"A new ham was upset because his name and address was in a callbook."

Guess that's a spooky thought if you're used to listening to 11 meters. {8^)

As it turns out, I bought an IC-2800H to use for fixed use UHF/VHF and have been quite happy with it. Not a trace of intermod. I did experiment with an HT for this purpose for a while. Man was that a joke. With one of those setups, who needs a pager? {8^) It also received NOAA weather radio great on Amateur VHF frequencies!

By all means run on low power whenever possible. The W32A "eats" batteries at a fearsome rate, so the less power the better. Also, if you buy spares (good idea), get the NiMh type rather than NiCds - they run about twice as long before pooping out.

tnx for the tip Neal. Got a friendly e-mail from Bob Heil on the subject saying roughly the same thing. He also recommended using mid-level compression and turning up the treble about +5db when using the Proset on a 756 Pro. We'll see how this works on the air. 73 and thanks again.

If you mean the CC-1 adapter cable for Icom radios, yes. I am also using the Heil handswitch. I am not using an in-line preamp, as I understand these are not necessary for the newer Icom transceivers.

Sure would like to hear from someone with some experience with this combination. I was using the HM-36 handmike talking to a bud on 80 meters tonight. QRN was nasty and he was having a little difficulty copying, but could pull me out of the noise, nevertheless. I thought this would be a good time to test my newly purchased Proset, so I swapped mikes and promptly dropped out of the galaxy. We lost contact before I had a chance to try speech compression and tweaking the tone (base, treble). Should I put the Proset on the table at the next swapmeet, or try to find some setting combination that will at least equal the OEM mike? So far, not so good.

If by easy, you mean effortless, I don't think there is such an animal. All the gimicks, Code Quicks, whistles, and bells in the world will not replace determination. At least that was my experience. I downloaded a bunch of 13wpm files (18wpm Farnsworth) from http://www.aa9pw.com/radio/exam.html and LISTENED TO THE SOUNDS while looking at the characters on screen. I did this once or twice a day for 15-20 minutes, WITHOUT FAIL. After about six weeks, I could recognize the sounds but could not copy at 13wpm. This was actually not a surprise since copying is another skill. To prepare for the test, I got the ARRL tapes and practiced copying at 5wpm for a couple weeks on a daily basis. This got me to about 7wpm 100% copy of random characters going into the test - which made the test seem easy since a QSO makes sense, and the code rate was a little slower. This worked OK for me but might not for you. I'm now working to get my random copy up to 10wpm and a similar send speed on a Bencher Iambic. Then on to the Novice bands. I truly hated practicing code at first, but it grew on me for some reason (cool stuff, once you "get it"). It was a mind game for me . . . there were a few times when I wanted to quit, but just forced my way through it. I don't know of any way to predict how easy a given person will pick this stuff up - you might be one of the lucky ones. I minored in math with a 4.0 GPA, but had a helluva time learning code. It's a mystery. My little war story may sound like a grim tale, but I can tell you that walking out of that VE session with an element 1 CSCE made it worth every grueling hour. Whatever method you use, don't give up - it will come in spite of what you may think on any given day.

Dang, how did I miss that?

Thanks for sharing your experience Steve. As it turns out, I was probably shooting from the hip with respect to Gap. I finally got an e-mail back saying they never received the first e-mail. Having seen servers eat e-mails before without coughing up an error message, I believe them.

Got pretty much the same story from them on distance from metallic objects. However, they did say the Titan would not "see" the wire mesh under the stucco as long as the antenna was mounted to place the counterpoise assembly (radials) 3 or 4 feet DIRECTLY ABOVE the side of the house. I have no reason to doubt them, so I'll try it and see how things tune up. Thanks again.

I have been strongly considering the purchase of a Gap vertical and had some questions on how this particular antenna is effected by the proximity of stuccoed structures with the underlying "chicken wire" mesh. I have sent two e-mails in as many weeks asking if they have any data on this subject since it may effect how I design the mount system. No response . . . not a peep. Is it normal for these folks to ignore e-mails unless from paying customers? Maybe the question is too stupid for them to bother with, but they might at least send me a "go buy an antenna book" type answer.

I've been wondering something similar. I'm taking the CW test next weekend (been practicing with the ARRL tapes). Since I actually want to use CW, it's fairly obvious 5wpm won't cut the mustard. So, I've been wondering what to do next. I know the character set, so the problem is getting recognition speed up to something like 15-20 wpm. (That may sound humorous to the 40wpm crowd, but learning code has not been easy for me.) I spent a few weeks listening to random characters at 13wpm just for recognition purposes. That exercise did work to the extent that the 5wpm tapes seemed extremely slow in comparision and I did recognize the characters on the tape easily. The problem was I had not practiced copying, so even at 5wpm, I fell behind. That is, I had to learn to recognize AND copy. In a way, it was almost like starting over with a new skill. Anyway, what I found out was that I could practice for longer periods of time listening to the canned QSOs than random characters. Maybe just because copying something that makes sense is less exhausting than copying random characters. Learning code is a "mind game", so perhaps being able to stick with it longer at each session is worth something. Dunno. What I'm thinking of doing is getting a key and doing some off-air sending practice and also copying W1AW transmissions. Don't know if this alone will get me where I want to be, or if getting a trainer like Code Quick would be better. No answers, just questions.

Sounds good to me - as long as you don't paper half the home page with ads.

"In joining ham radio, you are joining a world-wide community where everyone knows everyone else. When you say something on the radio it reflects upon yourself."

. . . which probably helps explain the prevalence of goober-speak on 11m. Make an ignoramus of yourself on the air - who's to know?

While discussing another matter, an HRO rep made the offhand comment that the 775DSP was being discontinued. Also saw this rumor circulating at another chat site. Seems like pulling the 775 would leave a rather large gap between the 756Pro and 781. Icom's site offers no info, although I did notice the 781 seems to be missing from the lineup. I have been planning to buy one (775DSP) in May. Anyone know what's up with this?

Ah yes, test equipment. I was an aircraft radar repair tech in the Air Force (long time ago). We had test equipment for EVERYTHING. Looking back, part of getting good at that job was knowing when you needed test equipment and when you didn't. Who wants to haul a 50 lb box to the flight line when you can tell if you fixed the search radar by "reading" the ground clutter? Fun stuff. Sometimes wish I had stayed in . . . God I loved those B52s!