David, if you follow amateur radio news, especially in QST, this subject is far from forgotten.  The ARRL petitioned the FCC to include CC&R restricted housing under PRB-1, the FCC took months to decide "no."  They found no compelling reason, once again using the argument that people are aware of such restrictions before they choose to live in or buy such properties, and if they don't like the restrictions, they are free to move elsewhere.

FCC recommended ARRL take this matter to Congress, which is in process.

Time will tell how that works out, but in the meantime take a look at the suggestions I made in the previous post here, regarding running for an officer of the Board...it's serious, and it surely worked for me.

WB2WIK/6

From the "been there, done that school of advanced human psychology," I have a few recommendations.

1.  If you plan to live there a long time, why not run for election to the very committee that will judge you?  When I lived in a townhouse briefly, I found the Board of Directors of the Homeowners Association were all owners (not hired guns from outside), and the Board elections would be two months later.  I attended the next two meetings, introduced myself to everyone, and campaigned for election.  Two months later, I was elected Chairman of the Board of the Association (it's an unpaid volunteer position that nobody really wants anyway), and then set about making rules changes.

2.  If that seems too drastic or too much work (it really isn't), or the next election is a year away, I'd recommend you clip articles from QST magazine and the internet on all the good Amateur Radio has done recently in disaster situations, including the 9-11 occurrances in NYC and elsewhere, and reproduce these.  Preferably in color, at Kinko's, and make multiple copies.   Next, make copies of the data sheets or graphically presented descriptions of the kinds of antennas you wish to install. Then, ask to speak briefly at the next Association meeting.  Introduce yourself and pass around the propaganda, stating you are an active member of the League which promotes growth in volunteer emergency communications work, and as such you have need to install a couple of small outside antennas...see how it goes.  They may just give you permission and save you a lot of trouble down the road.

3.  To determine if there are other hams within your CC&R restricted community, do a search by your town name on the FCC amateur license database.  This can be done by leaving the callsign and address fields blank, and filling in only the name of your town and state.  The database will come back with a list of all hams in your town.  Look at the list and see if any are in your restricted community, and contact them.  There's surely strength in numbers.

73 & good luck!

Steve, WB2WIK/6

Ameritron and Mirage: No.

Vectronics and Hy-Gain: Don't know, don't have the products.

WB2WIK/6

Not a valid callsign in the Buckmaster data base, which is the best and most up-to-date one I normally use for DX.  Of course, this fellow may be brand new and not listed anywhere, yet.  Or, maybe you copied his call wrong!

WB2WIK/6

I'd recommend the Bencher model RJ-1.  It sells for about $75, not the cheapest hand key in the world but a very good one.  Nice feel, high quality, will last you a lifetime.  Although I never use a hand key and operate only using a dual paddle and iambic electronic keyer, I have an RJ-1 which I keep on hand for "newbie" training and as a "show & tell" sample when I hold code classes occasionally, to let the newcomers try it and get the feel for what a "real" key is like.

WB2WIK/6

Yes.  The governing regulation is CFR 47, Part 97.301 and you are allowed to use CW in the Technician bands, even though you have not passed a code proficiency test.  You are not allowed to use CW or any other mode on the bands below 50 MHz.

WB2WIK/6

Normally it's the responsibility of the DX station you just finished working, who is now being called by someone else, to advise the new caller to QSY.  And that's exactly what usually happens, if the DX station is a seasoned operator.  If he's a newbie, he may not know any better.

I am not at all annoyed when this occurs, and provide a reasonable time (10-15 seconds is all it should take) for the DX station to acknowledge the new caller and drag him to another frequency.  I can wait 10 or 15 seconds.  If it seems like this isn't happening, I'll chime in, myself, and recommend they take the QSO elsewhere.

WB2WIK/6

You can use CW virtually anywhere in the VHF/UHF bands, however it would be wise to simply use it in the section of each band set aside for such work, to help assure you don't interfere with other amateur activities.

50.0 to 50.1 is a CW setaside; 144.0 to 144.1 is a CW setaside, etc.  These are regions expressly dedicated to CW only and thus where most of the beacons are located.

You'll hear CW on the VHF-UHF bands if:

-You have a substantial horizontally polarized antenna system, e.g., large rotary beam antenna(s);

-You listen for distant beacons, which populate the CW subbands and are "hearable" nearly everywhere in the U.S., if you point your antenna(s) in the right directions;

-You listen during meteor showers or periods of auroral activity;

-You listen during VHF-UHF contests, including the e.m.e. (moonbounce) competition periods;

-You listen for 6m CW when the band is really open!  During those times, there's a lot of SSB activity also, of course, but occasionally you'll find a "rare one" using CW only and not available on SSB.

73 de Steve, WB2WIK/6

7032 and 7038 are perfect, in the "General" part of the band and high enough up that it's mostly QRPers working there.  Good choices.

7117 and 7140 are in the old "Novice" subband.  There's some CW activity there, but I think you probably won't find much.  There is a big campaign to reduce or eliminate the Novice CW subband and extend the phone portion of 40m down to 7125 or so...this may or may not happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if it did.

3709, 3716 and 3735 are all in the old "Novice" 80m subband.  Ditto comments above.  Assuming you have a General class license, you'd be far better off down around 3535-3550 where there's a lot of activity, and a lot of QRPers.

WB2WIK/6

FT-243 or HC6/U should both fit.

International Crystal has full details on all amateur gear made over the past 50 years or so and if you just tell them you have an EICO 720 and you wish to operate on X frequency, on X band, they'll make the crystal correctly to work with the transmitter.

I've also found them helpful in providing me with the details needed to find and buy "used" (surplus) crystals.

http://www.icmfg.com/

WB2WIK/6

http://www.hamcity.com

WB2WIK/6

Ham City is the internet (e-business) of Jun's Electronics in Culver City.

Jun's has been in business, and in Culver City, for many years.

WB2WIK/6

The glass mounts are the easiest solution by far.  However, if you'd like improved performance in exchange for a bit of work, I've installed conventional, higher performance VHF-UHF whip antennas on Corvettes by simply gluing copper wire radials under the trunk lid (remove the insulation there first, it's easy to put back) and soldering them to the Larsen NMO mount inside the trunk, and using the NMO mount in the center of the trunk lid.  Absolutely better performance than the glass mount -- kind of night and day.  But it does involve work!  

The low-profile NMO mount, when the antenna is unscrewed from it, is so "not noticeable" that I've never had any trouble selling a used car for top dollar, with the mount still installed.  Nobody even notices it, or if they do, they think it's a feature for a cell phone antenna.

WB2WIK/6

At least the H7 is only Nicaragua, although its a cool prefix and if you collect PX's it might be a good one.

Chalk it up to experience!

Hmmm, now will my P5/4L4FN ever count for anything...?

WB2WIK/6

I worked VP6DI yesterday on 15 CW and was highly unimpressed with whoever was operating.  I've been on every end of a pileup and know what 20 kHz of S9+60 signals sounds like but it's never taken me a minute per contact to complete CW QSOs; whoever was operating was not up to the task.

(Of course, then I have no idea who it was, or what they went through to get there.  Maybe they're all just dog-tired and will get better.)

But funnier was the XR0X operator on 28.450 yesterday.  Sounded like a good ol' boy who just jumped out of the General Lee for a pit stop and egads, what horrible operating.  "WFWL" is my motto, and I live by it, but that operation would have made a lot more folks (if they needed San Felix) happy by changing to almost any other operator.  I clocked his Q rate as 47 an hour around noontime Sunday...pitiful, considering the size (and width) of the pileup calling.

WB2WIK/6