Digital radios..
I have read with great interest the recent reviews of the Icom 7100 and the Yaesu FT 400DR to be quite honest I would not beat a path to my local store to own one. These radios come in two pieces, connected together by a ten-foot ether net cable. This to me is an accident waiting to happen I can just imagine the head of one these units getting knocked to the floor, the internal parts damaged and thus the radio is useless.
I can also imagine a head mounted on the dashboard of your car then flying off into your lap if you turn a corner too fast. Or, I can imagine a thief eyeing up the head thinking he would get a whole radio and then find out he really has nothing. Of course your radio is useless in the process. I can also imagine the cable being pulled out of the modular connector and the list goes on for a while.
I have also noted one review stating that it was not advisable to place the head on the dashboard and leave your car closed up on a 100-degree day. Gee, that makes sense if you have sensitive electronics on board. Let’s take a closer look at the 7100 and strip away all the glitz about D-Star, it does have an innovative touch screen, this sounds good but the question remains of how will it work in the long run? You have seen grimy looking computer keyboards I am sure, they are full of grime and crud on the keys. No one cleans them, the filth just keeps mounting, so enter the touch screen. Your oily fingers and who knows where you have had them carry all the grease from your burgers at McDonalds, or Wendy’s plus what ever else you have touched.
Results are a grimy unclean screen with fingerprints and grime on it since no one will bother to clean it. This I am sure will hold true for both models since they have touch screens. Let’s look closer Icom has chosen not to place a DTMF pad on the mic, unless of course you want it and that is an extra $100. Ok, so how much do you use a DTMF pad on HF, but since they are touting D star with this rig and you just might have a use for the pad if you can find a D star machine, well fork over another $100. At least Icom put the mic connector in the head where it belongs; I am not sure what Yaseu was thinking with their design? The mic connector is in the RF half of the radio, now you have a ten-foot ether net cable connecting the two pieces and a three-foot mic cable.. Say What? No, I did not stutter on this, now tell me why separate the radio in two pieces, have a ten foot cable to connect them, put the mic connector in the rf section and have a three foot mic cable? DUH!
Oh should I mention that Yaesu will sell you a longer mic cable for an additional fee, but the real solution would have been to insert a plastic modular connector on the head where it belongs. I can imagine the entanglement in your car, long ether net cable, long mic cable, cable for power and a place to put the head, plus a place to stash the RF unit.
To me these two models should have had a detachable head, or leave the radio in one piece if that is the way you want it. I think it would have worked well with mating plugs to hold the head on the radio if you want one piece all the time, or unlatch it and use the ether net cable if you must have two pieces.
Instead of finding space for one piece in your car, or shack you now have two pieces. If you want to take off the head, just remove it and hook up the ether net cable. In this arrangement you have two pieces forever, to me not a great idea!
QST Review states that the 7100 is pretty good on HF, but for the serious minded op on VHF the receiver leaves much to be desired. Sensitivity, selectivity and noise were the down side, makes little sense to have digital transmitting capabilities and a less then standard receiver specs on VHF. Personally, I found this to be right on target since I had an Icom 746 for a short time. Rig was fine on HF and six meters, but on two it was terrible. Signals that were copied 30 over on my 8000 were barely making an S9. Simplex signals were plagued with white noise and down in readings on the S meter. A local repeater normally pinning my s meter on the 8000 was only making 30 db and I am less then a mile from the repeater site. The same antenna was used in both cases and although the 746 gave a hundred watts output, the receiver was sub standard on two meters.
In the process I had a couple of other ham friends notice the receiver on two, yet praised the rig on HF.
The 7100 sells for $1200 but if you are buying it for Dstar in this area think again, the closest Dstar machines are Louisville, Indianapolis, or Quincy, Ill.plus St. Louis, Mo. That is according to the latest listings I have found. Now, even with digital audio your chances of making it to these machines are limited unless you have serious antennas and towers to support them.
Some of these repeaters listed are on 440mhz certainly more of a challenge to reach them on a reliable basis.
Another obstacle is the compatibility with digital formats there are according to QST four known formats and they are D-Star, C4FM the Yaesu innovation. APCO-25 and DMR. If f you check the latest QST Page 49 for the review of the FT400DR you see the statement that jumps out at you at the bottom of the page first column. “Now we have four incompatible digital voice modes heading into common use in Amateur radio!”
In other words Dstar cannot talk to C4FM or with the other two, or vice versa, however with standard FM analog, everyone regardless of what type of radio you have can communicate.
Another flaw is no memory banks also a negative is the fact the 400 dr does not remember modes; instead they call this System Fusion or the accommodation between analog and digital. However the sensitivity indicates 2/10 of a microvolt on two meters not bad at all. For a complete review consult the September QST on product reviews and good points and bad ones.
Even with the good points mentioned, plus the fact it is two bands 2/70cm costs around $600 I still would not want one. The two-piece concept has no appeal to me at all.
Before we wrap this up, I am reminded of some advanced technology about twenty years ago by Henry radio. They introduced a box and a mode that was supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced bread as far as amateur radio phone. The mode was called NBVM or Narrow Band Voice Modulation, you had to buy the box install it to your mic connector and then install your mic on the box. An audio input came from your radio to the NBVM box and back out again to a headphone or speaker so you could hear what the other station was sending. Only fly in the ointment you had to have the box in order to send and demodulate NBVM so here we were with a box few people had, or were interested in buying. The results after three months was it bombed, Henry took it off the market and it was never heard of again. The big problem was dare we say it, compatibility and this mode was not with everyone else.
Do not get me wrong, I am all for advancing technology, but so far what I have seen offered in the amateur radio line does not entice me to start buying. I prefer to take the wait and see posture and let digital audio transmissions establish a standard.
Thing is in time someone else will blow their horn that the system they designed will be better, or more up to date, but will it be compatible? Perhaps in time a rig will surface that will use all four formats, or dare we say have one standard and the rest fall by the wayside.
For those wanting to jump on the immediate band wagon it is your choice and course your hard earned money, you may find it to your liking.
As far as digital audio repeaters such as Dstar or C4FM maybe in time we might see one surface in our area, until then I am keeping my credit cards in my wallet.
