| Keith via plug on 5 Dec 2025 10:16:04 -0800 |
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| Re: [PLUG] microcenter has baofengs again |
Most people today just say ham radio but a transceiver is nothing more than an radio that can send and receive. My first ham radio back in the 1990's was an HX-202 and I recall the sales rep at the time calling it a transceiver. I though it was a bit weird- just say radio 🤣 Either way, being called a transceiver has nothing to do with how many bands a radio has or whether it can do a mode that is not FM.On 12/5/2025 2:28 AM, Steve Litt via plug wrote:
On Thu, 4 Dec 2025 11:16:24 -0500 (EST) "Keith C. Perry via plug" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:Their Baofengs models tend to be a better quality. The new UV-5R Mini (https://www.baofengradio.com/products/5r-mini) has however been tested by a number of people and that one has had good results too.It's FM only, right? Would that really be considered a "ham transceiver"?
Most cheaper VHF/UHF ham rigs are FM-only, at least for transmit. Some will also receive AM, but not transmit.
The 50W rig in my car can do FM/C4FM, but not SSB/AM.
There are of course also mobile rigs that will do SSB, but they are less common, and usually more expensive if new. I'm not sure if I've ever seen an HT-style device that can transmit SSB.
My understanding is that to create a power supply capable of working on SSB without too much noise/etc is more difficult, but I haven't really looked into the details of this. It probably also has to do with the fact that FM is still much more relevant commercially than SSB and so a lot more commodity hardware exists around it. AM (non-SSB) is also popular due to aviation, but is not used much by hams and I'm not sure how cheap the hardware is since pilots aren't the most price-conscious group.
-- Rich
Good point but my "old" Yaesu FT-817ND (5W) and FT-857D (100W), are both all band and all mode. Even without being all mode, SSB and AM where on most of portable rigs I've come across. "Portable" became a form factor that was in the middle of being a base station and mobile so that might be the difference. If you're ever seen the FT-991a, that form factor. When I think of mobile I tend to think of that instead of an FTM-510. That said, AM on HF is like SSB on VHF. If you have a radio that can do it, you'll find people that do. I wouldn't say it's popular though. It's a local / niche kind of thing from what I've experienced over the years. Airband receive seems to be making a comeback as Chinese HT's are starting to have now. My "very old" Yaesu VX-5R has that and interestingly enough I can switch to AM receive even on 2m or 70cm. I can pick up one of the tower frequencies at PHL from my house but every so often I do hang out at what Google will tell you is the "unofficial PHL observation area". To me, train operations, which are FM, tend to be more interesting unless you're rail fanning. Listening for the defect detector is how you know something is coming but not interesting unless there IS a defect detected 😎
All that aside, AM and SSB are a known and well understood thing that is not expensive to do. There just are newer things that people want to play with so I don't blame new manufacturers for not including it. Newer hams in my opinion are playing more than experimenting so making a contact on Fusion simplex is more rewarding than probably not making a contact on VHF SSB and having to analyze why. HF is different beast. There are many more things you can do but until the last 10 to 15 years, its been more complicated and more expensive. It seems like the Chinese manufacturers are really the ones that are pushing the price / feature balance in a way that is forcing others to respond which ultimately gets people to HF sooner.
There's also been more FOSS offerings in the ham world too. For instance, products like the digirig have made computer interfacing everything from a Baofeng to my FT-857D much easier to do. While I'm not that crazy about using a computer when I'm playing radio, it does (or will since I haven't purchased it yet) give me the ability to play with FreeDV. That's something I really want to play with. It is open source, got a major grant in 2023 AND reportedly companies like Yaesu are interested in including it on their rigs. That would awesome since digital voice on VHF/UHF is an unholy mess- D-star, DMR, C4FM (Fusion), NXDN (yep, some folks use that), P-25 (yep, some folks use that too)... I'm not buying that many radios. FreeDV could be finally THE digital mode is available everywhere just like FM, SSB or even AM.
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-- ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Keith C. Perry, MS E.E. Managing Member, DAO Technologies LLC (O) +1.215.525.4165 x2033 (M) +1.215.432.5167 www.daotechnologies.com
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