RGO ONE - new classic CW / SSB transceiver on the market - part 3 (first impression)

Hi all,

I got the chance to test this new radio coming on the market these days. Last evening I found the time to bring the RGO ONE to our contest station in order to make first short test on the air.

I have to say that I am impressed how the receiver is quiet. Compare to other radios and mainly SDR architecture radios the RGO ONE receiver has smooth and low noise. The VBF is very effective and nice feature for close in signals.

I had only short time yesterday evening so I tested it quickly on 40m then 80m band. As I found the pile-up for T6AA on 80m I had chance also to testing the RIT/XIT features etc. It is easy to manage and operate the RIT/XIT on RGO ONE.

Big surprise came after switching to 40m where that nite was hearable OTHR intruder at around 7005kHz. I tried to switch antenna to our contesting Icom IC-756PROIII quickly to found that OTHR occupied most of the CW portion in 40m band with over S9+20dB wideband mess. Even with 500Hz filter on Icom I was not able to hear any signals on 40m CW band as 30kHz far from the center I still had S8 wideband noise.

After switching to RGO ONE the surprise happened. Of course the OTHR blasted to S9+30dB at 7005kHz and covered wide portion of CW band but when I switched the VBF ON and reduced it down to 200Hz then I noticed that when I tuned up over the 7015kHz the wideband mess gone and I was able to operate and make QSO without any problem or QRM. Amazing!

I did not make video unfortunately as my phone battery lasted exactly at that time when I need it, hi... but I made QSO 15kHz away from the OTHR intruder with VBF set to 300Hz and I was not disturbed at all...

I had no more time to test it yesterday evening so more tests will come later.


And one more think... I like very much the sentences posted by KW6LA:
"I do like the old style controls. RGO ONE looks like a radio, not a garage door opener!"


73 - Petr, OK1RP