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What Performance To Expect from a 30 year old 100 watt Ham transceiver

535 views· 7 likes· 4:18· Dec 24, 2025

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Cost and parts breakdown: Icom IC-725 Ham Radio - 30 years old, 100 watt transmitter that covers 160-10m bands (but only if your antenna is resonate at the frequency, as it doesn't include a built in Antenna tuner). $300 used Icom HM-36 hand mic (with Up/Down buttons) $40 used (+$10 s/h) RadioWavz 20M "Double Bazooka" Dipole antenna ($40 used, $80 new w/ shipping) DigiRig Mobile (CI-V configured) with ICOM CI-V Din 8 cables: $87.93 shipped Surplus LiIon "12 volt" (really 13.5 volts) 28 Ah battery: $60 Amazon Affiliate Links to the ~ $100 rope, pulleys, and coax to hang and connect the antenna (Note that I'm using my "fair weather" radio outdoors on the patio, so I don't have any lightning suppressors, grounding rods or wall penetration hardware/boxes, which would probably add another $100-200 to make a permanent "ham shack" install). 50' RG58 coax with PL259 connectors: $30 https://amzn.to/4pQUWO1 500' 3/16 inch Black Dacron Polyester Rope $40 (I had some left over...) https://amzn.to/3MSYRvh 2x U-Type Swivel Pulley 304 Stainless Steel $20 https://amzn.to/4qhYAR4 40 lb Neon Fire fishing line- 370 Yds (used to pull ropes and pulleys into trees) $13 https://amzn.to/3Y7S4An I also used my son's 20lb draw bow and arrow (for free!) but you'll need something to launch the monofilament fishing line over tree branches. I'd recommend a "Tree throw weight" thrown by hand as your least expensive option at $15 https://amzn.to/4sac9Ue

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