Jack, Your apportionment makes a lot of sense for a "superstation", but antennas for mobile operation are not something that you would apportion by your formula - it does apply at the home station if you want the best combination, although I would advocate a $40 antenna plus $40 radio and $20 for other stuff in the budget - I believe we hams can build a lot of our station accessories (remote antenna switches and the like) for less than the prices of commercial equipment.
Your numbers are likely right for setting up a contesting station, but for a first time ham station, I think my numbers are more realistic. Consider that a beginning ham does not even know what bands will interest him, and what of the various ham interests will become important to the new ham. Some like DXing, some like contesting, some like ragchewing, some like digital modes, others love CW and some are SSB only type hams. A new ham has to find where he fits in this tremendously wide range of interests hobby before making final decisions. If the ham is happy to stick on 40 meters, then a high 40 meter dipole is not difficult or costly to construct, but if one wants to be "top dog" in every 40 meter contest, a large tower and a full size 40 meter 3 or 4 element beam may be the goal. Yes, there are a few 80 meter beams in the world too, and those antennas cost a large sum of money, while beams for 20 meters and up come more into the "affordable by the average ham" category. Based on your logic, Steve might want to consider a K2/10 with KIO2 as the basic transceiver and a KPA100 and KAT100 in an external EC2 enclosure as an alternative solution to the KX3 and (not yet available) KXPA3 and 100 watt tuner. Again one amp and tuner could live in the vehicle while there is another at the home station. There us nothing wrong with a K2, look at the Sherwood list - it is not very far down the list even though it is 12 years old. 73, Don W3FPR On 4/2/2012 10:03 PM, Jack Berry wrote: > Regardless of your budget, Steve, here's a formula that should apply pretty > well. For every $100 you have to spend: > $90 on antenna(s) > $5 on radio > $5 on everything else. > > We all make the same mistakes on our first shack. We buy the finest radio we > can > afford (or squeeze into our credit card) and make up the rest as we go along. > We > love shiny new radios with lots of lights. > We are just coming into a not-so-hot solar cycle, so you are seeing things > about > as good as they will be for the next eleven years. To enjoy ham radio in the > lean signal years you will need all the antenna you can get. It's much easier > to > find deals on used radios along the way than it is to redo your antennas once > they are up - especially if you put up a tower. > > If you do buy new you can't beat the Elecraft combo - design, support and this > reflector, regardless of which model you buy. > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:[email protected] This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
