No thunderstorms plain and simple.

Nylon last almost for ever. I have used nylon string for support for young trees. Some of it is 10 years old, and I believe it is as strong today as it was then. The string has been through freeze and thaw 100's of times.
 I use green string on my dipoles just so it does not show up as bad as white string.

I prefer a "S" signal report over the outdated RS report. I just makes better sense to me. When I am told my signal is 10 over 9 I know I am strong. If they say you are a S 4 or so I am weak.

I relate the S 4 signal strength as to what others sound like on my radio at S4 or 10 over 9. That is just my preference.

The 756 non pro has some serious issues "all of them" go for a Icom 756 Pro. Not bad found for about $1000 to $1100. All of the 756 non pro have issues with the display screen and every one will eventually fail. "No replacement available" as mention it you want 2M the 746 Pro would be a good choice

Current is what kills not voltage. .060 MA is the standard killing current. You can see photos of people having 30 to 50 KV going threw them, hair standing on end and they are fine. Just no current. If you are making mistakes like that I would quit and let someone else do it. It is time to retire.( If you don't stop today I will look for you in the Silent Key's in QST in a few months)

That woman's face is worth a $1000000 "total shock".

You must be a smoker so you don't notice. It's the oily film, and they will stink forever. Any equipment exposed to smoke to me Is worthless.

I am not a contester nor do I try to dig contacts out of the mud. I mostly contact stations I can hear with a decent signal.

With that in mind what advantage will I have upgrading to the IC-756 Pro III other than my radio is about 9 years old and the Pro III I have found I 2 years old.

It is still new if it has never been opened it is a brand new radio. Who would ever thought about checking the serial number in the first place. I know I would never thought about it. If I bought a new Icom Pro III still on the shelf but the serial No said it was 5 years old it is still new and has manufacture warranty. It' new.    Nit picky Nit picky

I have a Mosley CL-33 and a Cushcraft A3SW 12/17 meter yagi about 4 ft above my Mosley every thing works fine but I do have problems on 10 meters with a high SWR I can only get about 2ft more spacing then I am out of mast. See photo at Ka5row.com

Your question: Why do CB'ers hate ham operators so much?  I don't know but, I would have had my ham ticket about 10 years earlier if it wasn't for them dammed CB'ers.

I had all the equipment  I needed to get on the air as a CB'er  I had a Johnson Viking Valliant, a  Lafayette H-800 ham band only receiver  dowkey relay and the skill to build any kind of wire antenna. My so called CB buddies talked me out of it.  Ham is not the way to go and lots of BS.

Wished I never listened to them. I missed out of 10 years of good radio radio enjoyment.

Because of them dammed CB'ers.  Your question should be ( why do hams hate CB'ers ). My story answers that question for me.

Your question: Why do CB'ers hate ham operators so much?  I don't know but, I would have had my ham ticket about 10 years earlier if it wasn't for them dammed CB'ers.

I had all the equipment  I needed to get on the air as a CB'er  I had a Johnson Viking Valliant, a  Lafayette H-800 ham band only receiver  dowkey relay and the skill to build any kind of wire antenna. My so called CB buddies talked me out of it.  Ham is not the way to go and lots of BS.

Wished I never listened to them. I missed out of 10 years of good radio radio enjoyment.

Because of them dammed CB'ers.  Your question should be ( why do hams hate CB'ers ). My story answers that question for me.

Yes and No

They can be repaired. And seem to work OK. But sometimes it just doesn't quite work the same. Something is just a little off. But it works

It would be a nice accomplishment. But who cares about a award.  I keep a radio log and if I have worked all states and I know it, that is good enough for me. I do not need QSL cards to prove to someone else that I have WAS.  But go for it. Some work counties, islands or whatever. As long as you know you have worked them proof or not, it is a good personal satisfaction to know you have.

After reading some of the post some of the guys seem to be grumpy. Like K4FSC / KC2RGW to name a few. And I don't mean this in a bad way. Maybe it is the environment you live in, big city or something.


 Come to my door I will show you my shack and how I have my antennas set up. If you are not a ham yet I will even make a contact for you and let you talk to someone.  If I can't do it at the moment I will surely ask you to come back in the next few days and give the tour.