If all goes according to plans/wishes, Dutch radio amateur will soon be allowed to use the 4m band between 70.0Mhz and 70.5Mhz. Trying to avoid the mistake of being surprised and hence not properly prepared for 600m, I started considering options for 4m.
First thing was looking for available surplus/commercial equipment. Unfortunately, in this range, all available surplus rigs are providing FM only. Best candidate so far, the VRC8000; actually, I plan to pick up one, before they are all gone. Advantage of this rig, it will also cover 6m.
I guess, a lot of operation will make use of CW and USB. Since no commercial rig seems available, a transverter could be the best shot here.
There are two CMOS oscillators available which would be suitable for the job converting/transverting to the 30m band: 60MHz (regular mixing) and 30MHz (subharmonic mixing).
Another two CMOS oscillators would enable us to convert the 4m band to the 6m band: 20MHz (regular mixing) and 10MHz (subharmonic mixing).
For being prepared, I will to pick a VRC8000 asap, and also consider to build a subharmonic transverter for the 6m band.
