For Amateur Radio buffs with non-Ham spouses, sometimes the best holiday gift comes in the form of these words: “Rather than get the wrong thing, just go ahead and buy exactly what you want for your station—within reason, of course.” With your holiday purchase greenlighted, this is your chance to get your station ready for warmer days ahead. And if you’re a proud owner of a new IC-705 HF/50/144/430 All Mode Portable Transceiver, it’s an opportunity you don’t want to pass up.
Here are five great accessories to consider to help you get the most out of this versatile rig:
- Portable Transceiver Backpack: Made specifically to securely house the IC-705 for convenient transport, the rugged nylon backpack comes with a compartment for storing accessories, reinforced side panel for mounting a portable field antenna, and integrated portals for easy feed-through of the HM-243 speaker mic and antenna leads.
- Bluetooth Headset VS-3: Just throw this nifty device in your backpack and enjoy hands-free receiving and transmitting in the field. Getting the Bluetooth set up with the rig takes only a few easy steps. The device includes three programmable function buttons and a PTT switch. It comes with USB charging cable and earbuds.
- AL-705 Magnetic Loop Antenna: Designed by alpha antenna™ to optimize transceiver performance, this well-built antenna features band coverage from 40-10M. Maximum power is 20W SSB and 10W CW and Digital. It comes with 25 feet of coaxial cable with BNC and PL-259 connectors.
- Automatic Antenna Tuner: mAT-TUNER from INRAD offers the compact and sturdy mAT-705, a device that allows Hams to tune dipoles, verticals, Yagis, or virtually any coax-fed antenna within the range of 1.8 MHz to 54 MHz. The unit boasts tuning times of 0.1 to 5 seconds full tune and 0.1 seconds memory tune.
- Desk Stand: The BASE-705 from WiMo features a heavy, black powdercoated flat steel plate that matches the color of the IC-705 and gives the rig stability in the field or on a table in the shack. The mount has a standard ¼ inch threaded stud and swivel ball head with a knob- style set screw for easy adjustment.
Also find Li-Ion battery packs, speaker microphone, and remote control software for the IC-705 at DXEngineering.com.
