Howdy!

I got my Technician in early 2000s, and last year finally upgraded to Extra. Looking to set up a very basic shack.

I’m looking for an HF setup, with most of my use probably using digital modes, but would like the ability to use voice.

Current transceiver is on loan from girlfriend’s dad, a Ten-Tec Scout 555 — 50W HF unit with separate modules for each band. One limitation of this is that the modules set the mode, so it’s LSB on 40m, making e.g. FT8 not possible (without some hacking of code or perhaps hacking the module).

Antenna is end-fed with an off-the-shelf 49:1. Currently only have 20m half-wave, but have just enough room for a 40m half-wave in the attic, which is the ultimate goal.

For digital modes, it looks like there are sort of 3 classes of radio:

• “full digital” where the radio has e.g. a USB port and handles audio, transmit, and frequency set.
• Some computer-control with RS232, but uses computer audio+adapter to transmit.
• No digital, use adapter to transmit. This is what the current setup uses (and it works great!)

I’m leaning towards a conventional transceiver, e.g., something from ICOM, Kenwood, Yaesu, (or others) rather than an SDR unit. I’d like the ability to go up to 50-100W if possible.

I don’t have a hard-and-fast budget; would like to keep it <$1000 if possible; mostly just looking at used transceivers. Something like a Kenwood TS-590 looks pretty amazing and very “plug-and-play” (but pushing up against price). Something like a Yaesu FT-920 looks pretty feature-rich too; and even something more affordable like an ICOM 706 or even a 725 is probably more radio than I need. Or just grab a new 7300 and call it a day!

Anyway…clearly, I don’t know exactly what I want, but figured I’d ask folks with more experience if they have any wisdom. Thanks!