Just to be fair to the 99% of the hams who only operate or do contests, I spent some time on 20M yesterday operating the Winter Field Day Contest. This is not sponsored by the ARRL.
Starting 1st with my rig, I used a homebrewed Dual Filter 9 MHz IF rig with the 20X4 Juliano Blue LCD. The rig choice was a struggle since the other option was my totally homebrew 20M SDR transceiver as that would be like shooting fish in a barrel. Using a filter rig in my view was an opportunity to show off!
For our new YL Extra Class Licensee's, this homebrew rig uses the "Drake Approach" where the BFO is set at 9 MHz and to achieve upper and lower sideband there are two Crystal Filters. The center frequency of one filter is designed so it will only pass the lower sideband. The other filter has the center frequency so that it will only pass upper sideband. Relay steering selects the proper Crystal Filter for the mode chosen (USB or LSB).
At one time a surplus distributor in downtown Israel was selling boards with the two 9 MHz filters plus an AM filter for $35. You also got a PCB with lots of salvageable hard to find components. As my good friend Abbie used to say, such a deal Vinney, such a deal. He called me Vinney and not Pete, as he said I looked like Vinney in the movie My Cousin Vinney.
The rig is a single conversion design with the 9 MHz IF, Digital LO/BFO and we have the J310 Dual Gate MOSFET in a couple of places. The rig has two VFO's with memory so at a flick of a switch the radio boots up to the 20M FT-8 frequency. This is a good way to check band activity.
This rig was the 1st time I used a 20X4 LCD. The Driver is the 2N2219A and an IRF510 in the final. The chassis uses a wooden front and back panel.
To keep the footprint small there are several boards used versus one large single board. In the main area, two boards are stacked on top of one another. The bottom board has the two filters and other support circuitry, with top board having a steerable amp, the BPF and 2N2219A Driver. The IRF510 is mounted on the back apron.
Back to the contest... what a piece of crap! The exchange from me was as follows. After being recognized I supplied the word 1HCA. The 1 is a single transmitter, H for Home and CA for California. There was no signal report, nor power level. Not very exciting, but I bet the YL newly christened Extra soon will be releasing a you tube video to her thousands of followers expressing delight with being an Extra Class Ham and able to hand out 1HTX contacts.
This is what our hobby has become today, a cacophony of dumbed down dribble, reduced to a 4-digit alphanumeric code that requires no evaluation. Gone are the endearing terms... you are 37 Hertz low or your signal lacks presence or worse you have RF feedback on your signal.
Where is the long-standing information sharing such as your QTH, the kind of equipment, your power and antenna. But of course, 1HTX avoids that you have only been a ham and Extra class licensee for 3 weeks, 4 days, 10 hours and 15 seconds!
The rig itself produces 5 watts on 20M, and I made one contest contact to TX using just the rig barefoot. For the other contacts I was running 100 watts using a CCI AN762 RF Amp. No one reported me for being off frequency and contact was made usually with one call.
The rig is no IC7300 but something that most of the instant Extras can't claim is that it is a true homebrew rig (not a kit) being used in a contest.
Them that know, now don't care if you know.
Do not suffer the agita di stomaco for it is time that will change things in the government. The Mid-terms are step #1 and time is on our side.
73's
Pete N6QW