Hello again, Roy!   That is a shame that your grandfather's logs are lost to the ages.   Cool deal on the Morse being sent manually!  

Things to consider:
1)  Even though you did not know him very well, you have chosen to honor your grandfather by taking his call sign.

2)   I attempted to do a little research on your (his) call sign and discovered that you had done the same.

3)   You are both communicators.   Whether by trade, hobby, or both, that is what you do and what you are.

4)   Items 1 and 2 above, indicate to me that he has been on your mind over time, perhaps more than a little.

He is, no doubt, proud of you for your achievements in ham radio and he is honored that you cared enough about him to
have done the things you have.  Frequently, spirits are drawn closer to us when we are thinking of them and especially
when we are discussing that person (or entity) with others.

In my experience, sometimes it may take time for someone on the other side (friend, relative, or other) to get around to making contact.
Sometimes, they have attempted to make contact, but our logical, skeptical, mind tells us those attempts are "normal", everyday, things such as the house settling (sometimes it IS just that and nothing more, sometimes it is something else), our mind playing tricks on us, or some other form of denial.  For whatever reason, your grandfather (or maybe someone else) is trying to get your attention in the here and now, and they have found a very good way to do that.

As with those of us on this side of the grave, those on the other side like to be acknowledged and recognized.  If you think you feel your grandfather (or other person)'s presence around you, don't be ashamed to speak to them.  Call them by name or nickname (if known) if you feel a presence or are getting overt signs that someone is trying to get your attention.  Don't expect to see or hear them, unless you have special abilities and gifts that most of us do not.  If you are at work or some other place where talking to the empty air might get you in a bind, just acknowledge them mentally.   I have experienced things which lead me to believe they can and do read our thoughts.  Understand that many times, you may get no response from them at all.  The more open to this kind of thing you become, the more it may happen to you as time progresses.  There will also be times when such things seem to cease for weeks, months, even years, before resuming again.  I don't know why that is but it just happens that way at times.

Best of luck to you and I hope you can capture that Morse on tape or DV recorder.  

73,

Ray  KV4BL

One other thing Roy; you said that you don't have a lot of things that belonged to your grandfather, other than the letter from Harry Truman.  I know this is a long shot, but could ANYBODY in your family have any of his old radio logs?   Those might be helpful in the 1.805 mystery.

Hello Roy!  I'm guessing you have already at least considered the possibility that your grandfather (or other person) was trying to let you know they are there, or send you a message from the other side.   I am sure there will be no shortage of naysayers and haters on here in quick order, but I am comfortable enough with my experiences that I don't really care.

Friends, relatives, and others who have already made the transition DO stick around and check on us from time to time.  They do everything from engaging in mischief such as moving or hiding objects, to knocking on walls, to turning lights on or off (opposite of how you left them), to leaving little presents.  One lady of my acquaintance whose father used to give her dimes all the time when she was a little girl, said he apparently now leaves them laying around the house she lives alone in.  They turn up in odd places where there was no logical reason for them to be and where there were no dimes shortly before she found them.  This is the house she grew up in and which her dad was living in when he passed, some years ago.  

Do you know Morse well enough to copy it?  Were you able to make any of it out before it stopped?   I know, it is difficult for me to copy a repeater ID unless I am expecting it and "prepared" for it.  Did the Morse you heard sound like it was coming over the air, or from your side tone?   If from the side tone, that all the more would make me believe that my guess is correct.

Great story and thank you for sharing it with us!   Please keep us posted.

73,

Ray  KV4BL

A close family member and myself each bought an IC-746 Pro at about the same time from a well-known radio sales and repair outlet in the mid-West that also touted itself as a factory warranty station.  About two years after purchasing the radios, each had the screen backlight failure occur, within six months of each-other.  I knew that the radios were definitely out of warranty, but contacted the place we purchased them to get an estimate for repair.  As I recall, it was at least $120 per unit and maybe double that.  I was rattled as I had just retired and my income had dropped considerably, making repairs not feasible.  My relative, did some research and found that an Icom warranty station in Anderson, SC would handle the repairs free of charge, even though out of warranty.  This was only on the "Pro" version of the 746, which is what we had.  They handled the repairs and had them back to us in what I considered a very expedient time frame.  Both radios have seen daily use for at least two years since then and continue to work fine.  I was highly impressed with the integrity of the Anderson, SC shop... not so much with the well-known shop we purchased the radios from.

While I have long been a believer in the old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", I can understand someone wanting to get their radio fixed (if it has the dreaded issues) before parts become unavailable for their particular model.

I fully concur.  My Icom 2820 required modification (performed by Burghardt) to allow for cross band repeat.   This is a minus on Icom's part, IMHO.   I probably only use this feature about four or five times a year, but for the reasons you noted, it is worth having, to me.   Additionally, if you have a ham friend or family member who is in the hospital and cannot reach the local machine or simplex net from their ht inside the building, a mobile set to cross band can allow them to say hello to their friends and hear well wishes via the cross band link.
I probably most frequently use the feature when bad weather is threatening and I go shopping in the grocery store.  This feature allows me to hear the repeater even in the back of the store and to transmit, if needed.    The little Yaesu VX-3R works well with this feature.

I will echo K1CJS's comment about considering using the services of a pro for such an operation.   I had one who handles installs for our Department of Corrections to do the install on my 2007 Hyundai Sonata.  I specifically did not want a sun roof due to numerous issues with those, to include their effect on hole-mount roof installation.  Ricky did a great job putting an NMO mount on my roof and when I saw the stuff he had to fight with, including numerous, "side curtain air bag" assemblies, I knew it was money well-spent.  The safety features on modern vehicles make roof mounting of an antenna a project not for the faint of heart.

I went with the Comet B-10 and have never regretted it.  For such a small antenna, it works really well on 2m and 440.   One pro-tip I picked up from watching Ricky do that install is to be sure to use an air hose and be SURE to blow all fragments of metal material off of your car after the mount is in place.  The reason is that these fragments are not protected on all sides by the paint and finish.  They will rust after being exposed to moisture and if there are any remaining on your car (whether on the roof, trunk, hood, or elsewhere), they will cause little rust spots and streaks which may ruin your finish in those areas.

Good luck on that install!

73,

Ray 

This is a very interesting thread!  W8JX's comment about copying letters and then one day it jumping to whole words is similar to what I have heard for years.   Unfortunately, I have not achieved that level yet but I am hoping.   WB2WIK's story was interesting as usual, too.  WOW!  To have had a friend you could learn code from and with like that at that age would have been awesome!   I was the only radio geek in my whole school, back in the 60's and 70's.

About twelve years ago, while struggling to get my speed up so I could pass the General test, I decided to just try copying in my head rather than copying by pen.  I don't write too quickly.   I found that I could copy slower stations quite well in my head and give a bystander in the shack a brief synopsis of what was being said, such as, "that is Joe in Colorado Springs, CO.  He is talking to Bill in Odessa, TX."  This boosted me enough over what I had been doing in writing everything down to pass the 13WPM test.  Trying desperately to get my speed up to 20WPM to get my Extra, I got up to around 18WPM right before the FCC dropped everything to 5WPM, across the board.  I let my speed atrophy through lack of use.  Still, I hope to one day work on getting my speed back up and hitting that magic point where you hear words, rather than individual characters.  That has to be a great feeling!

Even now, I have trouble copying unless there is at least a slight "Farnsworth" spacing between characters.
73,
Ray  KV4BL

I have to agree!  I purchased a couple of Icom 2820's with D-Star modules about four years ago.  At the time my step-dad, another friend, and myself were the only people around here that had D-Star that I am aware of.  We played around on simplex and it was interesting and had really good audio quality.  Other friends came on the air with D-Star ht's and again, it was fun on simplex when we happened to be in range of one another.  Then some of the friends added one repeater and then others in the area.  It was more interesting.  Then came the D-Star network and all the suckiness that goes with it.  The audio quality is something akin to fingernails on a chalkboard.   Even though I am supposedly now logged in as a member of the local network with all due access to the great D-Star yonder, I can only communicate with people on the local machine.  I hear the droning conversations about the nation and the world, but if they are not on the local repeater by which I hear them, I cannot talk to them.   If you are not intuitively a computer/digital geek, help and elmering is pretty much non-existent in the D-Star world.   I have been told, "there's a D-Star calculator on such-and-such site, but if I don't know what to do with it, a lot of good that does.

Add to that, whatever brain spasms SERA was having to begin allocating D-Star repeaters between 145 MHz analog repeaters, thereby causing all kind of interference in many cases to analog users and you have the makings for my less than enthusiastic attitude about D-Star.  I keep hearing bleating about how we need to be on the cutting edge of technology with this digital garbage.   All it is that I can determine is a raspy-sounding version of analog that has the cute feature of allowing your name and call sign to display on another user's screen. Whooppee...  One of the things that has allowed ham radio to work when other things did not for many decades was its simplicity.   Adding digital circuitry and internet connections only complicates things and increases the chance of failure when you need it the most.

If we just HAD to start fooling with digital, APCO-25 would have made infinitely more sense.   Just as has been the case for many years, old public safety and business equipment will eventually become available to the ham world.   Old APCO-25 public safety gear would match with APCO-25 new ham gear much better.   I guess that would have made too much sense.

How cool that the owner or trustee encodes the output at all!!!!   I find it sad, the number of repeaters which require a tone for access but which do not encode a tone on the output.   To me, such is frequently the case of poor or slovenly engineering by the owner/trustee.   In many if not most cases these days, encoding a PL only requires some programming which could have been done while programming a tone requirement on the input.  In some cases, expensive or hard to find reeds or other parts may be the stumbling block to PLing the output and that is understandable.   Others find some of the lamest excuses for not PLing the outputs.  "The tone causes distortion."   "We had complaints from users of a distant repeater that our users were unaware they were keying up their (un-PL'd) repeater during band openings."   "Why would you need a tone on the output?"  Another is, "well, the machine passes PL tones". 

As for distortion caused by PL on the output, I was under the impression that we used communications grade equipment to communicate, NOT for high-fidelity programming.   If the users of a distant repeater are frustrated by the users of your machine keying it up during band openings, maybe it is well past time that they shook hands with fifty plus year-old technology commonly known as PL.  Contrary to apparent beliefs, CTCSS or PL is not some evil combination of Witchcraft and nuclear science which will end mankind if mishandled.  It is old and proven technology which allows people to monitor a frequency without their squelch constantly breaking from spurs, intermod, computer noise, automobile components, or other sources.  DPL has been around at least since the 70's.  NEWS FLASH:  Passing PL tones, contrary to popular belief, is NOT the same or as good as PLing the output.  I have yet to hear a machine that only "passes tones", which will reliably activate the decoder on all radios for each and every user whose tone is being supposedly "passed".  Most machines which only pass PL tones will produce a hodgepodge of broken transmissions, some coming in great, and others not opening your decoder at all.  In other words, USELESS.   One repeater I am familiar with which has been well-used and one of the few successful carrier-squelch machines in the area recently had to PL its input due to some noise source on its input.   I had hoped that the output was going to be also PL'd, but it wasn't.  On two radios of mine, an Icom 746-Pro and a 2820, the passed tones work perfectly and so far, without a hiccup, which is very unusual.  On my VX-3R, the passed tones absolutely will not open the decoder.

The best engineered repeaters (and sadly, the most uncommon) are the ones which only encode a tone on the output when a user actually has his radio keyed.   That way, Morse ID's, voice announcements, and other noise from the machine do not unnecessarily disturb you while you work, watch TV, or try and snooze.   People are more likely to monitor it for emergency calls or other traffic if they are not bothered by all that noise.

Rant off.  :-)

73,

Ray  KV4BL

The Icom 9100 almost seems destined to become to Amateur Radio, what the ill-fated Bren Ten was to handgunning.

A while back, I was browsing and saw an old article by someone who claimed to know of someone who had sucessfully converted an old Motorola Pageboy II to his area NWS broadcast channel and added tone reeds for 1050 Hz so that it would activate when a severe wx alert was broadcast.  Unfortunately, the e-mail links were all dead ends.  Does anyone know of a source for Pageboy II's and chargers in good condition and if this is a feasible modification and how much it costs if it is?   What about other tone-voice pagers such as the PMR-2000?   Thank You for your time.    Ray Price  KV4BL

I hope someone can help me with a very frustrating problem.  First off, let me say that (at the risk of a few flames) I have a CB mobile with WX receive in my 2000 Elantra, alongside my IC-2800.  The CB is far better for getting info on road conditions and in a real disaster, certainly expands my communications horizons on a local level.  Now to the problem.  I just replaced a base loaded Hustler 27 MHz antenna that was hole mounted in the center of my trunk with a W-1000.  The Wilson has a SWR of (plus or minus) around 2 to 1.   It does not vary with regard to which channel and this is usually indicative of a problem other than length / tuning.  The shop I bought it from tried everything from hardwiring a wire jumper from the body to the trunk lid to insure grounding, to changing coils, whips, and cable harness, all with no results.  My trunk is definitely metal, as is the rest of the car.  Wilson says that the car may just be too small to give their antenna an adequate ground plane.  While the Elantra is not a large car, I have a problem believing that it doesn't have enough metal for a decent ground plane.  A Ford Aspire, maybe...  Oh yeah, we also checked to make sure the grounding star inside of the trunk makes contact through the paint.   Any ideas that might let me use this antenna with a better SWR?Thanks in advance.73,      Ray  KV4BLPS for what it's worth, the previously installed Hustler had a flat (almost no needle movement) SWR across all 40 channels but was not a good radiator as I have heard others describe some Hustler mobile antennas on hf.

Does anyone out there have the "real" story on why Icom has decided to drop the wonderful IC-2800H from their lineup of radios?  I noted in the most recent AES catalog that the 2800H is a "discontinued" item and is on "closeout".  What gives?  I would have thought that they would have replaced it with a radio equal to or better than the 2800 before dropping it.  Before you say that the IC-2720H is the replacement, there  are some problems with this.  One, is that the 2720H, as best I can determine, is not yet for sale and probably does not even have FCC type acceptance as of yet.     Another, barring radical last-minute design changes, is that the 2720H doesn't even have alpha channel naming, much less the neat, multi featured screen of the 2800.    Dumb as it may sound, I like my 2800H so much, that I seriously planned to purchase another one in a couple of years when I trade in my current car.  Figured by then, I'd have the funds at my disposal to do this and put the old one  in the house as a base.  As I can't currently afford one, I wish I'd hit the lotto for enough to buy several and put them in storage for future use.  LOL    I hope they are just coming our with a 2800H-A or something as this is a really unique radio.        73,         Ray  KV4BL

Thanks for the tips, Richard.  This is useful information to me as I have ordered the Maldol.  I would still like to know more about the Comet with regard to performance on all three bancds if anyone is reading this but your posting is helpful and appreciated.  It confirms the one review I found here on the Maldol as to performance as well as making me aware of potential hazards regarding durability.         73,          Ray  KV4BL

  I recently purchased a new Kenwood TH-F6A 2m, 220, and 440 Mhz ht.  I am thinking about buying either a Maldol Mh-610 or Comet Ht-224 aftermarket tri-band antenna for this radio.  The few reviews that I have seen indicate that either antenna is superior to the stock Kenwood antenna.  What I want to know, is if anyone out there has owned or otherwise actually used both aftermarket models and how they compare in performance on each of the three bands and in overall durability.  I don't care about the fact that one is longer and thus bulkier than the other, just actual performance on each band and durability.  As a sideline but not nearly as important, do either offer noticeable improvement in reception on 80m, 40m, or 6m over the stock antenna?      One ham who posted a review on the Comet offering had a link from his excellent home page to a Yahoo TH-F6A owner's group but my web acess system would not allow me to read any of the posts on there.     Any help appreciated.Thank You and 73,              Ray  KV4BL