IC-735 VOX woes...

I really have enjoyed my Icom IC-735. I really believe it is the best radio that I could buy at the time I bought it, and a fantastic buy for the money I spend. However, I've run in to my first problem with it, and I'm hoping by posting the details, someone out there can point me in the right direction.

Confirmed QSL, and comparing Logbook of the World to Eqsl

So far, I've been living in the HF world with my simple antenna for about 2 months. I don't spend a lot of time DXing, but I do spend several hours a week trying to make contacts. Here is what I have to show for it, from a few sources.

RF in the Shack

After finally getting my RF rig set up an tested, I've had a few unusual problems which have convinced me that I need to re-think how I am doing things. In this post, I will talk about the common problems that I am having testing out my new radio, and what I have done to mitigate the problems.

First HF setup and contacts

I've finally pieced together my  first HF rig, and make my first contacts with it! I've been able to hear people from as far away as Japan, but I haven't had a whole lot of success transmitting yet. Still, I'm getting better with things, and I hope that a bit more practice will leave me to doing great! Without further ado, my setup, as well as my first DX contacts!

Lesson 7- Atmospheric Propogation

There is no subject that I have more difficulty understanding than Propagation in terms of Amateur Radio. I've been trying to explain it to a Ham-in-training, but I've had some difficulty, so I'm going to take the time to learn about it and explain it to you all.

Antenna Tuners

I live in a small townhome, with no land to speak of. I would like to be able to talk on 80 m. Ideally, a quarter wavelength antenna is best, put at a quarter wavelength above the ground. That means 20m, or about 70 feet, which is longer than the length of my home! Given all of that, how can I get HF from my home?

One solution that I have is using an antenna tuner. There are some radios, such as the Yaesu FT-450D, which have a built in antenna tuner. While I plan on getting a radio like that some day, I've heard that a dedicated antenna tuner is far superior to a build in one in a radio. Having both should give me a bit more flexibility.