I cannot find a list of "most expensive" ham radios anywhere. Any suggestions?
I pride my self on my "Google Fu" but every internet search result ends up with "best" Ham radios that are currently trending.
I'm not looking for ICOM 7300 to be the top of the list?
Keep in mind that the “best” transceivers aren’t always going to be the most expensive ones on the market. I’ve actually had a chance to sit down in front of an IC7851 and while there’s no question that it has an excellent receiver, paired with an arsenal of filtering to keep you grinning from ear to ear, sort of,(unless someone decides to land right on top of your frequency) there are other dynamics that come into play that are independent of that top of the line radio that are just as important, if not more so. Propagation will always remain at the top of the list. If band conditions stink, those extra bells and whistles aren’t going to create instant nirvana for you. Mother Nature is in command and that’s not something you can buy your way into. Lol! And of course, an efficient antenna system is imperative. That’s not to say that you‘ve got to have a five acre antenna farm with stacked mono band yagi’s or anything of that sort but you’ll want to have something that’s cut or tuned to the portion of the band(s) that you’ll be spending most of your time on. Even a simple dipole antenna cut or tuned to resonance mounted as high off the ground as you can get it will provide you with a heck of a lot of operating fun on the low bands. No, it won’t outperform a beam as it was never meant to do that but you will definitely be heard by a multitude of hams across the globe and you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results. Regardless of what you ultimately choose as far as antennas go, the key to becoming a more efficient operator has considerably less to do with how much you’ve spent on a new radio and a lot more to do with something called patience. You need to listen, listen and listen some more, especially when it comes to working those rare DX stations. You’ll actually learn more by doing that then by constantly feeling as though you have to be grabbing the mic, the key or whatever you plan on using to generate your signal. Finally, at a little over twelve grand, you can get a very nice radio, a linear amp, (when needed, of course) a tower, a beam, a rotor and quality feed line and still have a few grand leftover for something else either ham or non-ham related. Again, perform a little due diligence by sitting down and listening to several different radios before coughing up that much scratch. Good luck!
