Buying Ham Radio Equipment Online Remember To Protect Yourself

  I have heard of a few different people buying something from places such as ebay only to either never to receive an item or just get a dead boat anchor. My advise is to always check the seller for their rating and any reviews good or bad. I had a friend who bid on something and then he was contacted by the seller telling him the shipping much higher than what was quoted in the auction on ebay. This almost reminded me of an illegal practice used by resellers known as bait and switch. In other words the seller gets your attention by a good price and he reels you right in. The next thing you know the resellers price has all of the sudden gone up. So my advise once again as buyers, protect yourself.  The same advise goes even if you are buying something new from amazon. I have even seen some computer repair services use the same shifty tactics.
 

A Couple Of Yaesu Radios I Was Considering When Looking For My First Base

  When I was looking at various Ham Radios when starting out in the hobby I had a fun time trying to decide what to choose. As I have said before I received different catalogs in the mail from Universal Radio, DX Engineering, AES Electronics, Ham Radio Outlet and R&L Electronics. I also scoured the internet looking for any information I could find. I was looking at various youtube videos on various Ham Radios. I was also going to the websites where the catalogs came from and I was looking for reviews. I was also going to Eham.net and reading all the different reviews. Checking for good or bad information.
  The few Ham Radios that I was considering were made by Yaesu. They were Ham Radios that can be used in a base situation in the Ham Shack or in a Mobile situation in the vehicle. The first one I was looking at was the Yaesu FT-897D. It is a High Frequency (HF), UHF and VHF Transceiver. It was indicating that it will put out 100 watts total power from 6 meters to 160 meters. This was a good point, because my budget did not have the room for a HF Amplifier. It carried a 4.6 out of 5 point rating on Eham.net, which is not bad at all. There was also the optional battery pack that could be used while in the field, which was another good selling point. Well my search continued at that point.

Need A Boost get An HF Amplifier For Some Extra Wattage To Get Through That Pile Up

    It seems like there are a lot of Ham Radio Operators that are running a good bit of power on the High Frequencies. I hear some operators running up to 1500 Watts. Sometimes you can tell they are driving that SWR up there, because they have that tell tale nose pinch sound. The problem is if they do not get that under control with some serious tuning they will eventually burn out their transmitter. A long time ago I remember someone running a 250 watt amp  into a pdl II beam antenna.  I knew other people that were running 500 watts from their vehicles. Other people were running 1200 watts from their base stations. It was funny that the person running 250 watts sounded better that the person running 1200 watts. The key was that he kept the swr down and the power flowed properly.
  Since I have had my General Ham License I have looked at different Amplifiers. So far Ameritron Amplifiers are out of my budget. I think the only way I may be able to afford one is to either win the lottery Hi Hi or find one used through ebay. I have been looking at some from RM Italy. They are generally a mobile amplifier. I have seen some you tube videos where the person is using a power supply to power the amplifier and the radio has plenty of watts to drive it. For the most part the reviews I have seen have not been bad. The problem is they are not regulated in this country and may cause some splatter on the bands. The only thing that catches my attention is the price. It Should be noted that from what I understand they are not legal in the united states by the FCC.
  I think for now I will keep saving my pennies. I will also keep watching the used equipment for some good deals. There are plenty of very good amplifiers that are used and do a very good job. You also have choices between all solid state amplifiers and amplifiers with tubes in them. If I decide to go with the used department I will make sure to check out who the seller is. With an item that expensive I will take no chances. What I would like to see is companies like Ameritron make some Hf Amplifiers in the 250 Watt range for a decent price. Maybe we could see some amplifiers made in the USA for some good prices.
  Well for know I will just work with the 100 Watts my Kenwood TS-2000 puts out. Thank You for reading from Dan KC2YTI 73s.