WRYZ926

That still gives you options. And yes common mode chokes do work and keep RF out of your radio.

@Northcutt114 I think you will like the 7300, it's a nice base station radio. The thing about 40m and 80 is that they are better for DX at night. 40m works better for closer contacts during the day. I haven't messed with 80m during the day.

I'm glad to hear that the 771G is working out for you. I have tested the Nagoya 771 and 771G on several different radios. They made on improvement on a few radios while the shorter stock antennas worked better on others. You never know until you try. The stock antennas worked best on my Icom and Wouxun radios while the 771 and 771G worked better on the Baofeng and TYT radios.

It's nice having options. Nice to hear that the 3mm banana jacks do fit into the 4mm jacks. Longer ground radials won't hurt for higher bands. REZ Antennas includes 33 foot ground radials with all of their antenna kits which is a 1/4 wave on 80m. That works fine for the higher bands. Going shorter won't hurt either as long as you have more ground radials. 24 8.6 Ft radials works better than the four 33 ft radials on 20m and higher with my REZ antenna. Again, the radio length is only critical if you are using elevated radials.

That's how the Arcom RC-210 controllers and the old raspberry pi controllers we had work. We still need to figure out the high SWR issue with our GMRS repeater and then it is going to get connected to the RC-210.

That is the issue I have with the BCR-40 as it does the same thing. I had a lot of people complaining about that. And when I contacted Bridgecom, their response was that is just how it is and shut the CW ID off if you don't like it. They basically said to deal with it as they aren't willing to fix it. When I made a comment on their reply on the Bridgecom Facebook page, they deleted it right away with a comment that they don't allow any negative posts.

It's actually one of the questions on the technician test.

Most HF radios from the Big 3 - Icom, Kenwood, and Yaesu, all include 6m which allows you to use all modes on 6m. If you want to use all modes on 2m and 70cm then you have to either buy the Icom IC-9700 or one of the many all band/all mode "shack in the box" radios.

You are going to want a HF/6m radio or a shack in the box radio if you want to use SSB on 6m. Most guys that use 6m are all on USB. The exception is if there happens to be a 6m repeater near you which will be FM. New radios are expensive and that is why I suggested looking for a used IC-706MkIIG or FT-891. Yes the 706 is old and out of production but they are still great little mobile radios. They do 100 watts on HF/6m, 50 watts on 2m and 20 watts on 70cm. I have one that is in a go box along with a 12V mini computer for portable Winlink and other digital modes.

I know guys that use transverters all of the time. They do work and also give you more options.

Per Part 97, you should be staying 5 KHz from the band edge for your license class anyway. So you should not be transmitting above 28.495 MHz on USB as a technician. Yes I know if you do a google search you will anywhere from 3 KHZ to 5 KHz. Stay at least 5 KHz away from the band edge will definitely keep you out of trouble.

It's harder to do a POTA activation at night since most parks close around sunset plus the fact that any type of wire antenna for 40m and 80m is going to require a lot more room. I've had better luck working overseas POTA stations on 40m compared to working US stations. I have yet to work any POTA stations on 80m. Checking my Hunter stats and I need 5 states and DC to have worked all 50.

Nothing is as easy as it seams on YouTube videos. They cut and edit to condense everything down. I've had it take a 1-4 hours to get 10 contacts or on a really good day get 30 contacts in about 30 minutes. The latter is rare for me though. It all depends on location and band conditions.

The only real negative about the G90 is that it does not have 6m. Otherwise its a great little 20 watt radio.

The TYT TH-9800 has been plagued with issues. I have to agree with @SteveShannon and can't recommend the TH-9800. Now I can recommend the dual band 2m/70cm TYT TH-7800. I have two of them and they have been solid radios. If you are wanting to work 6m SSB using a mobile radio then you are limited to an all band-all mode radio such as the IC-706MkIIG and FT-981. There is the Icom IC-7100 but it is usually around $1200. All of the mono band, dual band, and multi band mobile radios, such as the TYT TH-9800, are going to be FM only. I can't recommend the Icom IC-705 or Yaesu FTX-1 for a beginner or first all band-all mode shack radio since they are QRP radios. They will require an external tuner and an amplifier to get above 10 watts (when connected to external power). Plus the FTX-1 has a lot of issues.

That is the nice thing about amateur radio, there is something for everyone. Some only use CW, some only use SSB, some only use AM, or some enjoy using all of the different modes. Sometimes I get bored using my 100 watt HF base station on any mode and will swap the antennas over to my G90 or my X6200 to see what stations I can hear and work at 20 or 5 watts. My Elmer let me borrow an old Ten-Tec HF radio when I was first licensed. He is the second owner of the radio. He had to scrounge for a hand mic since he and the original owner only worked CW with the radio. I get a kick out of a couple of the old timers in my club. They are always bashing FT8 saying it isn't real radio. Yet they are knee deep into Winlink and APRS. Use what ever mode or modes that you like but don't bash the other modes.

Keep an eye out for a used Icom IC-706MkIIG. They are all mode and all band radios. They cover 70cm through 160m to include 6m. And you can use any mode ie: CW, digital RTTY, SSB, AM, and FM on all of the bands. You can find them around $400-$500 used and in good condition if you are patient. The 706MkIIG does not have a built in sound card like newer radios. But Digirig does make their Digirig Mobile along with the correct cables for the 706MkIIG which is easy to setup. Another option is to find a reasonably priced used Yaesu FT-891. Again you will still need an external sound card for it. A downside to the IC-706MkIIG and FT-891 is that neither one has a built in antenna tuner, which comes in handy when using multi band antennas. And you can catch the Xiegu G90 on sale for not much more than some of those export radios cost. It's not uncommon to catch the G90 on sale for $400 to$425. The G90 is HF only and does not include 6m. Or as you say, you can build your own. But watch which kit you buy, most are HF only and usually only cover 1-4 bands. And not all kits work on all modes.

Actually I enjoy SSB when doing a POTA activation. I work both FT8 and SSB when hunting. If band conditions are bad for SSB then I will switch to FT8 and still work stations. FT8 is not for everyone, but I do enjoy it as I have worked DX stations all over the world that I would never be able to work on SSB. To each their own.

Most of those telescoping masts are probably going to be too small when fully extended. I do use one of those faraday cloth j poles with my 40 ft or 23 ft Spiderbeam masts, but that antenna is super light. The top of the masts still bend and blow around quite a bit even with the faraday cloth antenna and coax strapped down to the mast. The Ed Fong might be a little too much for the thinner masts as most are only 4mm to 6mm (5/32" to 1/4") diameter at the top. I ended up going with the DX Engineering DXE-TFK25 telescoping mast so that I can use a 2m yagi or a 6m Moxon antenna. It is a bit on the heavy side compared to the thinner masts. The DXE-TFK25 collapses to right at 5 feet in length with all of the clamps installed. The DXE-TFK-25 is $238 I use mine with a hitch receiver flag pole mount. This is the mount I am using: EEZ RV Products Hitch Mount Starlink Pole and Flagpole Holder. It works well with both of my Spiderbeam and DXE masts without the need to guy them.

I agree that there are plenty of ways to deal with heat. But I would be amiss if I didn't mention something about the low duty cycle.

That's common especially if one station is using a vertically polarized antenna and the other station is using a horizontally polarized antenna. Same thing happens with VHF and UHF with different polarization.

I have had the best luck activating on 20m. I do the majority of my POTA hunting on FT8. That makes it easier to work activators on all bands. I can hear and work stations on FT8 that I would never hear on SSB.

And they are bi-directional. You can use them with one radio and two antennas or with one antenna and two radios. You will see them called duplexers or diplexers depending on the manufacturer or retailer. They work the same. They are commonly used with the Icom IC-9700 VHF/UHF base radio when using a dual band antenna since it has separate antenna jacks for VHF and UHF. Another common use is with mobile installations when using two radios with a single multi band antenna such as the Comet 2x4SR.

I looked up the specs on the Kenwood TK-880 radios. My concern is that they have a low duty cycle of around 20% with the radio set to high power. So they will get hot under heavy use while transmitting, especially on high power. Using low power will help. The Retevis 97L is rated for 100% duty cycle. So it will handle heavy use better. For comparison, part of the reason people have had over heating issues when using two Wouxun KG-1000G radios as a repeater is the lower duty cycle. Just something to take into consideration. I do like to see what others come up with and build themselves.

Heil makes 8 pin round cables, Again those would have to be adapted to go down to 4 pins. At that point it might be easier to just make your own cable from scratch. You might try looking at websites that specialize in CB radios to see if any have what you are looking for. Amateur radio specific sites won't have cable with 4 pin round connecters. I looked at Digirig's website and couldn't find any 4 pin cables for their sound cards.