Icom

No matter where? Above you, below you? They had it going on.

They had ICOM radios with multiple diesel batteries fused together in series.

And they would do line of sight transmissions, which would mean they would get up on one top of a ridgeline and then bounce and then send their buddy over to another ridgeline.

And that's how they communicated.

I'm sucked into that right now.

Well, I hate to say this, 34 years ago, I think we were buying Icom and Kenwood and Yesu even then.

There were some American manufacturers at the time also, you know, Swans and Swann and Collins and Atlas and stuff.

But I think the 70s was the kind of the introduction of...

For the military, of course.

A rack mount for an ICOM rig.

And then climbing belts, if you want the old-fashioned arborist's kind of belt to climb a tower, that's what that was.

Lots of wattmeters, the kinds with the slugs in them.

I think it had two 813s in it.

And of course,

all kinds of parts, antennas, hamsticks, I see 7100, ICOM just released a 7200, which is the updated version of that radio with a fancy screen.

And there is my first SWL receiver, Zenith Transoceanic.

have.

But I sat in front of an ICOM and I was like, okay, as long as I'm getting on the air.

All right.

Well, let's kind of set the stage here for these guys because I know that they are chomping at the bit to kind of get on the road and head up that way.

We've got a boat chartered.

There's four of us for equipment.

I think we've got an FT-891, ICOM 7300, an Elecraft K3, whatever Adam's bringing.

I forget what his gear is.

Maybe it's a new country in the log, a weekend Parks on the Air activation, a project taking shape on the workbench, or just a piece of gear you've been convincing yourself you absolutely need.

Especially if we think about the new ICOM 7110 that just came out.

So whether you've been licensed for decades or if you're discovering what amateur radio has to offer, you're on the right frequency.

You've joined the Ham Radio Guide podcast.

We have...

Again, a lot to pack into this show.

We'll talk about the ICOM 7110 just briefly.

We will talk about the new web page of W0MAT.

The antennas will make a bigger difference than the radios.

I don't care if you use an old Kenwood TS-520, an old ICOM, or a Kenwood TS-980, or the latest Flex.

If you don't have good antennas, you're not going to work the stuff.

I love the way you say antenna system.

Thank you for joining us on this edition of the DX Mentor.

If you're enjoying these DX Mentor episodes, please hit the subscribe button.

I would like to thank our sponsors, ICOM America, The Daily DX, the Southwest...

Joe and I really enjoyed this conversation with John, and I hope you did as well.

DSTAR is a digital mode that's been around probably since the late 1990s.

ICOM and Kenwood are the two brands that that cover or that offer D-Star.

That one you might not see as often.

There are others around.

So Yaesu for Yaesu system fusion repeaters.

Lots of different brands for GMR.

And ICOM or Kenwood for D-Star.

Hope that's not overwhelming.

So that was great.

Things coming up, i.e., we've got a club talk tomorrow from Chris from ICOM, so that'll be interesting to, to, to see what he's got to say about what ICOM are up to at the moment.

And then the next month club talk is me talking about microcontrollers and particularly the Raspberry Pi Pico.

So I need to start getting on doing my presentation ready for that for next month's, uh, event.

We'll, we will, uh, it will be over by the time this drops, and we'll be on the way back home.

And one of the highlights for that for me is that my original Elmer, Mike Holmes, who lives in Franklin, Tennessee, I saw his ham shack in the bottom of a 100-foot windmill.

He had a, a Heathkit and an ICOM radio and a Mosley tribander, and this was in the late '60s during that incredible, incredible sunspot cycle, and he was talking to South Africa just as clear as you're listening to this podcast.

And so a few years ago, uh, Mike decided to get back into ham radio, and I've been helping him a little bit with some equipment and things, and he's coming.