I'm relatively new to ham radios. I currently do not have a base station in my house, although I have been trying to figure out where to put one (strictly 2m right now). The logical place for actual wiring would be the basement near my server. But I spend as much time in my office as the basement and thought it would be nice if I could control the radio (listen, talk, and seeing the frequency settings) from one of the computers on my internal network. Has anybody considered or done this?

I have a subaru outback sport and I simply did the quick and dirty mount. Shoved the radio vertically between the center console and the passenger seat. The radio speaker if fully exposed above the console and 1/3 the top side is also clear for cooling. I however do not run at high power with very few exceptions. The radio is usually warmer from sitting in a hot car than from dissapating heat from transmitting. Its not the best mount for everybody but right now its a good, clean, stable mount that puts the radio right where its most comfortable to operate. And people have even readjusted the seat without interfering with the radio or even causing it to shift.
Jan

Just wanted to leave a message for anybody coming along with a similar problem. I charged the batteries and replaced the antenna. It works again. I'm not sure which one was causing the problem but my old antenna does have a loose connection now so I guess its time to replace the end connector.

Thank you for the suggestion. I did discover that I have a loose connection in my antenna cable down at the connector to the radio. I was able to transmit this morning although the handheld's standard antenna was not able to reach the repeater for voice (although the connection was made to the repeater but audio was just too bad to copy) and that was with the speaker/mic attached. I'll have to scrounge up another radio to test with this weekend.
I knew there was something simple that I was missing.
Jan

I had a problem this morning on the way in to work with my radio. I've been using an IC-T2H with a 5/8 wave magmount antenna on the roof of my car along with a separate mic/speaker so my radio just hangs in the center console. I only touch it to turn it on and adjust the volume.

About half way through my commute, the radio just cut out the transmission after about 5 seconds. I could hear the repeater beep and then the individual that I was talking with came on to tell me that I dropped. All while my transmit button was still depressed. I tried repeatedly but the time I could transmit got shorter and shorter. They had suggested a loose connection (which I checked them all quickly), possibly overheating (didn't feel hot), or a protection circuit kicking due to my antenna.

Now I haven't ruled out low batteries even though I did not see the low battery light come on. I also noticed that I seem to have developed a slightly loose connection in my antenna at the radio end.

I have switched back to the rubber duck that came with the radio (and I don't have a spare radio yet to test the antenna). Anything else that I should look for? Any suggestions? I plan to try again tomorrow morning with recharged batteries and rubber duck and if that works, try the 5/8 wave. I'm just looking for something that I'm overlooking (or ignorant of).

73s
Jan