A multi-mode ham rig for 70MHz seems to be sneaking ever closer to being a possibility. First we had the rumour that a UK dealer was negotiating with a Chinese manufacturer and this was later confirmed by a trusted source who told later me that pre-production testing was going well, but even so it did not seem worth getting too excited about.
Recently I had two unsolicited emails from separate sources telling me they had seen a pre-production dual band multi-mode rig for 50 and 70MHz. That again seemed too good to be true. I had assumed they were referring to the rig we already heard of, but apparently I was wrong because a few days ago a message on the Four Metres Website forum from Rob Van Den Ent PE9PE announced; "I've seen the design of a new DualBand Allmode CW, FM and SSB Transceiver for 50 and 70MHz". The Transceiver may be ready for release by August or September and it is not being made in China. The only other information Rob has imparted is that it does not have AM and its size is similar to that of the Icom IC-718 (which is 240x95x239mm) , so a compact base rig rather than a mobile.
On the subject of 4m; Since the Blackpool radio rally then band has been alive around here. I reckon everyone who went either bought the Anytone mobile or the Wouxun and some of them got both. A multi-mode could be just what is needed to get this band really bouncing.
And talking of mythical rigs; I hope the Wouxun KG-UV920R is released soon, because I need two new mobile dual band rigs. My two Alinco DR-610E rigs have given sterling service but have seen better days. The tone burst only works one time in ten on one rig and both of them have started a little thing were if are tuning down via the tuning knob the frequency will suddenly jump back up a few channels. It can take quite a few clicks to go down only two channels from the calling frequency sometimes.
I hope the people who set it up had formal rigging training.
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