MAC) app, use licensing per radio type in a library to allow common in-app use (leveraging existing business model), and we could use our handheld device of preference to group, select, transfer, update, etc. Handhelds, mobile, base... should be equally practical.

BTW, past PDA programmer/entrepreneur here... Later, less programming and just dynamic visual graphic examples of desired interfaces then outsourced to programmers & MDM teams to create. Utility industry, logistics, healthcare, govt, mobile businesses. One of my tactics was to demo the could-be to execs, docs, etc... then, when they wanted it, assemble the financing and team to develop & deploy. We had it down to less than 30 days from vision to prototypes over 10 years ago!! Today, this may be something a teenager with access to command sets, reasonable programming skills, and MDM platform follow-through could make happen with much less cost (?license fees) if BT was already on-board the transceiver device. Many analogous examples are already in use. BT modules are cheap, cheap... makes it hard to find the best ones because there are so many knockoffs.

-cognetic

 

[w2xq]

YESSS!!!!
Emphatically, agree. That would be so cool and a wonderful advancement in UI. Imagine a software app with your various radio groupings, easily transferable programming from device-to-device, frequency management, channel banking, on-the-fly changes, etc....

BTW, past PDA programmer/entrepreneur here...

I don't hold much hope that RT or anyone else will do it. And the Chinese programmers doing DMR CPS programming don't get it. Sigh...

And I developed dBASE applications to stuff data into the JRC, Kenwood and Lowe communications receivers back in the mid-1980s. I appreciate the difficulties in programming with all the platforms and OSs today--not for me anymore--but equipment designers and application developers need to move forward.

 

[AK9R]

And to add to your like-to-see innovations, I'd like to see bluetooth programming of at least handheld radios.

I have programmed my Kenwood TH-D74 using Bluetooth and my Microsoft Surface Pro tablet.

 

[AK9R]

Yaesu is like a rabbit!! It is somewhat amazing how they keep the range (low to high) and new products coming without sacrificing (much) any quality.

The Yaesu FT-4XR is made in China, which, by itself, is not a bad thing. But, the user interface is very much like cheap, Chinese radios. So, to get to the low end, they did sacrifice some quality, in my opinion.

Icom and Kenwood are very much involved in the land mobile market and they seem to be actively bringing innovative products to market. Yaesu only has Standard-Horizon marine radios (several handheld and "mobile" radios and navigation products) and Yaesu airband (4 handhelds) to distract them from amateur radio.

 

[Otto]

I'll eventually get an IC-9700, but $2K seems steep. Maybe Black Friday will have better pricing. I can wait.

73, K8HIT

I think that’s what many of us prospective 9700 owner are hoping for.

 

[kayn1n32008]

I would like to see Kenwood come out with an updated analogue dual band mobile to replace the TM-V71A. Or even a digital mode, and while DMR would be my preferred mode, I doubt we will ever see that from a ‘big 3’ manufacturer.

Dual receive, with cross band repeat.

Do proper zones(32-64)with up to 256 channels/zone, 1024 channels(or more).

Have 10-14 character dot matrix display, remote mountable control head using CAT-5/6 and allow the buttons to be fully configurable.

Do NOT include APRS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[cognetic]

I would like to see Kenwood come out with an updated analogue dual band mobile to replace the TM-V71A. Or even a digital mode, and while DMR would be my preferred mode, I doubt we will ever see that from a ‘big 3’ manufacturer.
<snip>
Dual receive, with cross band repeat.
<snip>
Do NOT include APRS.
k

My TM-V71A just keeps working. Online 24/7/365, multiple years of temps 26-110 F degrees range, a few indirect surges from delayed detection of battery supply failure (rare OPTIMA event) and mild solar flare boosts to the DC charging/ storage grid...

Not sure I care much about DMR. DSTAR maybe. Digital Node (BT, WIFI, device networking) = Definitely! Especially if could be used for new APRS protocol using external device and only pulsed telemetry/location data (THINK z-wave, MESHnet…)

Dual Receive, cross band is very helpful in remote, marine, portable/tactical ops. Add MARINE, AIR <:::> ?RDS, ADS-B, digital sub-carrier codecing…. pushing DSP features available.
Love my ID-5100's, BTW...

Agree with off-boarded APRS to a certain user-preference extent.
I've used a dedicated vehicle-cab access with keyboard etc. as background VHF dual band APRS set-up... could only think of this sort of special need for integrated APRS. It annoyed me with operational interference of the other band for voice comms.
If it could be a true dual-TRANSceiver, my device engineer and product design brain thinks it may expand modular communication modes of thinking - so to speak.

-cognetic

 

[prcguy]

A few dealers had a Dayton special price of $1,699 on the IC-9700. That's not bad and $200 less than I paid.

I think that’s what many of us prospective 9700 owner are hoping for.