Phil relates his experience in getting on 23cm cheaply (sort of).

Some members own Icom’s new(ish) IC 9700 VHF/UHF all mode transceiver, or at least are aware of it. This radio is the latest state of the art SDR transceiver capable of 100 watts on 2m, 75 watts on 70cm and 10 watts on 23cm. The 9700 is capable of operating full duplex for satellite operation and the digital voice mode D-Star is tossed into the package. It’s a beautiful piece of kit, but at a few bob under $2,500, you have to be pretty keen on VHF/UHF satellites and EME to get your value out of it. D-Star can be done with a handheld and a hotspot. Satellites can be worked on a Baofeng and a tape measure yagi 😂.

You would think it might be easier to go back a few years and buy its predecessor model the IC 9100. Surely they’re cheap as chips now as all the serious operators are off-loading them?

Well they’re offloading them alright, but if you want one with a 23cm module (it’s an option) and D-Star (if that’s your thing) they can be north of $3,000, or at least that’s what they’re asking. Why you would pay more for one of these than a 9700 is beyond me, but some people…

With all the excitement associated with the release of the 9700 I too got a little excited and developed an irrational yearning to have a 23cm radio. As much as I would love a 9700, I don’t really have a need for one. I don’t have the means to buy the radio and install a satellite antenna system and my FT 991 Yaesu has 2m/70cm covered with SSB etc capability. And unfortunately Darwin is too far away from the east coast to take advantage of the troppo and meteor scatter those folks enjoy. If only we had another 4 million people in the NT and the amateur population that brings.

So how can this irrational need be satisfied? By going classic of course. Back in the early 80’s Icom produced it’s first all mode 23cm transceiver the IC 1271A. I looked around a bit and they seemed to be non-existent on the market, except in Japan where I found one on an auction site. It all looked a bit risky and after searching further for a while I gave up on the idea. Until that is, a few months later one pops up on VK Ham for sale at a very good price. Now you need to know that these old radios can have issues, one that is fatal in fact. The RAM is powered by a 3 volt coin battery and if this dies, so does the radio. Icom long ago stopped selling parts for these radios and aftermarket RAM boards are no longer available. A battery can be soldered in if you get to it early enough though and the RAM can be preserved.

I contacted the seller and enquired about the state of the battery. He assured me it had never been a problem and he had never had to replace it in the decades he owned the radio. Knowing I could track him down again if he sold me a dud I pulled the trigger and bought the radio. A totally irrational decision! It finally arrived and I was very pleased with its condition. It was like new. It also came in the original box, factory service and operating manuasl.

A quick test with a dummy load and it worked! Huzzah! We were on our way with 23cm!