I’m currently evaluating these two handheld transceivers and before to buy one I’ve tried to understand pros and cons of both rtx.
I will summarize here the work of my last two days, since I’ve not found any usefull review that could compare these two portable transceivers. Following comparison is the result of third party opinions i’ve collected on the net, so use this article with caution.

Dimensione and weight
They are pratically the same, Icom first introduced in the marked this model that many other have followed. Kenwood looks lighter.

Audio sound quality
Concerning the onboard audio speaker, Kenwood quality is amazing for clearness, really excellent.

Keyboard
Here ICOM works better, since Kenwood keys are very small and people with large fingers may find problems. Back lighting is good in both transceivers.

Ease of use
The Kenwood is extremely user friendly and easy-to-use. The icom is difficult to setup expecially for newbies

Battery
Both will output 5 Watts. Icom offer also 0.500W but the Kenwood offers also the 1.5 W ! Batteries have same amperage, but kenwood outperform for battery duration and recharging time, only 6 hours vs 12 hours of the ICOM

Antennas
Both comes with their antenna, tuned for the bands they need to operate.

Transmission coverage
ICOM is much better here, since cover 50/144/430, while TH-F7E is limited to 144/430

Reception coverage
Kenwood, outperforms Icom since allow 0,500/ 1300 Mhz while Icom cover only 0,500/999.
Kenwood TH-F7T allow you to listen in both frequencies simultaneously ( dual watch ) Both works in FM/AM/FM-W but Kenwood allow also LSB/USB/CW !

Price
Here in europe price is almost comparable for both transceivers, at the moment of writing this article, flows from 250-350 euros, depending on special prices and offers.

An interesting article on Iraqui amateur radio operators condition has been published on the Los Angeles Times.

Many Iraqui hams have dismissed their stations because initially either US troops and Iraqui police were supicous that their transmissions are a tool of the insurgency. During the Saddam period however looks like things were not so much better.

It seems things has changed now, and in an interview to YI1AK YI1EYT and YI1FLY, express the desire that other operators could go back to their radio shacks.

According to the Iraqui amateur radio society many more callsigns has been issued to foreign people in the last years.

Article worth reading

Iraqui Amateur Radio Society

Surfing the net this evening, I jumped into the AMSAT UK site looking for satellite informations. The site reuslts hacked as you can see in above picture.
A quick jump to archive.org revealed that the amsat site has been implemented using Joomla a popular open source content management system that too very often release security fixes that needs to be applied as soon as they are availble.

Motorola announced today the intention to acquire 80% of Yaesu parent company Vertex Standard.
Current owner will remain with 20% forming a joint venture.
Who knows if this merge will offer Yaesu technical development new founds and resources to be implemented in next generation Yaesu products, or if this merge will sign the decline of one of the oldest firms in the ham radio market ?
Should Icom look around for other similar joint ventures ? Who knows…
Good luck Yaesu.

DXTuners is back online. After this spring shutdown, looks like the system is starting up again, maybe thanks to Kelly SM0NHC or maybe not. This is not clear yet.
Looks like this new system will host selected remote stations only and subscription will be free of charge.

The last week-end in Florence took place the first electronic and ham radio exposition, managed by compendiofiere.
I’ve been there both days, the first one I got the opportunity to met PY1NB Felipe, who was here in holiday with his family. The second one, i came back to buy the LDG Z-100 automatic antenna tuner for a very competitive price.
There were 6 amateur radio shops and there could be more, but an electronic show in Arezzo taking place in the same week-end took away a couple more stands.
Local ham radio operators, had a free pass for the exibition and this has been an apreciated gift from the event organizators. A free trade-exchange maket missed, but hopefully the next year we will have this too.
Some more pictures can be seen here at local ARI radio club web site.

Technorati Tags: ham radio, hamfest, amateur radio, firenze, florence

As published in antennex Dec. 2001
The 40 Meters band stealth vertical antenna by K7ZB

“You’re 30dB over 9 here…” So goes the consistently fine signal reports received from around the USA and beyond - on 40 meters at the peak of Sun Spot Cycle 23. The most common antenna used in ham radio mounted over poor desert soil conductivity still performs beautifully!

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After 20+ years, a new Ham Fest will take place in Florence this year.
Compendio Fiere, one of the most active hamfests managing company, has established the FIERA DELL’ELETTRONICA COMPUTER E TELEFONIA in Firenze.

This is mainly a Computer Electronics and Phone exposition, where also amateur radio will be present with six national ham radio dealers. This event will represent an interesting opportunity to promote Ham Radio to the many young people  that will surely attend the hamfest, even if with a different goals.

The location of the hamfest, is in the Florence center in a dismissed railway station named “Stazione Leopolda”. Driving direction can be found via this link, but I suggest to use the Firenze SMN Railway Station and arrive by train. Car parking in Florence is very difficult, particularly during the week-ends. I suggest to use the Fortezza da Basso or Railway Station car Parkings. Feel free to write me if you need assistance.

Technorati Tags: firenze, ham radio, hamfest, florence

Original article by K7ZB

Results 

The simple 15′ vertical antenna shown mounted on the railing of our second floor deck has produced almost 200 countries worked around the world… VQ9’s in Chagos and 3B8’s on Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, TX0DX on Chesterfield Reef, VK0MM on Macquarie Island in the Antarctic region, BQ9P on Pratas Island off Taiwan, ZM7ZB on Chatham Island in the South Pacific along with FO0AAA on Clipperton, 9M0OO on Spratly Island in the South China Sea, JT1CO in Mongolia and on and on. What I hear, I can usually work with this little wonder and the small size and profile make it feasible for use in deed restricted neighborhoods.

A radio amateur friend and antenna designer came up with a simple design for a 10 meter vertical, which another friend and I modified to make work for the 14, 18, 21, 24 and 28 MHz ham bands. Its performance surpised us, and I’ll share it with you, in case you too are looking for a simple, inexpensive DX antenna that really performs well.

Main Antenna Concept 

The basic concept is to put up a piece of aluminum tubing with a telescopic section held by a small hose clamp to adjust the height. By attaching the center conductor of a coax feedline to the tubing, and the shield of the coax to a couple of radials from the base of the tubing you can load the vertical across quite a broad range of frequencies.

Of course, with a vertical element of approximately 15′ this is a non-resonant antenna for the 10, 12, 15, 17 and 20 meter bands. I chose this length on purpose to allow the system to be tuned to resonance with an antenna runer.

Tuning

Since the SWR in an antenna system of this type will be relatively high, an antenna tuner unit will definitely be required. You may need an external ATU if the one in your transceiver can’t handle the impedance mismatches involved. Here at K7ZB, I drive my TS570 (which has a built-in ATU) thru the amplifier, which then drives a high power ATU to the antenna. I put the SWR/Power meter between the amplifier and ATU to ensure a good match for the amp, and in cases where I run barefoot without the amp, I can still use the ATU to assist the transceiver’s ATU in ensuring a good match.

In this way, everything is matched for maximum power output: from the transceiver to the amp, and amp to the antenna. And, even though the SWR’s are high at the feedline and the antenna, it doesn’t matter because the system is matched with the ATU.

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Today surfing the net looking for ham radio live streaming, or remote controlled radios, I’ve jumped into dxtuners.com. Sadly, I’ve been redirected to new Kelly Lindman blog, where he annouce that his dxtuners.com has been shutted down by himself due lack of interest and time.
I’ve been an estimator of Kelly’s work since 1998 when DXTuners was named JavaRadio.com. (he had to change name some years after due to a SUN explicit request, cause of Java prefix name and itìs copy rights…if I don’t get wrong).

JavaRadio has been one of the first, or maybe the first attempt to link the internet with ham radio in a different way, allowing net surfers, to remotely tune a radio and listen the output via a live audio stream.

During years Lindman (SM0NHC), who is an IT expert, developed the client / server architecture using the emerging Java technology, and established a network of remote tuners all over the world. The network included stations from almost all continents, I remember the first remote tuners from Perth Australia, or Illinois USA, Lancaster in CA USA , Edinburgh Scotland, and a couple in Sweden… to support the project costs he was asking a yearly fee to get full access to the network, and with that requirement, I lost interest on that website, since it was exciting to tune remote stations, but not enought for me to pay a fee.

According to some news I’ve found, Lindman has not been able to delegate his functions to anyone else, and in May 07 decided to close the dxtuners.com.
I’m sorry to see a cool web resource, and a so valuable work (I refer to his Java System) be lost, but it can happen when things are driven only by passion, expecially if passion run out.
BTW TNX Kelly
73.

Want to try some remote receivers online? In the mean time, someone else has arranged a remote tuner control via the web, for free… try a google query for Online Radio Receivers

Technorati Tags: dxtuners, shortwave, hamradio, dx, online receivers, remote tuners, amateur radio