Well following on from the previous post, Ive started to slim down and sell off a lot of equipment, i originally intended to just keep the IC-7300 and my IC-7000 but im struggling to let go of my IC-7700, its a beast of a radio with a fabulous receiver and ergonomicaly its perfect for me, also the 200w comes in handy, although mostly I leave it set on 150w and forget it, as far as downsides are concerned on the 7700 there really arent any apart from the sheer size and weight of it, it would certainly leave a lot more room on the operating desk, given the current state of the the country with Covid and the current very fragile state of my finances due to losing a lot of work the money would definatley come in handy, buggar it really is decisions decisions !
On another entirely seperate subject ive recently started playing on 2m Cw and SSB and having some fun, ive never done anything on 2m other than FM in my 32 years of being licensed so last week i put up a small 6 el LFA and have been playing on the other end of the band, I have managed to work a few into the closer EU countries, PA, F, DL, ON, even managed a GM near Aberdeen and another G near Manchester on CW, the only 2 CW signals ive heard on 2m, Ive been giving a call on CW but so far not had any replies so for now will have to be SSB, not sure why there is a lack of activity on CW on 2m its certainly a shame, the radio im using on 2m is the little IC-7000 which seems to work fine, power out is 50w to the 6 el LFA.
its certainly different from 6m and HF but im enjoying my little foray onto another band, the antenna is only about 25ft so could really do with being a bit higher so I may think about moving it to the HF tower on top of my MA5B at some point
Couple of little vids on youtube showing the 6 element and my IC-7000 on 2m SSB for the first time ever