Are you sure you're switching the ground and not the antenna? 60dB is equivalent to switching from 1000 watts to 1 milliwatt! I have no idea of what would cause that much attenuation. What more information can you provide?

Radio Shack sells "good" coax, and I'd bet that 75% or more hams start out using it over anything else, simply because it's cheap and available. In most cases, RG-58 or RG-8X size is good enough for up to several hundred watts, depending on SWR. Lowes and Home Depot often sell RG-6 and RG-59 by the foot, and it is "good" too, but many hams avoid it because its impedance is not 50 ohms, or they can't easily find the PL-239 connectors that will fit.

Press Jones, The Wireman™ sells better coax, but it helps to know and understand how you will be using it first. For that, Press also sells a neat little booklet that will help users decide which coax will work best for their particular needs. Someday, when you may graduate from coax to open twin feeder, Press would still be the man to see.

Good luck.

You shouldn't use 60 amp breakers if the wiring is only rated for 25 amps--and the electrician probably won't install it if it's against code. If you are ever planning to add an amplifier, you might want to consider running a 220V line to the shack. You should ask about on-box surge protectors, and consider change-over switches if you ever plan to operate an auxiliary generator during power outages. On the remote chance that the box could overheat and start a fire, you might consider it wise to mount a smoke detector above the panel. Otherwise, leave the code stuff up to the electrician.

There are about 10 pages of Kenwood D700A reviews here on e-Ham; did you read through them?  

I have found most microphone problems to be mechanical, usually a broken conductor where it leaves the mic base or at the plug, and sometimes at the socket itself. I once bought two police mobile units and a VHF amplifier at a county auction for $15.00. The transceivers would key up, but had no audio. It turns out the mic used four brass reeds in the PTT switch; two to enable transmit, and two to switch in the mic element; and the reeds nearest the pushbutton had simply lost their flexibility. A little epoxy cement further up the reeds restored both radios to full operation.

Try using a known good mic first. Good luck finding the problem.

"Do hams use IRCs successfully?" Sometimes, but even the ARRL has stopped taking them in payment, stating that "...IRCs are not legal tender.... IRCs can still be sent to foreign hams to help them with postage costs, but even there the use of IRCs is diminishing as postal regulations in other countries change."

A good place for information is www.n6hb.org/s-a/irc.htm. Then you should be able to Google around for discount unredeemed IRCs and save some money over having to buy them at face value.

Good luck, and happy DXing.

I doubt that you would find an RF ground very useful with the setup you describe. You should, however, have some means of draining static charges and providing lightning protection through an outside ground system, although this wouldn't technically be an "RF earth."

The Shakespeare is already considered "unbalanced." Your tuner should be able to feed it just fine, assuming it has a a good radial system. Just realize that the antenna is basically a 23' pole, self resonant only on the 30 meter band.

My guess is that the lines connecting your smoke detectors are resonant at the 30-meter frequency. The next time you're in the attic, try lengthening the wires connections between detectors by a few feet, and/or putting ferrite chokes on them. When you stretch the lines to a new frequency, the detectors should be less susceptible to 30-meter RF detection, but will still work as smoke alarms.

Think antenna before amplifier. I used to be able to hit repeaters nearly 180 miles away with 5 watts and rubber duck antenna (I was airborne at the time), so you don't need the additional power.

It's fun building your own antennas. Get a good book, like the ARRL Handbook or Antenna Book, or go to a web site like www.cebik.com, and find plans for a VHF j-pole and/or a vertical yagi, get some brazing rod and wire, and build your own. A four- or six-element yagi would be an ideal start for working distant repeaters; and power gain would be available on send as well as receive, something not possible with most add-on amplifiers. Even a good 5/8-wave mobile whip antenna is easy to make, and should allow you to work repeaters 50 or more miles away, depending on terrain conditions.

The /KT, /AG and /AE suffices are intended to give you instant upgrade privileges as soon as you have the certificate in hand. The FCC allows this because it feels you have satisfied their requirements for upgrade through their "agents," the VE team. It may take several days for the VE team to get the paperwork to the VEC, several days for the VEC to get the paperwork to the FCC, and several days for the FCC to process the it.

Consider this, would you like to pass a Friday evening examination session, race home, and operate using your new privileges immediately, or wait for up to two months to do so (like many of us did in the pre-grant days).

When the FCC gets around to granting your new privileges, and if you opted to keep your original call sign, you can then stop using the /KT, /AG or /AE suffix. Of course, you won't need to use them if you're issued a new call sign.

I'm a little lost here. You say "when i tx on 2m everything work on 440." Perhaps the band label is on backwards. Try replacing the label with one that says "440."  When you say "the bars dont extend a scanner," I'm not sure what you mean. "Whener the 440 vfo is on on any frequency when i put the ant there the radio died" does that mean it remains dead after you removed the antenna and replace it with a known good one? Did you try checking again with it's original antenna, or, say a 7-inch antenna (which is a quarter-wave for the 70cm band) or 19-inch antenna (for 2-meters). Unfortunately, I'm not at all familiar with an allinco ald 24t, so I don't know if it's indeed a VFO problem. Most VHF/UHF radios nowadays use frequency synthesis. I would guess that if the radio worked before you attached the off-resonant antenna, and didn't afterwards, you may have damaged the driver, the final, or one of the output network capacitors.

I assume you are talking about testing a "magnetic" loop. If so, the main loop should easily dip a grid dip meter without the feed loop, but I don't think the feed Faraday-shielded loop can be tested independently. It needs to be coupled to the large loop in order for it to properly respond to testing. Is there a reason for you wanting to test them separately?

Well, now that I've read the manual, split frequency operation is explained on page 24. So I can really say what RPT means.

Doesn't mean "repeater?" It seems to me that an FM transceiver ought to be able to work the repeaters. Since you can program the amount of frequency shift in your radio, the RPT indicates that you have the radio set to repeater mode.

Years ago, when I was stationed on Okinawa, my military KA6 license did not allow me to talk directly with the Japanese. However, I could sometimes bring up the repeater in the Philippines and work the mainland Japanese that way. Before going to Okinawa, I used a converted CB in my car to talk everywhere from Seattle, WA, to Miami, FL, from my car here in central OK. Not too shabby for 10 watts FM.

I hope you can find original replacements. I might try soaking them overnight in a solution of baking soda to see if the alkalinity might soften the surface crud.

If the yellowing is not soluble, you may want to try polishing it off. You might try Micro-Mesh Plastic Restorer, which is a pack of plastic polishing "sand paper" available at Antique Electronics Supply (www.tubesandmore.com). They also carry several different brands of liquid plastic polishers.

You might also find something you can use at www.usplastics.com. Look under acrylic sheets and rods to see if the color and thickness matches your needs. Good luck.