With the advent of rigs like the FLEX-5000, features are becoming available which exist in no traditional rig. However, for operation on VHF, UHF, and microwave frequencies, you are obviously going to need a transverter. Using a 28-30 MHz IF, you can cover 2 meters with 2 LO crystals. However, once you get to 70 cm, it would take 15 crystals to do this. Now admittedly, you wouldn't necessarily want to cover the entire band, as an FT-847, TS-2000, etc do. But you would want more flexibility than just one or two 2 MHz segments for both space and terrestrial operations. More if you wanted to include basic FM repeaters.
Given that there are no (?) transverters which have a 20-30 MHz IF width, has anyone seen a transverter with a tunable IF, instead of crystals? Or alternatively, a VFO-like "VLO" which could be plugged into the transverter crystal socket, or something equivalent? There used to be such VFOs for crystal rigs 3-40 years ago. I doubt that a transverter would maintain full specs over a wide range, but such flexibility would be handy. Perhaps this is a solved problem with the microwave community?
Alan WA4SCA
-----------------------------------
Before a mad scientist goes mad, there's probably a time when he's only partially mad. And this is the time when he's going to throw his best parties.