karn (05/02/83)
Did anybody else go out there and brave the floods? Just returned from an exhausting weekend. The outside flea markets were only open on Saturday and Sunday, while the commerical exhibits (inside) were open all three days. It also rained two out of the three days; guess which ones? Parking was a disaster; because of the rain, the usually spacious unpaved fields behind the arena were closed, and people were parking anywhere and everywhere. Tow trucks were out in force, and I'm sure the local auto pound made plenty of money. A lot of new amateur transceivers are coming out with provisions for computer control. The cheaper rigs provide only for frequency control, while the more expensive ones allow you to get to more of the knobs from the interface. Yaesu has the TS-980 and the FT-757GX with their "CAT" (Computer Assisted Tuning), while a number of Icom transceivers have had accessory connectors allowing external frequency control for some time. Seems to me that shared club HF "remote base" stations should become quite common. Multiband VHF/UHF rigs (some supporting full duplex cross banding, e.g., for satellites) are starting to appear; both Yaesu (FT-726R) and Kenwood (TS-780) have them. The Yaesu looks especially nice because you can choose the three bands segments you want as plug-ins. More and more 70cm multimode rigs are also appearing, but most seem to restrict you to only a 10 mhz segment of the band (440-450 mhz, or, more commonly, 430-440 mhz). 1.2 Ghz stuff is just now starting to appear; Icom has a 1.2 Ghz mobile FM transceiver, and more 1.2 Ghz transverters and transmitting converters are coming out, many especially designed for the 1269 mhz Phase 3B Mode L uplink. Technology moves on! Phil