Hadn't heard of these before, they sure look good, which is saying something for a PS!

Hihi, it's a Pyramid that I want to replace! The fan is very noisy. My Samlex is quieter but I'm wondering if there are virtually silent models in that range that folks have experience with. Maybe Astron?

20A to 30A range and something very quiet. My PS is the biggest noise maker in the shack.

<grin> No ham worth his/her salt could ever find a single rig that does everything they could possibly want.

If you are serious about CW, put the handheld away and focus on CW only. For that mode you need a lot less radio, less money. You can make your own antenna from scrap wire. If you don't have a long run to the antenna cheap coax will do. My advice, worth what you paid for it, is to find the least expensive used rig that's in good working order and has at least a 500 Hz CW filter and try out HF. Inevitably, we all move on to "better" rigs later anyway.

73!

Casey, TI2/NA7U
http://cloud-warmer.blogspot.com

Yesterday I put up this blog post about what I think are the best things about our great hobby. Feel free to visit and add your "best things" in the comments.

http://cloud-warmer.blogspot.com/2012/08/what-we-like-best-about-amateur-radio.html

73,

Casey, TI2/NA7U

Just FYI, I just finished Phil's relay mod to my ALS-600, which is using a K2 for the exciter, and all seems to be working quite well. Pretty easy mod to make though I had to wince a little when I was jerking out the old open frame relay, hi.

My mod described here: http://cloud-warmer.blogspot.com/2012/08/the-ameritron-als-600-qsk-mod-is-done.html

73,

Casey, TI2/NA7U

Exactly where is that second ground line to the "mains ground" running from? The tower?

I'd mount the arrestors on the outside of the house as close as possible to your station ground, which also should be outside and to which everything should be grounded. Don't expect them to do a whole lot if there is a direct strike. They will go poof or at the least have unseen damage inside.

The feed line entrance should be a bulkhead of copper sheet/plate, which is also grounded, with a connector on the outside and inside (radio side).

Frankly, that doesn't sound like anything to do with the SDR.

UPDATE: I've moved the Softrock to a WebSDR server and a 400' loop. No need to log-in now, nor do you need any client software other than your Java-enabled web browser. Find it on the list at http://www.websdr.org (near bottom of the table) and/or see my blog (below) for details and pics.

73!

C is a shortcut Yes. Even if I can't hear a QSO I respect the response that the frequency is being used. Often you can't hear the other end of the QSO, of course.

Like you, I always ask again if I don't get an initial response.

Often the time's that I've sent C to someone who is asking if the frequency is clear, but apparently they don't hear me, because they just start CQíng right over the top of my QSO.

It's using an SDR-Radio.com server, so you need to download the SDR-Radio client to connect to it.  The address for the radio is http://ti2na7u.zapto.org, login name is Guest, password costarica

To the person waiting for the upgrade notice?  Forever ...

Technically, Mexico is part of whatever continent a particular geographical model assigns it to. There is no standard.

Anyway, I've been on JT65 many times (and the lack of true prefix support is a pain in the you-know-what). 

Unfortunately, however, ham radio is not growing as fast as the population in the U.S., so it's becoming smaller in a relative sense.