Not intimating that this has any relevance to you but....

If there has been any number of disciplinary actions against a person or his license especially if communications (even non-ham) related the FCC MAY require a year by year renewal.

In the late '60s a now deceased ham friend of mine got "spanked" for playing with 'blue' and 'black' boxes (telephone cheating devices) and was set up by the FCC for yearly renewals. After letting his ticket lapse for almost two decades, he got back into it and got a regular ten year license; he also got a 1X3 vanity call a bit later.



 

What about the QRM that is caused by operators running very high ALC levels combined with very high compression ratio going into an Amplifier for that ever elusive
"PUNCH" that will bust that PILEUP?
On contest days, phew! all bets are off, anything goes.
BTW, these are Amateur Radio Operators with a ticket from the FCC.
The subject of running over 1500 watts is for another day!

((((73)))) Milverton.


[/quote]

I thought this was SOP for contesters!

Polarization won't make much of a difference because no one is there.  2 SSB/CW has become pretty much of a waste land in most areas.

Was it perhaps the April issue??

............ "YES I AGREE YOUR BRAIN IS THE BEST CW DECODER."

Wellllll, there you have it.

In my opinion it would be any Brown Bros.

After hamming for 53 years I have never gotten beyond that point!

I'm not really anti-contest, it's just the same gripes that most non-contesters have been saying as long as I can remember:

Why must the entire band(s) get trashed?  ----and----  how can guys that always try to exercise operating courtesy and have great sounding signals suddenly turn into these screaming, mindless, wild eyed 'contest monsters'?

Now before the 'contest people' keyboard spank me just think, I should be contesters favorite types; I hear that crap, mumble to myself and shut things down.  God help me but even week-end television is better.

In 1982 while on active duty on Guam I sent a note home to my wife just for giggles....it hasn't arrived yet.

Should I keep waiting?

Don't scrimp pennies on your power supply!

Get a quality one because one power supply hiccup can cause a lot of grief with every thing in your station that's hooked to it and that will cost a heck of a lot more than you could ever save by getting a cheapie!

I had one but sold it this summer so I can't help with a copy of the instructions but I did use it from time to time and I can tell you that the memory is volatile; lose power and the memory is cleared.

I am not 100% sure but pretty sure the same thing happens when it is switched off.

BTW, the memory is really limited,  maybe one CQ/ID sequence and that's it.

Sorry, but it's a pretty clunky keyer.

Bob

Those old 290H's (not the A's) are great little rigs with darned good receivers.....I know; I have one and wouldn't let it go.

Admittedly, the 'click' tuning is a bit course for SSB/CW and the lack of CTCSS for FM is an additional drawback.

Because of it's age it's probably considered not worth the expense but 25 watts is about perfect for driving a 2 meter brick and for the FM thing there is always a ComSpec encoder.

One last little thing, if you use a 9 to 12 VDC wallwart and wire it into the ground and center pin of the rig's plug, you won't lose the stored memories when you switch off the power supply. 

I didn't see if you were talking about a new car, newer car, used, really used car or possibly a piece of 'tow-truck bait'  but before you try a few or all of these ideas, some of which could void any possible warranty you may have left, use your favorite search engine and check for 'Sabaru Service Bulletins'.....read and become informed.

You may just find that they have a no cost (to you) fix.
If not, you may find all sorts of other free dealer 'fixes' for problems you didn't know you had.       

Terry, are you kidding? Side line!?   It has become the sole reason for life on 6. 

Loren, be prepared for many intriguing and informative QSOs of  "gim'me ur grid square and get off my frequency". Hell's-bells, you will be lucky to get a name much less a real location that you don't need a decoder sheet as to guess what city and state he may be in or near.

Local round table rag chews were the norm years ago....if/when the band would open we would scatter and work what we wanted/needed; mainly for WAS back then.... AND by the way, we had to contend with TVI and ITV anywhere there was a TV Ch. 2.

Its just a shame to see such a neat band fall victim to what is in all reality just another moronic and never ending contest.

Be it right, wrong or indifferent, that's my opinion which has no virtue nor socially redeeming value.

Bob 

There have been several mentions about causing and fixing interference TO U-Verse sustems.

I wish there were some suggestion as to aleveating the interference FROM their cheap Chinese made crap!  ..... AT&T sure isn't willing to do anything but raise their rates.

It goes from the middle of 80 up to and thru 2 meters at my location.  I have verified it is their junk by unpluging the router box. then peace and quite reign supreme accross the bands.

While having mega elements many feet in the air on really high terrain with a couple of hundred mile range is truly a giggle it has some downfalls. If you and a far off station do not have your near laser sharp arrays pointed within a few degrees of each other at the moment, you're chances of having a random QSO or hearing each other goes way down.

Especially on V/UHF there is or should be more to life than "DX". Need some physical help with a project, want some local friends with local interests, would like to scare up some guys for a get together or for a local hamfest, borrow or lend a piece of gear for a try out, or want more than a "give me your grid square and get off my frequency" QSO? then at least it should be complemented with an omni for local round table work.

As you can tell from the comments, 2 meter SSB activity is pretty regionalized; some areas are great and some are ok while most areas (mine for sure) seem to indicate you would do just as well with a dummy load for an antenna.  Unfortunately in the latter no one seems to want to be the first to put their toe in the water to find out.