How much would I miss FM?

[supafraud]

Hello. I'm new so please be gentle. Just passed the tech and will be taking the general in about a week. I realllllly like old Yaesu radios, I have an ft-101b and I'm doing some work on it but I'm thinking of picking up another Yaesu from the 70s-80s that offers more bands but some of them that do have 160m-10m (including WARC bands) don't offer FM. Since I'm new to the scene I'm not sure how much FM is really used on 10m (which I think is the only band that would really be effected right.....?) would love some input on this because like everyone else I'm not made of money and I'd hate to buy something expensive only to be wishing I had FM. Thanks!

[AndyG0CCX]

I suppose it depends on how much you use it! I found that there was almost no activity on 10FM near my, so it didn't come into my choice of HF radios when I gained my full licence back in 1985. I did buy a CB that had been converted to 10FM by a nearby ham and friend, but it just sat in the shack, switched on, set to the local 'calling frequency' and connected to its own 10m vertical antenna. Only occasionally did anything break the squelch and most times what I did hear wasn't worth listening to. The occasional friend would pop up for a chat but often it was illegal CB-ers, who'd shifted up a bit from their normal band.

Never used it or listened to it after a while.....

Check to see what's on the air near you, but personally I think there are more interesting things to do with an HF radio!

[Obed]

hardly ever do 10 meters and not likely to for several more years...when it was open in the past I never did any FM...

[pmh]

ONly used 10m for USB activity, mainly FT8.

Kind regards,



Phil

[supafraud]

Thanks for the replies. I might pull the trigger on a transceiver that lacks FM because it sounds like there isn't a whole lot of action there anyway aside from maybe a few repeaters and I guess I can always use my 817nd if I really get the itch to do that. Too bad they don't have band upgrades or hacks (that I've seen) because that would be ideal. I kind of want a one size fits all but that doesnt seem possible with these older rigs.

[5B4AJB]

You won't be missing much on H.F. - 99.9% of everything else is not FM.

If you do decide to try out digimodes though, you might find the stability/selectivity a bit on the wide side and may be looking to replace an "old" transceiver sooner rather than later.
Nevertheless, it's a good starting rig and I would recommend trying it, after all, you can never have too many radios...