I went to a repeater site where the interior walls were covered in copper screen material. The Old-Timer Extra-Class guy I was with said that it was silly because the rips and poor overlap of the screens negated any effective use the idea may of had. Does anyone have experience with this type of concept, or something like it to make your shack 'RF Clean' to some degree- Or does it even matter/worth the effort?

Loren, KD7PLU

I have a mess of wire and cable behind my radios. Everything is mounted on some MDF shelving, sitting on top of my desk. I want to build some "Custom" radio and equipment shelf units on top of my desk, and keep a 6-8" partition, or fake wall, behind the radios so all the cable will be hidden. My coax travels straight out the side of the desk, through the exterior wall and up to whatever antennas. My ground is a 3/4" copper pipe that mounted on a 2x6 behind the desk, on the wall. It has a 4AWG stranded ground wire going about 11 feet to a ground rod outside the shack. All inside radios and chassis are soldered to the copper pipe as well.

Any ideas or tricks from hams that built the 'ultimate control console" or at least lessons learned? I'm taking vacation in late Januar just to dedicate two weeks to this rebuild. (My XYL said if I start it, and put all my crap in the livingroom, I better finish it unless I want to see my stuff in a garage sale . . .)
So- Success and minimal 'down time' is the key. Let me know  . . .

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU

Heh . . .  Yeah . . . Death to RadioShack.

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU

My best luck has been the Icom W-32A. You have full twin-band coverage, cross-band repeat (if needed), and all the other cool features. Some complain about the wide RX, but you can cure that by turning-up the programmable squelch. Also- Buy a good mic, because the speaker is rather anemic. Dry-cell battery packs are a must (Or aftermarket pack)

My two TH-D7A's both failed. One failed twice, and it lived a cherished life.

The Vertex VX-150, with a dry-cell pack, is the best bet on the market if you only want 2Meters.

My W-32's and VX-150's have each been dropped dozens of times, rained on, abused, slammed around . . .  I'm the Rockwell Hardness Scale of radios . . . Any equipment that can survive my excursions and field abuse for more than six months will last anyone else a lifetime. Go with the W-32 or VX-150 and forget the bells, whistles and hype of other garbage.

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU
Glendale, AZ DM33-vp

The best value vs. reliability is the Magellan SporTrack GPS. They make three models of this unit- Get the 'cheapest' one, for about $199.- at RatShack.

I've used the Garmin e-Map and e-Trex quite a bit. I have found that the Magellan SportTrack is much more accurate and reliable than either of the Garmin units.

Cold aquistion time, features, signal strength (Antenna quality) accuracy (Magellan also has DGPS/WAIIS) - All are better, more reliable, more accurate and easier to use on the SporTrack.

I use my Garmin e-Trex ('Yellow Model') for my Mountain-Bike APRS unit (TinyTrack-III, e-Trex and ADI-AT-201); The e-Trex has both an 8MB streets and 16MB topo memory card, and is in a Pelican 1600 case with a KPC 3+ and an Icom W-32; This is used as a portable APRS Map station, but can be used as a Digi or even a X-Band repeater with the W-32. I added the external antenna unit to the e-Map for better accuracy.

The Garmin e-Trex (Yellow model) is the least expensive if you're going to use it ONLY outdoors (And not in your car) It makes a great pocket GPS for marking the truck, turning it off, wandering around for six hours, then turning it on and using the track-back feature to find the truck again.

All three models will talk fine with the D-700, or any other NEMA device. Spend the extra $90.- and get the Magellan SporTrack and you will be HAPPY.

These are all small hand-held GPS systems. If you were looking at a full-console, vehicle/marine mount unit, I'm sure other hams will have advice. I'm speaking from experience with the three units mentioned, under all types of configurations, field/portable use and abuse. I'm also not too concerned with how big the internal memory or waypoint capacity of a unit is.

Hope that helps . . .

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU
Glendale, AZ DM-33vp

I hope I'm alive to see the 2204 event :-) HiHi

Williams is closer to Phoenix anyway, and after all the stress over Tuthill, it was just a matter of time. ARCA was tossing the idea of moving about for the last three years- I am happy I have my 2003 Tuthill Coffe Mug now. :-) Hope to get a Williams mug in 04'

July 4th weekend? Wow . . . I wonder if that will be a positive or negative on the volume of people/ Comments?

  - Brent

I recently switched to the Anderson PowerPole connectors as well. I'm not over-impressed with them, but they are a LOT better than Molex connectors. I had always used standard Bannana Jacks, Black and Red goto Black and Red; Simple, unless you're an idiot; Or tired. The Powerpoles come in all colors, but the standard pack is red/black. You can stack them side-by-side, in any block configuration to make the UBER-CONNECTOR if desired.

My field power is in the form of two SLA batteries inside a Pelican case with Bananna connectors and RatShack Adaptaplug wires feeding whatever is connected. I don't think I'll retro-fit the cases with Anderson connectors, but I did make pigtail adapters. The whole system works well enough, but the Anderson connectors, and agreed they are nice, but they are not the solution to the world of portable power.

I just plug a power-strip into the wall and run with it. The power-strip is used because it has multiple outlets, not because it has a breaker/MOV. I run AC to the 30A power supplies, then to a RigRunner 4012. Each piece of equipment that CAN run on 12V, does. And each RigRunner outlet is fused to as close a value as possible to the rated, average current draw of each piece of equipment. In the event of power failure, two 975AH Marine Batteries will take over (Simple NC Relay, Power Failure Switch) and disconnect when the PS is back up and running.

I have two power supplies, my cell-phone charger, RS Antenna Rotator and Laptop PS Supply plugged into the wall. If any of that stuff gets smoked, oh well.

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU

I mounted 3 feet of 3/4" copper pipe to a 2x6 and bolted that to my wall. A #2 grond wire is soldered to the pipe and grounded outside. All the shack rigs are tap-screwed to the pipe and soldered at the ends. I still have RF/Intermod that's out of control. The logic with grounding is that it's better to have than have not/ Maybe my shack will smoke if a bolt hits the antennas, but at least I have a better chance of being alive afterword to clean up.

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU

The VX-5R would be at the top of the list. The biggest failure was the fact it can RX below 48Mhz. I expected to monitor 47.42 (Red Cross) as a minimum. The temp only reads in C, the belt clip is a cheese piece of crap and the operating ease of the system as a whole just about sucks. I also expected it to do X-Band repeat- No. Silly little icons are for? The Vertex four-pin mic plug is also a failure. Little BS-size 2x'AA' clam shell pack is a joke. SMA connector (Why didn't we go to TNC connectors instead of SMA?!!)

I knew what I was getting into with the RS HTX-252 2Meter Radios, so although they suck, it was already known going into it. The VX-5R was just a huge letdown.

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU

Don't know about the IC-T2H, but I use the VX-150 with dry-cell packs (Six 'AA' Cells) and have been very happy with it. The VX-150 is down to $79.00 and is well worth the money. The dry-cell/clam-shell packs are reasonable, and it can be fed from external power. I'm less than happy with the Yeasu/Vertex four-ring mic plug. Why they have that design is beyond me.

I own a VX-5R also. It sucks. Failure. I'll sell you mine. This is very much personal opinion (IMHO), true. The reason(s) I don't like the VX-5 are:
1. Belt Clip is a crappy little piece of plastic.
2. Only TWO 'AA' Cells in the dry-cell pack.
3. Programming / Menu interface is not friendly.
4. There is no C/F switch on the temp. (C ONLY)
5. No Cross-band or dual monitor ability.

Good things:
Three bands (6/2/440)
Rather heavy-duty little case for the size.
Small cheese factor makes good radio to have on dress belt when in town on a date. Very small, almost looks like a cool cell-phone to non-hams.

VX-150 is the most perfect 2-Meter radio that can be had for people that don't use hand-mics. If you use hand-mics as a primary TX method- Get the IC-T2H or whatever the other guy said that takes the standard 2-pole mics. :-)

KD7PLU

Riley said he didn't care about commercial being modified for ham. It was just the Ham to Commercial that was not authorized. But for the thread here, he didn't make reference to a modified commercial being used on ham, but it didn't seem he was worried about that condition. As referenced in my second post and two other posts here; Call Riley- He isn't the ogre that he's made out to be. When I called and sent him the email about this question, he and another official replied with all the info and references very quickly.

Can you use whatever you have to communicate under distress/emergency? Sure you can, no problem.

Can you have a modified radio? Sure can.

Can you openly use a modified ham radio out of band? The rules very clearly say NO! Casual or planned use in an environment where you should need a commercial radio - Get a commercial radio. I Hate Motorola, but Kenwood and Icom make nice commercial stuff too. Pick what you like and run with it.

Call Riley to verify- But I'm rather sure you can use a commercial radio in ham bands, and still use it in commercial bands with no worry. You may void the radio warranty, but the FCC doesn't care unless the modification causes interference in its' native bands.

There is NO type certification for a dual-use radio (Ham + Commercial) The FCC doesn't give a crap about ham radio standards in that arena. Use a paper cup and a string; If it can talk on a ham freq and PEP is under 1.5Kw, the FCC doesn't care.

Call Riley, He's a ham. Call him. That's what we pay him for. Call him and you will have no doubt what the 'FCC' has to say about your situation.

  KD7PLU

I have to admit, taking (re-taking) the test would be an easier route; But I agree with the principle of the matter. If you took the test, passed the standard at the time and cannot use your earned status, you should fight it all the way. If you got a phone bill that had some odd ten dollar charge on it, would you just pay the extra ten bucks or fight the charge? Think how happy the phone company would be if they billed 10,000 customers with a 20% return . . .

Fight the FCC, even if you end up taking the test for needed frequency use. They expect us to follow the rules, so should they!

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU

Forgive me, it's 01:30 here~ I just caught the 'HT' part of the post . . . (No delete key on posts, heh . .) I just solved that problem by using TSQ if possible. You will find a 'sweet spot' to put your HT where it won't get over-driven with noise, try above the laptop on a small shelf if you're setup that way. \\

Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU

Is the laptop plugged into the same power/surge-strip as your radio/power-supply? Try putting them on different circuits if possible, or 'braid' the two power cables into one mixed-up twist (Laptop cord and radio power cord)

I ran a BBS a few years ago, and had all my wires and modem lines nice and neat (Dress-right dress) and had nothing but trouble, dropped lines and static. My dad came over and told me to forget the neat look and twist all the lines up and over each other as far as they could stay together.

It worked, and now I keep the back of my desk just short of a fire-hazzard and have few problems with attached equipment. (Couldn't hurt, and hope it helps)

 Loren B. Cobb / KD7PLU