I bought some equipment from Ed. I received a fraction of it, but not enough to get all of it working, and I have not heard from him since. His wife screens his calls, and he will not communicate. Foolish me.

I was able to upgrade to extra after getting the manual scanned in, and so I have a new callsign now. Thanks to everyone who helped me with my upgrade!

One radio to look at if you have the money is the Q-MAC HF-90 from Australia. It's as small or smaller than the Yaesu FT-817ND, and does 50 watts:

http://www.qmac.com/hf90_minipack.html

How could I possibly be a thief? You have my money, and I have a broken radio. Here's the score:

You: 1
Me: 0

You're publically libeling and vilifying me, and petitioning for revocation of my license. I've done nothing to you whatsoever. Here's the score:

You: 3
Me: 0

You're the clear winner, but what have you won? I'm empty handed, you've already got my money, what more do you want from me? What made you change your mind about leaving me alone?

You said: "I will gladly leave you alone...Good evening and good luck to you". Where is all your hostility coming from, now? One minute you're courteous and friendly, and the next minute you're virtually inciting mob violence by calling for "clearing people like these from our ranks". Have I really harmed you THAT badly?

You're right, the truth is stranger than fiction. The only information you have about me is what the government has provided you. William Moon, KF4KSE, put it best when he said "government operations will always be flawed". I'm not free to speak anything more right now.

If you want to know the truth about my status as a sex offender, you're going to have to wait. I'll ask you again: what would change if you found out it isn't true? In the meantime, it has nothing to do with whatever it is you seem to be upset about.

What would change if you found out that it isn't true?

The radio I received had undisclosed problems (the speaker, ptt, 0-30 mhz receiver, and battery did not work). I ordered parts to repair it, and canceled the dispute with Branden Wilson because I did not want to pay to ship it back and be left with useless repair parts. I'm not a fugitive, but I'm darn afraid to buy things from people now. You've got my money, now please just leave me alone.



Proof below:

"
Because you reported that this claim has been amicably resolved, this case has been closed.

Seller's name: Branden Wilson
Seller's email: ****@****.***
Seller's transaction ID: 07P50689WD355672D

Transaction date: Feb 10, 2009
Transaction amount: -$160.00 USD
Your transaction ID: 7EF99139ME6541605
Case number: PP-640-906-464



Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,
PayPal
"

The value of my loss is over $100. I asked for $50 in compensation. You offered $20, and I accepted.

You promised to send me the $20 in partial compensation for my loss within a week. That was in December 2008. I would like you to follow through with that promise. Your friend William D. Moon, KF4KSE, offered to pay on your behalf, so that should not be a problem.

I'm sure you can understand my refusal to trust you in a second arrangement where I must risk my property. I will not consider sending you anything of value a second time until after this current issue is resolved.

Now that this problem has become public, I hope you are able to be successful in dealing with it. Thank you very much for at least responding and communicating with me. It's been a very long time since I've heard anything from you.

I think you should take a long hard look at the topic of this discussion. I also think you should not believe everything the government tells you, especially when it's about drugs, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, and child pornography.

If you want to know more, just ask and I'll email it to you, but that discussion does not belong here.

If you knew the truth behind what you just posted to this totally unrelated forum, you would feel very guilty and ashamed. Before you did that purely malicious thing, I thought you were honestly trying to help here.

Thank you very much for your concern. I have been contacted by others who know Shannon, and would like to help me sort this out with him, and for that I'm grateful.

Before posting this about Shannon, I had great difficulty pursuading him to communicate with me, but he eventually offered to send me $20 to compensate me for the difference in value between what I bought and what he sent. That sum is far less than the actual value of my loss, but I accepted it. He never sent it, and he has entirely ignored me ever since.

Some of the things that you have relayed about my dealings and communications with Shannon are not accurate, but at this point, those details don't matter so much since he has not followed through with his offer of a partial $20 refund, that I agreed to accept.

My involvement with Shannon began about two months ago. I have been very patient, and I have tried everything to sort this out with him before taking action that could damage his reputation, and other facets of his life. I have taken steps slowly, one at a time as I warned him I would, that will eventual culminate in legal action.

I have not done this yet, because I want to give Shannon a last opportunity to yield to social pressure before I pursue the final, and potentially most damaging, courses of action against him that involve the possibly severe penalties of the justice system.

If you want to fulfill Shannon's small remaining obligation to me of $20, I will be satisfied with that.

KD4HLL Shannon Case:

I bought some radio gear from Shannon, and I'm sad to say I was victimized. He did not send me the items he promised, and what he did send was either damaged or broken.

If anyone else has a similar problem with fraud in dealing with this person, I recommend contacting the Loganville City police department:

http://cityofloganville.radius3.com/index.php?customernumber=9413065090&pr=Police

And the Walton County sheriff's office:

http://www.waltoncountyga.org/Sheriff/sheriff.htm

You can also file a small claims court action in your local jurisdiction.

I hope this info helps others from being victimized.

Hey guys, SSTV works over FM. If you don't mind cobbling together your own software, you can have your PC download the radar images, and then send them to your SSTV software, which can then transmit the images on any frequency you desire. Sadly, ham radio is not a good solution for very many problems these days. Cell phones are almost always better, especially for internet. That could change though.

I'm looking into making a network of 802.11 ham internet devices to provide access to amateur radio operators over wide coverage areas. If I can keep the hardware price under, say, $500, then pretty much any ham could afford to buy one. It could be possible to do it much cheaper.

Here's some links for you:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinternet
http://www.qsl.net/n9zia/
http://www.radiolabs.com/products/antennas/2.4gig/2.4-aluminum-parabolic.php
http://www.frars.org.uk/cgi-bin/render.pl?pageid=1046
http://www.unwiredadventures.com/unwire/2005/12/defcon_wifi_sho.html
http://www.eham.net/articles/4924
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-range_Wi-Fi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_community_network
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesh_networking
http://ronja.twibright.com/

That should keep you busy for a while.

Here's an update of what I've found for anyone who has a similar need for digital books due to disability.

$17.86 for the book at Amazon.com.
$1.59 to cut the binding off at Fedex Office (kinkos).
$496.00 to scan all 496 pages at Fedex Office.
$515.45 total for a disabled-friendly digital copy of the ARRL Extra Class License Manual.

That's probably about 3 months worth of social security disability income, but if you want to read an ARRL publication, they won't sell you a digital copy, so you're going to have to spend your money elsewhere. If you want to read TWO ARRL publications, it would be cheaper to buy a good quality automatic scanner. Then, after you buy the book, just get the binding cut off for $1.59, put the pages in the ADF scanner, and go get some lunch while you wait.

I'm sure there are many who would be grateful to you if you shared your digital copy with those that can't afford $500 for an ARRL book.

I contacted the clubs before I posted here. I still don't know what good you're trying to do here.

That's a great story about your blind friend, he sounds like an extraordinary person in many ways. But, I'm not blind, and I don't understand what that has to do with getting a license manual scanned, or why that would provide a reason for you to feel like you need to be "hard" on me. What excuses are you referring to that are unacceptable? I'm not sure what you're trying to accomplish here.