Wednesday, 25th December, 2024

Merry Christmas! 🎅🏻 🎄

Today I thought about a “Reduce January”, I’m sure there’s a catchier title, Reducifary January, BanJan, etc. but each day I get rid of something. A physical item, digital process, etc. One per day is hard work though and already I can feel falling behind. Maybe it’s identifying something each day, and adding it to a list and then over a few weeks sorting it out.

I feel the radio gear has gotten out of hand. I should reduce it. Although some things need fixing and then selling. I’ve also got quite a few radios now and I’d like to reduce them. Although it’s hard to pick. They’re all very different.

There’s the KX2 - it’s the one I take to the hills 95% of the time. It’s ideal for it and it’s a keeper.

The G90 - it was my first HF radio and has a little sentimental value. It has a very good matching unit, is mostly portable and 20W has a bit more power. It has a nice wee waterfall screen and with the battery I have it’s not too heavy. I sometimes take it when I want a change from the KX2. It’s a good backup that can do everything, portable, home station, digital modes all sorts. Plus it was super cheap.

Yaesu FT-DX10 - this is my home rig. It’s a bigger radio that’s 100W, and is meant to be a home station one. It’s one of the most top rated radios and is nice to use. However, I rarely use it. I made a nice shack in the garage but it’s freezing in the winter and since I’ve been doing summits on the air, I have no interest in doing radio at home. Also when we had solar installed I took down the antenna and haven’t put it back up. If I do ever get round to a home station, I think I’d want a remotely operable one, which is not the yaesu. This is the one that’s probably for sale. It’s just everyone tells me it’s a good radio, and if I do use a radio at home it’s the best one.

Finally, there’s the IC-705 - a portable, all mode radio that I have for 2m SSB and possible future GHz operations with transverters. I hardly used it as can’t often be bothered with 2m SSB, but I bet it’s something I’ll do once I’ve got my mountain goat award and not chasing points. I did have a plan to set it up in the office with an amp in the garage and then I could be on the radio from the comfort of the house. I could also setup sufficient cabling and switches etc to do all bands at home too. I could still do it. So I think I should keep it.

Oh, plus I have two 2/70 FM radios. One was meant to be portable when I wanted 50W and the other at home for local or maybe packet radio.

In theory, I could just have the G90 and a 2m radio. But the KX2 is too good to get rid of. So I don’t know. Also getting rid of the FTDX10 is actually just swapping it out for something else.

So I don’t know.