Hi Larry: One, the 526 is a little offbeat. It's tiny. It does have its
peculiarities. It does not have a keypad or direct frequency enter. Or an
external speaker jack. And it did have that chip upgrade early on. But....
The one I have works quite well. AS A RIG it hears and talks about as well as
my venerable FT736. That's not knocking the '736, or boosting the 6N2. If you
want to load 99 repeaters into memory and access any of them instantly, it's
not the rig you want. But if you want to work six and two meter 'tests or DX,
particularly as a rover, it's hard to beat.
Our FD effort used mine to work 56 stations in 27 minutes during the very
brief band opening Saturday evening. And that was with a strictly minimal
dual band directional antenna at 20 feet. Impressive? Very much so.
Personally, I figure the 6N2 is a toe in the water. If it sells we will see
more and better VHF/UHF rigs from Dollywood. And if it does not - that
project will go slowly if at all.
Of course, you will have to make up your mind on the rig. If you can't live
with the "cheap" tuning knob ( I never noticed until someone mentioned that
it does not have the weight of the Omni VI's knob) you don't want to waste
your time. Personally, I will keep mine.
73 Pete Allen AC5E
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