Wow...didn't know that there were so many RPN lovers out there.

My fav: HP-11C.  It now costs more on eBay than it did brand new.

I love that calculator.

"Ok, here we go. I know I am going to upset quite a few of you, but I need to vent. Full disclosure, I am 36 years of age."

I'm 39...so we're contemporary.

"Hmm, just like the obituary section of the local paper that by the way, nobody reads anymore except for those who don't know how to use a computer."

I'm an IT professional and I still read the newspaper.  You could make your argument about ham radio too. Why use ham radio unless you can't figure out how to IM.

"What is the obsession when a Ham Radio operator dies?
I don't get it."

Not an abnormal attitude.  That's why everyone hypes the number of new hams, and no one mentions that 30% of hams allow their licenses to expire.

Tom, back to your answer.  A couple of observations.  I've been a ham for 15 years now.

First...

When I was first licensed and was looking at equipment, my Elmer said "You want *this* and *this* and *this* because it's well built and will last forever.  Stay away from *this* and *this* and *this* because it's junk and will never work right".

Fast forward to today, where we're actively saying "Yeah, *this* will work if you don't do *this* and *this* and if you don't mind having *that* happen along the way."

So...our standards as to what defines "good engineering practice" have substantially slipped.  As well as our tolerance for less than stellar performance.  We're almost programmed to expect stuff to fail.

Second...

I recently participated in a testing session. 4 out of 6 people passed.  In the six hours preceding the testing session, they studied every question in the Tech study pool *minus* the wrong answers.  No theory.  No "ask the elmers".  Just the exact questions and the exact correct answers.  And like I said, four out of six passed...one even had a perfect score.  You could have told them a garbage can had an impedance of -58 degrees Celsius, and they wouldn't have known any better.  

They crammed, they dumped, and they walked out the door with CSCEs.  And they're qualified to operate an amateur station.

*shrug*

You want the truth or you want a lie?

Then don't try to pry it off.

There's two modes of failure usually at play.

A) the solder contacts break free of the pads due to connector movement

or

B) the little internal pins in the connector tarnish and/or migrate away from each other

Sounds like you have B.

Oh.  And that connector that is the crux of the problem is small.  And the terminals are even smaller.  You're going to need a tiny *TINY* soldering tip.

Best solution I've found is to pop the connector off, put some epoxy under it and then resolder...

That nut can be loosened a couple of ways.

Craftsman makes a set of needle nose pliers that does the trick.

I've also used two jewellers screwdrivers in opposition to turn the nut.

1) Yes.
2) No.
3) Entirely dependent on how well you know the code.  They're sort of a mix between a straight key (completely manual dot and dash generation) and a bug (seperate dit and dah contacts).  As a result, the tendency to "string" letters together is there.  But with the proper ear and wrist training, they're incredibly fun and produce very nice code.

I ran a "rice box" all the time...Kenwood TS-450 exciter, Drake R8 receiver and 4-400A amp.

Never had any complaints once everything was adjusted correctly.  Sometimes people would say my audio was a touch "tinny", but that was a result of the mic (Shure 444D) and not the radios..

"I assumed that it's the carrier insertion oscillator not adjusted quite right"

Yep.  Use WWV, bounce from LSB to USB and adjust until the audible tones are equal....

Vibroplexes have their own personality depending on the model and the era of manufacture.  Early ones up to about the 1960's were faster than those that came later.

For the record, my favorite is the early 60's Blue Racer, followed by the late 1950's Lightning.

I'm in Bristol...about 40 miles to NE of you.

I'd suspect 40 in the evenings would be a cake walk with ANY wire of appreciable length at any height.  At least, that's been my experience. 80 in the evenings in NE TN seems to be a little on the short side to make the haul.

What WIK said.

I've never ran anything but "rice boxes", and after the first "walk thru" (turn the power down to 10 watts, adjust the mic gain and carrier to the proper levels and then hit the amp for 200-300 watts carrier), I've had nothing but positive things to say about the AM crowd.

The key is to watch the metering on the rig.  If you begin to lose power when you modulate, you're pushing too hard and need to back off.

BYU makes a really good point.

MFJ1278s were notorious for really crappy, ragged, drifty audio output, but were perfectly fine for real FSK.

Here's the issue.  To get the Antron to work *decently* on 10 it's going to need a good ground system.  If you think you're going to get whiz bang performance out of it attaching it to a pole in the middle of nowhere with no ground to work against...well, guess again.  The plain ol' wire will run rings against it.

As far as ground goes, when camping...well, you don't know what you'll get.  And ground is everything.

And don't even *think* of putting a tuner in line with it.  While you may get a decent SWR, signals will be WAY, WAY down.

If I were you, I wouldn't worry about rotating the WonderBar.  Remember that thing about antenna height vs. pattern.