I've been on and off 6 since the Gonset AM days; talk about TVI!!  You already have received good advice and will undoubtly receive more but I have one non-technical suggestion,  NEVER, NEVER, NEVER "lay hands upon" someone's TV.  For the duration of eternity everything that will ever go wrong with it, the stereo, the toaster, the sink drain, etc., will be your fault.  "It didn't do that before you ...(fill in the blank)".   I know it's sometimes hard to not dive in and help but trust me on this one. Remember, 'No good dead goes unpunished' and this act of helping kindness will come back to bite you in the butt everytime.  K0RIR (SK) had a slick set up, he had a little TV that was modified to be almost a TVI filter with a picture tube; absolutly bullet proof.  With someone operating his station he would set it on the complainant's TV. His TV was perfect while the complainant's TV was jumping up and down.  He'd look at it, unplug his TV and say, "yup, you have a problem".

For all practical purposes, no.  They are completely different critters using different approaches to signal generation and reception.   Even if you could do it, you'd have more tied up in parts, circuits and labor than you would buying a seperate rig AND you would be on 10 FM years sooner.  There is/was an outfit called Comspec that made CTCSS encoder/decoder units that can be wired in to almost any rig.

I got mine about a year after they were out.  Had Icom do all the little upgrades that was mentioned in the QST review.  The 775DSP certianly will spoil a guy!  I've always believed Icom watts are better than regular watts anyday. :-)  

I have need to use the CTCSS decode on the Radio Shack HTX-212.  Problem is it doesn't seem to decode well; receive audio seems to drop out a lot while the person is talking even with a strong signal. I don't have access to a service manual so I was wondering if someone knew how to turn up the decode sensivity or increase CTCSS injection level.  Thanks es 73, Bob

Crying about 5 wpm....what a bunch of &%##&@* (read: young cats)

50.290 seems to be the PSK freq. da juir.  It's pretty much like being on the dark side of the moon though unless (if ever) the band opens.   For some reason, local round-table rag chews on 6 (and 2 for that matter) seem to have gone by the boards....I'm referring to SSB/CW/PSK etc...NOT FM.

George,
Just a note, the Ham Key by The Ham Center in St. Louis was NOT a carry on of the Brown Brothers keys.

The owner of Ham Center, Bill DuBord (sp?) was a "sparks" op from the word go and wanted to re-start the B.B. keys.  The spring hinge was still covered by patents and un copyable at the time.  

Ham Center came up with the Ham Key design all on their own using as much of the B.B. ideas as possible with out infringing.

Bob

Mark,

I have several B.B. keys and key/paddle combos.  My opinion is that until the last B.B. key in the world is gone, NO ONE can claim to have the 'best' key around.

Being and old St. Louisan and a Brown Brothers affectionado I can tell you that there is a reasonably interesting story behind them.

Unfortunately, it's too lengthy to go into here so I would suggest getting with your favorite search engine (Google.com gave me the best results) and do some snooping.  I found a wealth of stuff about them; dates, stories, various models, collectors prices, evolution of designs....etc.

Enjoy your treasure, use it with pleasure and hang onto it until your estate has to deal with it....just like your wise Elmer did.

Bob

I had a little problem pop up in a piece of Ten Tec gear one time; called them, described the problem and the guy said "sounds like such and such a board".  Before I had a chance to come to 'full pucker' at what I was expecting next he said "I'll send the board; swap it out and if that fixes it, send the old board back".      I couldn't believe what I was hearing, but within a week, the new board arrived.   Oh yeah, it did fix the problem!     I shall always be impressed with Ten Tec.  Try that with a 'rice box'!

There are battery "chargers" and battery "eliminaters".
They are not necessarily interchangable.

Over the years I've had nothing but good luck with R & L.  

If I understand the vanity call deal correctly, you sort of "rent" the call for the license period and if at renewal you don't wish to pony up the extra money you will be renewed as your original call...is this close to right?

re: MIDCARS on 7.258.   It used to be a great service until a consumate CB'er from Mount Morris, MI. started using it for his daily radio show of idiotic attempts at gutter humor.

...'cause "YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID!!"

Check www.qrz.com and do a name search.....there's a couple "meads" in AZ.....take your pick.