The Keys....

No Mic Included...

My radio came Thursday of last week but due to my excitement I missed the fact that it did not come with a mic. Of any kind. I tried to rig something together but it just didn't work. So right now I'm in limbo. Ugh, its killing because I could at least work some of 10 meters, 6 meters and 2 meter cause it operates VHF as well as HF.
Good weekend at the Battleship, more to come about that. BB55 or NI4BK
***updated via Droid phone***

Antenna Tuner

As stated previously; I'm new to the hobby of Ham Radio. I am a Tech right now, soon to be a General. Right now I'm slowly amassing gear to put together a shack/station that can operate HF freqs. I have bought a second hand ICOM IC-746 Pro with match ICOM power supply. Well I want to take care of my investment so I also have bought a in store display antenna tuner. The tuner I bought is the MFJ-945e tuner. It covers 1.8 mHz all the way through 6 meters, up to 200 or 300 watts. Which is prefect and plenty for me. MFJ I guess has it listed as a "mobile" tuner but they do mention, as do other users, it's perfectly at home in the shack. I'm pretty excited! This coming weekend is the NC QSO Party and I'm really hoping I'll have my station up and operating for it. As still being a Tech I've only got a portion of the 10meter band to work with but I'm still going to try. Should  I not be up and running I'll be at the Battleship North Carolina(which if you take part is 50 point station) station operating, NI4BK.

• North Carolina QSO Party
• NI4BK
• Azalea Coast Amateur Radio Club (operates NI4BK)

MFJ-945e

My Actual First HF Rig...ICOM IC-746 Pro

In the previous post I discussed about wanting to pass the General License exam and getting my first HF radio transceiver. In the article I talked heavily about the Yaesu FT-950, well I did not buy one. It's a great great rig but I was about to get a little better deal for what I got. I got a ICOM IC-746 Pro. It's like the predecessor to the ICOM IC-7100, that's a beast of a rig. Basically what it came down to was the Yaesu was out of the budget. So after that I started looking into the ICOM IC-718 but I just wasn't into that radio; there's no 6 meter or VHF. Which the 746Pro has both plus, of course, the HF bands.The 746Pro also has IF digital filtering, so no need to fill up my radio with expensive filters. All I have to do is go through the bands, select the operating mode and adjust the bandwidth of the filter to my liking. Pretty cool. But listen I just bought the radio yesterday and haven't even got it yet, so I do begin to know where to start explaining it. So I'm going to leave you with some pictures and links to reviews and info of my new cool radio!

eham.net Review - ICOM IC-746PRO

universal-radio.com - Icom IC-746 Pro

My First HF Radio...***Updated Above***

So I'm on the hunt for my first HF rig. Next month I'll be passing my General license exam. Which in a nut shell will give me HF band privileges. The exact band plan for General class folks can be found online so I won't list it, plus I don't fully know them. But that's ok for now. To get back on topic, yes, I am looking for my first HF radio. I'm preferring to buy something late model. Very late model. I looking for something at least 100watts cause I do want to get my DX on, I'm looking a reliable brand, and I would like to have something I can upgrade at a later date with filters. Price is kind of a option; I'd really like to say under 800 to 900 dollars, or less of course.