They finally got to it and said they thought they had the parts in stock and they wanted to get it fixed as quick as they could and get it back to me. Said they had a lot of repairs coming in lately and were pretty backed up.

Makes sense, fully aware of the situation in Japan but considering they haven't even put it on the bench yet to find out what parts it needs that shouldn't be the case. I suppose they just have a backlog of repairs.

Sometimes doing the club thing seems like a great idea at first but it quickly grows old then the problems and headaches arise. Think about it really good before you take that step. I would just skip the club idea but each to there own. As for me, I was in a similar situation as you many years ago and went the club rout but never ever will I do that again. That was my first mistake in this great hobby that almost lead to me getting out of it all together. It could work better for you than me but i'm just giving my ¢02 worth. Lots of good advice has already been given here.

Anyone have any recent experience with Yaesu factory repair service? I don't know if they are just busy right now or what but my rig has been there for two weeks and they have not even looked at it yet. Called them last week and they said that a tech would be taking a look at it pretty soon. That was last Wednesday the 18th. In total the rig has been gone about 3 weeks now and it has not even been looked at yet. I might give them another call later this afternoon if I don't hear something. Just wondering if anyone else was experience delays in there repair time with Yaesu? Guess I'm just getting a little impatient and ready to get back on the air.

Congrats. I passed my Extra last year after being a General for the past 11 years or so, heck I have lost track of time  . I had planned to take the Advanced and Extra class years earlier but college, careers, and life in general just didn't allow the time. I have enjoyed having the extra band allocations more than anything. It kinda feels weird though knowing that there are no more levels to advance through. Enjoy and have lots of fun on the air 

I'm not going to try and fry my brain on how to make all of this work but the RC-210 should be capable of doing about everything you mentioned. Back when I was in the repeater business several years ago I had an RC-210 and loved it. I had both my VHF & UHF repeater on the same controller and the linking and remote base capabilities were awesome. The down side of using a single controller for multiple machines is that if the controller goes then everything is off the air. The RC-210 has a lot of capabilities for a controller. Of course you'll have to add some external hardware here and there to make it all happen. Be prepared to spend a lot of time getting it all to work and to work right. Repeaters are a delicate and time consuming operation as wells as a big learning experience if you want it to work right. Good luck with the project.

Added note: The RC-210 is easy to program with the software and computer connected directly to the controller. The software takes a bit of getting used to. It has provisions for programming it over the air via the software sending DTMF tones but unless it has been improved I never had much luck trying to remote program it. Also requires a simple interface between the computer and radio.

Could just be ground proximity as was mentioned. I have observed this phenomenon several times when dealing with hf beams. Once I got them up on the tower the swr would settle down and everything would be fine.

I prefer the paper version. Has not let me down yet. I can take it wherever I go if i desire. No need to worry about hauling around a tablet, keeping batteries charged and all that junk. Bothers my eyes reading long articles on computer screens. I find the print version much easier for me to read. I'm not really knocking tablets, they are handy tools and have their uses but either way you go has it's pro's and cons.

Nothing amusing at all about cats in ham shacks to me. Then again, I can't stand cats. Especially in the house. I feel that I have too much hard earned money and effort invested in my equipment to ruin it that way. Animal free, and smoke free shack, unless something blows up.

I have been using an MFJ-929 for quiet some time now and it works just fine. Tunes just about anything. Interfaces with just about any modern rig making operation that much easier. It is only a 200 Watt tuner though. Yes I know MFJ catches a lot of flak about quality but their autotuners seem to be pretty decent. I have had  good and bad products from MFJ over the years just as I have had good stuff and junk from about all of the big name radio manufactures (Kenwood, Yaesu, Icom, etc) over the years as well. I think they all balance out in the wash eventually.

You shouldn't have any problem. I have always had my antennas set up this way in order to make the most of the limited real-estate one tower offers. I have had many different combinations of antennas set up like this and never a problem in all of 15 years.

Glad you pointed that out. I had completely forgot to mention that was an extra option on the jr Mosley but it is worth the extra money for anyone wanting to cover the warc bands.

Might be a good thing though. Being that they are not mass produced on an assembly line they pay more attention to detail as they make them. I love my TA33 and wouldn't get rid of it for nothing. It's a sweet performing antenna for it's price range. They quoted me a turnaround time of 25 days but it actually arrived at my door in about 14 days.

Mosley is much more durable than Cushcraft, hands down. I cant speak specifically for that model of Mosley but I have the TA33jr and it works everything 20-10 meters and I don't even need a tuner. It just works. Busted a lot of pileups with that antenna. Quality is great and assembly is pretty straight forward. Been hearing about a lot of quality control issues with Cushcraft lately, missing hardware, pre-drilled holes not lining up, people having to go out to the local hardware store and buy extra hardware etc. Don't get me wrong. I have and still own several Cushcraft antennas and they work fine but I like my Mosley a whole lot better. Might take you a little longer (few weeks)to get the Mosley as they typically build it when you order it. Just my opinion. Good luck with whichever antenna you decide to go with.

Not yet. I wanted to see if anyone else was having the same issue before I do.