2021

Well, 2020, as we all tend to agree, is a year to quickly forget.  2021 is not going to be very much easier, given it will take many months, if not most of the year, to get a good fraction of the population vaccinated.  Against this, we must hope for no major mutations or new viruses.

So, with some hope still left, I think that, come springtime, I will take a long hard look at how people are getting on with the new IC-705.  By then, any problems should have become apparent.

I was glad to see that OH8STN has conducted a reasonably long WSPR test at HF, and found the IC-705 to have the kind of frequency stability we should now all expect and demand from any HF rig.  If my ageing FT450 can produce zero drift, year in, year out, then I fail to see why we should put up with anything less.

So the first test is passed nicely.  

I think the features and layout are all fine, so far as the various reviews show.  It's not an environmentally-sealed rig, and so this is, to an extent, a fail.  But there are sure to be after-market covers and so on, and any rucksack, properietary or generic, will keep it protected enough from the elements.  

Still, it's surprising and very disappointing that ICOM didn't think a portable rig should have portable ruggedness.  I often think the cultural differences between Japan and the West seem to result in not-quite-right products; the rather embarrassing, 1980s-style 3DSS spectrum display on the new Yaesu FTDX10 is a classic recent example of this.

I'd much prefer, for its sheer simplicity and fine engineering, to get a Lab599 TX-500.  But nobody seems to be getting one these days, with a small rise in online reviews seen a couple of months ago now going completely quiet.  For the moment, the TX-500 is completely out of the running for lack of UK outlets and the attendant legal protections that are not available if I bought it from abroad.

But there is still time for others to persuade me of the Xiegu rigs, for example.  Their frequency stability remains something of a mystery; nobody seems to think about this important aspect when doing video reviews.  Opening a box isn't very informative; real operating and attention to detail is.

What will you be getting?

Season's Greetings, and here's to a much better, less restrictive 2021!