Enjoy seeing rigs of the past in operation. More than once my use of a mag loop produced no contacts. Video and narration are excellent. Appreciate all you do for Ham radio.
I have the same rig with their first generation of noise reduction. It’s a fantastic little rig. SGC in its early days was manufacturing affordable crystal controlled HF rigs for foreign militaries. After the death of the founder and owner, his wife sold the company to one of the employees of the company. Unfortunately for the ham radio community the new owner decided to drop all ham radios and low end tuners to focus on the high tier antenna couplers and antennas for the military. The SGC company still has an active web site with documentation on their legacy equipment and only a couple of antenna couplers are now offered for sale. I wish I had purchased their portable battery kit at the time, it would have made an interesting portable unit. One of the selling points was that they offered the SGC239 antenna couplers with the radio at the time in Dayton. Today I have it in a nylon shoulder bag from one of the old Uniden cellular bag phones with an LDG tuner. It was being powered by a sealed lead acid battery but looking to convert it to an LiFpo battery. The sg239 coupler now sits in an old cable tv amp housing and powered via an power injection tee that I built from an article from QST. This housing sits up on a section of military mast with a Shakespeare CB whip with spring in top. This all sits on top of a tripod and mast legs from my military mast kit. Half a dozen ground radials are attached to the elevated housing. This is one fantastic portable vertical antenna system. Have had contacts from all over the states with excellent results.
Me too! I think we're at the point where people have forgotten about the rig, because you can get them for a decent price on the used market. I paid $280 US for the 2020 and $55 for the tuner.
Excellent, a new video from my favourite Canadian operator, great to see you got lucky with the SGC2020, a great radio, like my Tokyo Hy-Power HT120 which i bought years ago, both run 20 watts which is a nice compromise power level. Thanks for the video....
Enjoy your channel. I bought mine brand new in the mid-90s. I've really enjoyed it. But it does have a significant weakness, that caused me to relegate it to shack duty. Inexplicably, for a rig that was supposed to be rugged, the so239 is not screwed to the metal case, its simply soldered to the board, and thus there is no strain relief. When your coax is at an angle, or you use heavy coax, the pressure from the coax is transferred directly to the solder joint on the board and causes it to break. Without warning you will get a bad connection so that when you screw your coax on, there will be no sound or it will be intermittent as you move the coax. Obviously this can destroy a field outing, where few people carry a soldering iron. After removing the cover, the break isn't visible, but once you have remelted and added a bit of solder to the joint all is well again. I've had to resolder this joint several times. I now don't trust the rig in the field, and its relegated to the shack. But its a good performer in the shack, so I will be keeping mine. In no small part because you can't find rigs anymore that have a big sticker on the top that says "Made in the USA."
Pretty neat little radio. I always wanted to try one. But, the ATU is bigger than the radio ! Since I only use resonant antennas, I won't need an ATU. Thanks for posting and looking forward to seeing your review of the SG 20202. Barry, KU3X
I'm a bit curious why you haven't done a video on the Lab599 TX-500 yet. At least I couldn't find any on YT. It seems that for a guy who loves operating outdoors as much as you do that you'd want to at least give one a try. Nothing against the SG-2020, but when you call it "ultra rugged" it makes me chuckle a bit. It may have a more durable case than rigs like the KX-2/3. but to me the word rugged suggests that I can take it anywhere, including in the rain. With that big old speaker grill pressed into the top of the SG-2020, it certainly isn't water resistant.And while I can appreciate the fact that you don't need a fancy *new* rig to have fun, a little modern tech can go a long way to helping you make contacts. The filters on the TX-500 alone are fantastic and require no expensive add-ons like the FT-817. If you don't mind me asking, what makes you appear to be so disinterested in the TX-500? Is it the price? The fact that it's new tech (SDR)? Is it availability? Have you read bad reviews? Maybe it's because the company is Russian? I won't be critical of any reason(s) that you give. The price is not cheap. SDRs have their limitations. There have been some bad reviews. I just think that a guy as smart as you with the interests that you have would be all over that rig. You turned me on to EFHW antennas a few years back, and when paired with a TX-500 and a modest battery you really do have a winning combination. I'd ask you to seriously consider it.
I'm so glad you wrote this very thoughtful comment. If you have a chance, check out my June Field Day livestream where we present your comment and discuss it. While I am not happy with the leadership of the Russian government, the fact it is produced in Russia is not the prime reason for me not having one. I recognize it's a terrific transceiver, until now I can't justify the cost. The used SGC cost me about 1/3 the price. I play in the low end pool for the most part. But thank you for weighing in. I would like to own one someday. 73 from VE3TWM!
@@OutdoorsOnTheAir Hey Tracy, thank you SO MUCH for using my comment in your livestream and then telling me about it here. It's a real honor that you'd give it so much attention. I posted a comment on the other video since it was relevant to what you said there. I hope that you find it useful. I really like your channel for a few reasons. First is your love of EFHW and resonant antennas. Since I'm a QRP guy (10 watts SSB) then resonance is important. You forced me to look at how I was using quarter-wave antennas before and I finally gave up on them because they were robbing me of all my power. The second reason that I love your channel is that I spent the first 28 years of my life (just under half) living in Grand Rapids, MI. I miss the people and flat terrain of the Midwest, but not the snow. 🙂 My family used to vacation up at Drummond Island just east of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, so I can easily picture the lake shores of Lakes Huron and Superior when you operate from them. I have lots of fond memories of those days long gone by. So thank you again for your comments and for what you do for the ham radio community. You certainly have had a big impact on how I think and operate. We are all blessed by the time and effort that you put into your videos.
I have used that mag loop with an FT817nd with some success. I assume you weren’t trying the auto tuner in-line as well. Tune the loop on receive for max noise and it will be very close to best SWR. Little need to readjust while putting out RF. BUT the only hope of pota with that is time and cw! 73 de ve6gil
