Peter - The XV-50 and a K2 is not really a cost effective way of getting on VHF. Besides the KIO2, you will also need either the K60XV or the K160RX. And if you want SSB, you will need the KSB2. If you already have the K2, the cost may be reasonable given the good performance achieved, but if you are starting from scratch, the cost of a K2, the options required for transverter operation, and the XV50 are pretty close to a 10 Watt K3, and the K3 has a lot better performance. The K2 does offer a very nice transverter interface, but going that way is fairly expensive.
The FT-817 is a different beast. The receiver performance under crowded band conditions is not great and you really need to add the narrow CW filter to bring it up to snuff on CW receive. That said, you get a lot of bang for your buck with the 817, and if you want to contest at VHF, two meters is almost essential. You will find that everyone you work in a VHF contest will ask you if you have any other bands. You will with the FT-817, you won't with the K2/XV50. In the June contest, with Es, you can get by with 6M only, but the rest of the year you will probably be better off with 2M as the main band. As to QRP at VHF, there is more to be said on that, which I will in another post. - De. Megacycle KK6MC/5 -- KK6MC James Duffey Cedar Crest NM ______________________________________________________________ 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
