David,

Granted, I don't have a grand setup but in and around the St. Louis area 2 meter SSB is as dead as can be.  Every couple of evenings I call two, maybe three CQs on 144.200 SSB and once and awhile CW, then as per usual shut it down and save the electricity as it is a total waste of time. 

AM and CW is even more desolate if you can imagine it.....and it is such a shame because it could be a swell local rag chew band.

Except for some drive time activity and the wonderful EMCOMM nets preparing for the end times (I guess), repeaters seem to have had their day too.

I guess the activity could come back someday but then too someday we may have honest government. Don't mean to 'piddle' on your cornflakes but thats what I have observed.

73,
Bob

Then why the heck are they 'playing' on a keyboard mode?
Typing should be should be like CW? either learn it and keep trying to improve or try something else. 

Hi Tim,

I have an old 290H and although it is well dated it is a swell little SSB/CW rig and the rcvr seems to hold it's own with my 275H, and that's saying something.

It sounds like you have gotten the 2 mHz thing under control so I thought I would throw a suggestion at you;
  
I like to switch off the main power supply when the radios are not in use and I quickly tired of re-setting the frequencies and the memorys every time so I dug up a little wall-wart in the 8 to 12 VDC range (after checking with a volt meter).

If you look at the plug on the rig, the center pin that appears unused was originally designed for Icom's battery memory back up.

Just jerry-rig the wall-wart into the plug using black ground and that center pin as + voltage from the 'wart.  It can stay on all the time regardless of the main PS and your settings are retained.

Oh yeah, should you want to drag it to the car, you could use a standard 9 volt battery for the same results.  Do note that the current demand of the volatile memory would do the 9 volt in in after maybe a day.

Hope you enjoy your 290H.

Bob  

Coax can be spliced!  They didn't start the machine back in the 40's and it's been putting out one unspliced piece of coax ever since.

I came across an old military radio school 'how to' manual and there it was.   
It is a bit tedious the first time or two you do it but with a little practice you will have a near perfect splice.

Compared to soldering up two connecters and buying a barrel connecter it certainly is less expensive and probably faster.

Just a thought before you get the "torch and pitchfork" gang from the village together check and see if your noise blanker is 'on'.

That can make the cleanest of signals sound pretty nasty especially if it's pretty strong.

The 290H is a great little rig albiet well dated; while the 290A looks the same except for the digital display being a different color was/is not such a great rig.

I am not that much into Kenwood's rigs but sight unseen I would probably go with it over the 290A.  Now if it was the H model I'd sure like to A/B them together before making a choice.

One last thought.....if you're looking at it for some FM use, there is no CTCSS encode; for SSB if it's like my area it won't make a lot of difference because, sadly, no one is ever there.
 

I've never had any interest in field day (or any other contest) to lose.

I would like to enter favorable mention of the Idiom Press CMOS 4.

It's something he made up...sort of like FU2JO....I guess it's supossed to sound like poo-bah.

If only it could come to pass!!!!

Oh for joy, for joy.....another contest.

What'd he say??  He's one of three on my "ignore" list.

I listen to .525 all the time.....in the St. Louis area there is almost NO local activity and that's a shame because it's is a great band for local chats especially now that the TV channel 2's are all gone.

When 6 opens, it needs to be really open otherwise the signals drop out of the squelch more that they are in.

Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on your point of view, many guys use converted commercial gear or some kind of remote base that only has one 'channel' and either cant' or won't move so when the band is open it's a real test of FM's capture effect.  
Ideally, one should establish a QSO and QSY off of the calling frequency. As with the 6 and 2 meter SSB calling frequencies, this courtesy also seems to have largely gone down the crapper.

One last little grief if repeater operation wiggles your ears; there seems to be several "standard" repeater offsets and the "pairs" are all over the place.
Of course, the CTCSS encoding is a real guessing game if/when the band opens.

If you can believe the DX tip off web info spots, it seems the Europeans are keeping all the six meter propagation to themselves. (hi)

The US central/midwest has always been a six meter black hole compared to the 'right' and 'left' coasts.

Mono band rigs apparently didn't justify their existence from the manufacturer's standpoint so a used rig is about your only option.

I'd like to put in my vote for the Icom IC-275H (The 275A model is the same but only 25 watts.).  They are "mostly all mode": (NO AM).
 
100 watts CW/SSB and FM, and an outstanding receiver. They are tough but not impossible to find and command a pretty penny if in good working order.

Sadly, depending on your area, 2 meter SSB can be a mighty lonely place.