On 23 May 2005 21:15:25 -0700, "
wrote:

I found from the manual that I can do CW with the Icom supplied mic.
Wanted to try it yesterday evening, but because of heavy wind and rain,
there was (is still) no power for the whole of yesterday night untill
now. Hopefully today evening I will try it out.

I am scared about transmitting, as costly stuff like a transceiver can
be difficult to get repaired in India. Sending it abroad for repair
costs as much as I would pay for a new transceiver!

Hi Ramakrishnan,

And especially for such a small form factor. Most of the reviews I've
seen have been quite positive. The few negatives were about software.
However, I would point out that in regard to my last maxim about you
never building just one antenna; you never own just one rig. Get a
"beater" that you can get a soldering iron into without melting the
front panel at the same time. Maybe even one with (gasp) tubes. The
Ruskis are still building tubes, it seems, so at least surface
shipping shouldn't cost as much there.

Also, invest in a decent battery (car battery size) using your power
supply as a float charger. Then you can even out the power shortages.
In this case, however, a tube rig may be stretching the limits of a
battery. In that case, think of 20-25 year old transistor rigs (where
the ICs are TTL only). This stuff is easily field serviceable (I
know, because I've raised several from the dead).

This is all part of the "flexibility" you should plan on, as I also
mentioned before.

73's
Richard Clark, KB7QHC