Using a 6700 on 144mhz to drive 10 ghz transverter

Keith Lynne Bainbridge

I'm considering buying a 6700 for two reasons, main one is to drive transverters to 2.4, 5.7 and 10 ghz, secondary use is HF occasionally. I cant seem to find anyone who is doing this ? Is there anyone out there ? My interests are EME and microwave, not HF at all but maybe one day I might venture down below 2 mtrs again

Rick - W5FCX

I’m using the Ukraine transverter for 144 MHz which works perfectly.

Haven’t seen anyone talk about pushing as high as you plan to go. Keep in mind that the 6700 IF is 28 MHz.


Good discussions here on the forum on transverters”

Good luck! You’ll enjoy the 6700. I know I do.

Larry Davis

i run 3 tranverter 222 432 2 i do 144 eme  432 tropo and 222 tropo with 6700

Martin AA6E

No transverters needed for 2 M with the 6700.  You get direct coverage of 144-148, albeit with low power Tx and low Rx sensitivity.  That should be very attractive for microwave folk.  It would be interesting to how this works in practice.

Greg - K5GJ

Keith - I’ve used my 6700 as a 2m IF for 902,1296,2304,3456, and 10GHz. It’s a very capable IF and the waterfall is Da Bomb! 1. I’ve run both an external 10MHz reference and the internal GPSDO with good success. 2. The IF output is -15 to +10DBm and you can set the max level per XVTR band. I try to run all my bands at 0DBm for max. Keeps the waterfall Intermod down. 3. You can use the multiple keying lines to create a sequencer. I choose to do mine externally. Don’t want to **** my amps. 4. Caveat: (Gerald and I differ on this and they may have updated the hw/sw.) I have measured a 14DB Noise Figure on the RXn input of the 6700 on 144MHz. This means depending on your XVTR, you may need to add some additional IF gain. This matters on EME! YMMV. XVTR Ops were strongly debated during the original design. Overall, I’m very satisfied with the result. Good luck! 73, Greg - K5GJ

Greg SP7QJF

Despite the many advantages of flex I bought the 9700 icom which has much better sensitivity

Keith Lynne Bainbridge

Thanks for the input folks. It seems I have two options really, the used Flex 6700 I can buy about Aus$ 4K below new price or spend on two IC 9700's and a IC 7300 for about the same cost. I will still need an Ic 9700 for my portable 10 ghz EME to replace my ageing Ic910 so I will research a bit more before making the final decision.I had the second Flex 1000 in Australia and also a 3000 but never liked the gui, in fact I hated the gui and thats why I sold the radios. The new gui is so much better Still a lot to think about Cheers Keith

Cal N3CAL

The IC-9700 may fall short of your EME requirements.  There are numerous reports of excessive frequency drift making it useless for EME.   The external 10 Mhz ref in jack in the back does not actively use a 10mhz GPSDO input.   It's only used for a one time calibration offset.  A bit misleading.  It has nice features and great sensitivity.  I use it for sat work and 2m FT8 but sadly not for EME.  It will not do 9600 baud either.

Cal/N3CAL
 

Keith Lynne Bainbridge

Yes I'm very aware of the problem, been communicating closely with Rex VK7MO who has been working on this. I heard today that Icom Europe have announced a fix, but it will be in the next firmware release, so all is definately not lost