ARRLWeb: What's New at Dayton 2007?

Elecraft’s new K3 HF and 6 meter transceiver and its many options created quite a stir at Dayton.

Gerald Youngblood, K5SDR, lead developer of the FlexRadio series looks justifiably proud of his newest model.

Inside view of one side of the Flex-5000.

The new Hilberling PT-8000 HF and VHF transceiver. This is available in your choice of colors.

Inside view of the Hilberling PT-8000.

The new ICOM IC-7700, think IC-7800 with a single receiver.

Yaesu FT-450 HF and 6 meter transceiver, shown with optional internal antenna tuner.

Kenwood’s new TM-71A V/UHF dual band transceiver.

Yaesu’s new FTM-10 V/UHF dual band transceiver — designed for the open road.

New legal limit auto tuner from MFJ, the MFJ-998.

DSP noise reduction speaker from West Mountain Radio.

West Mountain Radio also offers their audio DSP in a stand alone board version.

Paul Hrivnak, N8PH, President, CEO and Chief Engineer of Palstar is justifiably proud of his new antenna tuner.

It always a treat when we get to see a new HF transceiver at Dayton -- it is usually the star of the show! Last year's show stealer was the Yaesu FT-2000; the year before it was the ICOM IC-7000. This year we had the good fortune of having no fewer than six to look over. In alphabetical order:

Elecraft announced their new K3 HF and 6 meter transceiver. Perhaps transceivers would be a better word. There are so many options (all upgradeable later if you choose) that you can configure anything from a kit-built 10 W portable QRP radio to a fully-featured, contest-ready 100 W rig with two high performance receivers. It is scheduled to ship starting in July.

FlexRadio Systems, well known for their line of high-performance software defined radios, introduced the Flex-5000 HF and 6 meter transceiver series promising higher performance and more features. Included are the Flex-5000C, a fully integrated system in a single box, and the Flex-5000D with a second receiver.

Hilberling, the first Amateur Radio manufacturer from across the Atlantic for some years, announced their PT-8000 transceiver. This is offered as a full-featured HF and VHF transceiver available in 10, 100 or 600 W versions and promises top performance. It is distributed in North America by Array Solutions.

ICOM unveiled their new IC-7700 HF and 6 meter transceiver. This appears to be a single receiver version of their top of the line IC-7800, sharing the 200 W transmitter, high performance receiver and 7 inch display of its sibling. It is being marketed for the "contester," but should be of interest to anyone who coveted the features of the deluxe IC-7800, but didn't need two receivers, or its price tag.

Ten-Tec displayed their new Omni-VII HF and 6 meter transceiver. Their new "distributed roofing filter architecture" promises ham-band only receive performance with a general coverage receiver. See our Product Review in this issue.

Finally, Yaesu showed their new FT-450 HF and 6 meter transceiver. Just as last year's FT-2000 arguably had its roots in their top of the line FT-9000, inheriting a substantial number of its features, the FT-450 has a similar relationship to the FT-2000, at a correspondingly lower price.

The SPE Expert 1K-FA HF and 6 meter 1000 W linear distributed in North America by ARRAY Solutions.

Dishtronix legal limit 100% duty cycle solid-state amplifier.

Linear power supply for Dishtronix legal limit 100% duty cycle solid-state amplifier.

Tokyo High Power showed its new 750 W output HF and 6 meter linear.

Tokyo High Power also showed its new 1000 W output HF and 6 meter linear.

Tokyo High Power moved up the spectrum with its new 2 meter linear.

Also distributed in North America by Array Solutions is the SPE Expert 1K-FA solid state linear amplifier. It is a compact light weight (44 pounds) fully automated, full break-in capable amplifier that puts out 1000 W PEP on 160 through 6 meters. An internal 120 or 240 V ac power supply and antenna tuner add to the handiness if this convenient amplifier.

Dishtronix showed off their 100% duty cycle, 1500 W PEP as well as 1500 W CW, RTTY, FM output solid-state linear. This is a serious amplifier at 65 pounds with a separate 120 pound linear power supply, or choose their 54 pound switching supply. It was just sitting there, quietly heating up a dummy load at the legal limit, key down.

Tokyo Hy-Power had a great debut at Dayton this year, bringing their collection of three HF amplifiers newly introduced to the US market. They showed their HL-1.2KFX 750 W output, their HL-1.5KFX 1 kW output and HL-2.5KFX legal limit amplifier as well as the HL-500V 2 meter linear. All are completely solid state and the HF units offer automatic band decoding when used with many popular transceiver lines. They also offer a new legal limit automatic antenna tuner.

Kenwood announced a new V/UHF mobile transceiver, the TM-71A. It offers many new features. Of particular note is free software that allows downloading repeater data from Travel Plus directly into radio memories -- a real boon for those who travel and have grown tired of manually storing all that repeater data for your trip. Other features include crossband repeater functionality and an innovative reversible control head that allows the radio's speaker to end up either on the top or bottom of the unit.

Yaesu introduced a new V/UHF transceiver especially for hams on the go! The FTM-10 is designed to mount on the handlebars of your bike or motorcycle so that you don't even need a mic -- just talk into the front panel and you're on the air! For those times when you don't have handlebars in front of you, it can also be configured as a traditional transceiver.

Radio accessories are always popular at Dayton and MFJ can always be counted on to have new products anywhere you see them. Topping their list this year is the MFJ-998 1500 W Intellituner. This legal limit auto tuner is designed to handle loads from 12 to 1600 ohms from 160 to 10 meters and includes two outputs and sophisticated memory, protection and control features.

MFJ also introduced a stereo version of its speech intelligibility enhancer for receive audio, the MFJ-618. This provides sound field expansion and allows independent compensation for each ear. There is also a new battery booster, the MFJ-4416. It is a dc to dc converter that allows your partially discharged battery, as low as 9 V, system to provide up to 25 A at 13.8 V -- a great asset form EmComm users, particularly since PowerPole connectors are provided as well as screw terminals. They also offer a new Super-strong Telescopic Mast, the MFJ-1906/8 in either 33 or 43 foot lengths. This fiberglass mast has a wall thickness of 0.125 inches for rigidity and is offered with either snap clamps or stainless hose clamps.

West Mountain Radio, the RigBlaster and RigRunner folk, have branched out into the audio side of your radios. They introduced a DSP-equipped speaker designed for the HF operator who would like more signal and less noise. They also have a new DSP module to use with your speaker and a speaker that will sound good and can sit next to your computer monitor without causing distortion in either direction.

In addition to the MFJ-998 above, I noticed a few other antenna tuners in my travels. Palstar has a new version of their AT1 series. The AT1KP covers 160 through 6 meters. By switching in the 160 meter inductance only when needed, the AT1KP reduces the minimum capacitance of the tuner so it can cover 6 meters. One touch of the front panel button and "top band," 160 meters, is back on without sacrificing performance on the higher bands.

The Swiss Antenna Matching System from Heinz-Bolli is a legal-limit remote-controlled tuner designed for outdoor mounting. It can be manually tuned by remote control or auto tuning can be used to select the best tuner configuration or adjust the parameters. It is distributed in North America by Array Solutions.