Yep.  Been there and got the T-shirt.  I bought a Kantronics KPC-3 + and fiddled with it for 3 years.  I set it up with cables to an FT-50 Yaesu HT and an HTX 202 and a Kenwood 261A and an Icom V8000 over the years.

The only time it worked (that I'm aware of) was at field day.  All other times, it'd go "Beep-Beep" and I could see stations reporting in.  I sent out about 2,000,000 packets, "Does anybody copy this station?"  and "CQ for any station anywhere for acknowledgement."

I got back a few dozen responses but they were so sporadic it was hard to tell if it was really working or if it was just a fluke that couldn't be verified again.

You need 2 APRS stations.  One to send yourself a message and another one to see if you could receive it.  Having 1 APRS station is like having one Handi-Talkie on an unused frequency.

I got the KPC out of the shop attic (where it'd been boxed back up for the past 6 years) and sold it on QTH.  Hope he can do more with it than I was ever able to do.

I gave $225 for my GLT-1000 a few years ago.  I like it fine; a good robust tuner made in the USA with quality components.  They last forever.
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a201/XLente/Dentron.jpg

Johnny

Well, since you asked… take a look at these links and make up your own mind if you want to buy a 746:

http://www.ka1mda.org/ham/homebrew/746/index.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPXaW-IAEbU

http://www.qsl.net/k5lxp/projects/746Pro/746ProNoTX.html

http://www.n1eq.com/tech/page_02.html

http://ej.typepad.com/k8zrh/2003/09/icom_746pro_tra.html

http://www.n1eq.com/tech/page_01.html

http://www.usenet.com/newsgroups/rec.radio.amateur.equipment/msg02244.html

Personally, I wouldn’t buy a new one and I’d only consider a used one if it was a bargain basement price.  Do yourself a favor and consider instead this American-made quality radio with incomparable service and resale value:

JUPITER: Best in class! Thousands of JUPITER and transceivers are in use worldwide and are renowned for their terrific audio quality and superb receiver performance. At only $ 1549, no competitors mid-range HF rig comes close to what JUPITER has to offer. Try one for yourself and discover why JUPITER has become Ten-Tec's best selling 100 watt HF transceivers since the original Omni series was released 25 years ago!   STOCK STATUS:  Both versions of the JUPITER, with and without autotuner, are out of stock at present.  We expect to be shipping again the last week of April 2008.  You can place an order on a credit card and no charge will be made to your card until the day the transceiver ships.  Our apologies for the delivery delay.  Used or demo units may be available - contact the sales department via sales@tentec.com or (800) 833-7373.   Last updated: March 19, 2008.

http://radio.tentec.com/Amateur/Transceivers

(http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a201/XLente/jupiter_1.jpg)

Paul,
  Thanks for the follow up.  It's always good to hear of a successful ending to a repair.  We're glad you fixed your rig without placing it in the hands of UPS for transport.  It encourages all of us to get out the screwdriver from time to time.  73 OM.  Johnny

PS.  I'd also like to say thanks to Jerry for his expert input and sincerity.  A true ham!

Paul, I believe this is the solution to your problem... a shorted wire behind the panel.  (an easy fix)  Same web site... I just looked a little bit closer to fine your particular problem.

http://www.va3cr.net/markv/Troubleshooting/FQY%20Jump.htm

Johnny W4XKE

Paul, try this web site.  You just might find the right guy with the solution you're looking for.  There's a lot of good Yaesu information here:

http://www.va3cr.net/markv/Troubleshooting/FQYoff.htm

Johnny W4XKE

Thanks for all the information OM.  I learned a lot.  I believe I'll buy some DATEK transfers from Minuteman to do the lettering job.  I liked WIK's idea but he's in CA and has access to facilities that I do not.  Most people in this part of Tennessee think a "silk screen" is some sort of a duck blind. Hopefully, my project box will look nice with its white markings when its completed.  Again, thanks much.  I appreciate you'uns.  Johnny

I've seen some nice looking labelling jobs on project panels and would like to know how it's done.  The project box needs to emulate a similar lettering to my Ten Tec equipment that has WHITE labels.  

Ten Tec does it with a silk screen operation that is prohibitively complex for my home shop capability.  Any ideas on how to put some white lettering on my gray box?  Thanks, Johnny

No doubt in my mind what my choice would be.  You can buy a Ten Tec Pegasus 550 for around $600 and with the other $400, put up a used tower with a tri-band antenna.  If you download the latest software from www.rfsquared.com you’ll have the equivalent of a new radio with all the latest features, including the 60 meter band.  

The SDA (Software Defined Radio) by Ten Tec is unparalleled in features such as DSP and complete receive and transmit filters. Everything is displayed on your computer screen and easily seen and controlled with a mouse-click in a darkened room.  

Second choice would be a used Jupiter, which has front panel controls.   Check it out.  Johnny

After about 4 years use on top of my pickup truck, I see some little holes in the paint (down to the primer) about the size of the diameter of a round toothpick.  Since the truck is older now and it’s hard to see the top of it anyway, I guess it’s no big deal.

What is of concern however, the parts inside the base of the MFJ mag-mount antenna are prone to rust.  (Why use steel parts in an antenna that will be exposed to the elements?)  One day I noticed I couldn’t hear much on the truck radio and a quick check indicated a high VSWR on the cable. (The antenna was about a year old at the time.) I peeled the sticker off the bottom of the antenna base and a pile of rusty junk fell out of it.  These are “fair weather” antennae unless you take the bottom apart and liberally coat everything in sight with RTV sealant.  

I don’t know whether Larsen or Diamond uses stainless steel in theirs or not but I hope to find out before I buy another MFJ antenna.   Johnny

LDG manufactured the built-in antenna tuners for the Jupiter 538AT early on.  The built-in tuner doesn't have memories.  So if you want versatility, you would probably want to have an external tuner so it could be used with other radios and have memory function.

That said, I am very pleased with my 538AT and it performs better than any radio I've ever had.  This one has found a home for keeps (unless the price of an Orion comes down considerably).  

I like the built-in tuner because it is built-in and doesn't clutter things up with another box, more cables, etc.  If I had it to do all over again, I'd still opt for the built-in tuner over an external one, but that's just me.  

Your operating style might require different methods of operation.  For me, I couldn't be any happier with what I've got.  When the 60-meter band was validated, Jupiter operators just flashed their eprom from the Ten Tec site and in about 20 seconds, we were on the air with the latest radio equipment!  That is COOL!

N0RZT asked:
Looking at my ice-covered antenna right now, I'm thinking a paint with Teflon might not be a bad idea... but would it stick?

  As a former painter at General Motors, I remember one area where parts were Teflon coated.  (I think they were pistons for a vacuum device that had to be very slippery.)  The parts were degreased prior to spray coating (with a standard DeVilbiss cup gun) and then placed into an oven at about 875 degrees for a half hour to cure.
 
  The old guy who painted the process couldn't wear a watch (even with asbestos gloves) because it would get hot and blister his skin in the time it took to reach into the oven and remove the parts.

  Also his clothes looked like they were eaten-up by battery acid.  The stuff would eat clothes, skin or anything soft that it came into contact with. We wondered what it did to him, breathing the fumes off of it.  (He looked like a zombie out of a horror movie and we all just left him to his work, back there in his Teflon lair.) Teflon wouldn't be a coating that you would want to use on many things.  Johnny

Having never looked at WinLink before, I have a basic question:  Is the WinLink a closed system, only accessible via a wireless Pactor modem or does it have gateways that allow access to the internet?  

I can't find the BNC male cables that I used to connect my Tektronix 465 to a B+K frequency counter and B+K function generator.  Does anybody know the proper cables to use for this hookup?  
  If I buy used cables at the hamfest, is there any way to tell a 50 ohm set from a 75 ohm set if there is no labelling on the cable jacket?    Johnny

You can go to Home Depot and buy a surge suppressor that plugs right into the main breaker box (just like a breaker) that protects the whole house.  

Also, since I am running an IRLP (Internet Radio Linking Project) system here, if the power blinks the router will re-assign all of my computers with different MAC addresses (.100, .101, .102, .103).  This is okay except for the one that has scripting that is specific to the RedHat 9 based IRLP computer. An Uninteruptible Power Supply (UPS) is in order here.

For longer power-out periods, I'm still trying to figure out how to assign fixed addresses to my LINKSYS router.  (My friend has a D-LINK router that has that option in the menu).

If you run digital modes with multiple computers, buy a D-LINK (not a LINKSYS) router.

Johnny