I used my TI-81 which I've had for the last 20 years.  The equations for Xc, Xl, resonance, impedance, ERP, capacitor/inductor time constants and so forth are quite easy and can be done on any scientific calculator.  TI calculators are allowed if you clear the memory.  

I used the TI for three reasons.

1.  I already owned it.
2.  I set it for engineering notation as I find doing the conversions annoying.
3.  I can enter the entire equation in one string and hit enter only once to get the answer.

Each test is different and I got pretty lucky on mine having only two questions that I had to use the calculator for.  One question was for ERP and the other was for phase angle for a polar coordinate.

A bit off topic:  I took and passed my Extra test last week and scored a perfect 100%.  I did not look at or memorize test questions and answers.  Because this is my hobby, my passion, I took two electronics classes at my local community college these last two semesters to really understand the hobby.  One was math for electronics and the other was CKT analysis.  Both of those classes provided me about 75% of what I needed to easily pass the Extra.  The only things I had to study from the ARRL study guide was things on digital communications and FCC rules. I've enjoyed the classes so much, that I'm going to continue taking one class a semester and earn my Associates in RF Electronics Tech.  Oh, if you are lucky, your community college will have an amateur radio club like mine did which allowed me to hook up with other people doing the same thing I was.

73s
KB7QND/AE

I agree with K6LCS.  As a professional police/fire 911/radio dispatcher with 14 years of experience with a major department, I once went to a local HAM Emcomm group to join and assist.  My level of training and experience (required by my agency to certify me as a police dispatcher) far exceeded many other members of the group including the leadership.  Yet I kept running into block walls.  Such as, I wanted to volunteer for an event; well, I wasn't allowed as I hadn't attended emergency traffic handling training yet and therefore they could not evaluate how I would react in an emergency.  Really???  WTF?  I handled more real-life emergency traffic the previous night on the graveyard shift than the number of exercise messages they've handled their whole lives.  One guy was teaching others on how to communicate with law enforcement agenices including the one I worked for.  Everytime he was wrong, I tried to correct him.  Even after telling him my job at the agency, it didn't slow him down any from spouting bad information that he apparantly garnered from his "years of experience" monitoring scanner traffic.  What I eventually learned, was to keep my mouth shut as the "elitists" running the show couldn't handle being called out.  I monitored some of their events on 2m and their communications skills and traffic handling were just horrible...guys not following instructions even after the NCS would repeat them every few minutes, guys thinking with the mike hot instead of developing their thoughts before transmitting, messages so long to describe or report simple things that you could read War and Peace during the transmission.  I tried to offer opinions and teach a class in proper emergency traffic handling and decision making, but basically got the cold shoulder as I was still an "outsider to ecomm."

There are very good groups out there, and then there are the control freaks, BS artists, and elitists. 

My advice, is that if you have ability and if they exist, is to visit several different ecomm groups in your area and monitor how they do things before you commit to any single one.

I also highly recommend doing a "ride along" at your local police/fire dispatch center for a full shift.  People always do rides with officers, but as a communicator, you need to do "ride" with a dispatcher.  Learn how the professionals do it first, then visit the amateur ecomm groups.

Deleted.  Issued solved.

I'm trying to figure out if the following two contacts count as two separate DX entity contacts towards DXCC or just one.

FO/U.S. callsign.  U.S. HAM visiting the island of Bora Bora

FO4BM on the island of Morrea.

From what I've found, prefix FO4 is for French Polynesia; however, there are a few FO4 calls for specific islands...just not the two islands I worked. 

I just assembled and raised a new Butternut HF9V with the ground radial kit.

I can easily get a 1:5 to 1:1 on 6m and 40m.  All other bands SWR is 3:1 to off the scale.

I've tried every adjustment in the manual and reverified every step of the construction process.  I've adjusted each element the manual says to adjust going full scale in both directions with no changes in SWR.

Anyone have this antenna that went through a similar process that might be able to provide some insight???

In case anyone asks, I'm using new coax (LMR-400 from Cable Xperts) and verified connectivity of the coax and at every connection....all good.  Ground soil here is rock with desert sand (Arizona desert). 

Okay, so R968 was already not present because it is open for 60 meters.

I double and triple checked that I have the right resistor - R900.

Removed R900 and I now have transmit capability on my MARS frequencies.  Just thought I would post a result to let others know of a testimonial that it worked.

Yes, I know that mod is on the internet, but you can't always trust what's on the internet.  Before I touch my expensive radio, its nice to have a testimonial from someone that's done it in case anything unusual occurred.  Anyone actually completed the mod?

In any event, I'll contact Kenwood and see what they have to say.

***Mod results in the below posts***

Has anyone completed the full extended transmit modification (removal of the smt resistor) for the Kenwood TS-590S?  If yes, did it work as advertised?  Was the auto-tuner affected in any way?

I need to do the mod for MARS; my call is AFA9PS.

73s
Paul

Has anyone used the CPK counterpoise kit for the Butternut HF9V?  I used to have a Cushcraft R7 that had a counterpoise that worked just great, but everyone seems to be using ground radials with the Butternut.  I'm looking at the CPK kit for space considerations, but the $200 price tag is hefty.  What's been everyone's experience with SWR on the bands using the CPK kit?

73s
Paul

That's really not that unusual.  

I was a career full-time dispatcher for the Arizona Highway Patrol and I've remained with them as a reserve dispatcher for the last 7 years now.

Nearly every state has hidden characters attached their plate numbers.  Your standard issue plate does not, but many, many of the vanity type plates do.  What I mean by hidden characters is that there are characters associated with your plate that are not printed on your plate.  The motor vehicle division will issue blocks of number/letter sequences for each type of vanity plate for two reasons.  The first is for sequencing for that type of vanity plate where the computer system will recognize the "hidden" or first character which identifies the type of plate and then issues the plate with the next number/letter sequence.  The other reason is that graphic artwork makes it impossible to include the character on the plate.  

I've ran numerous plates through MVD and NCIC where the officer did not tell me that it was a special plate and had the plate come back "no record found."  In all those cases, the officer would immediately provide a VIN to run which would always return matching the plate on the vehicle.

Some states have plates with characters on them that you don't run.  There are states with things like T over D or S over V before the main characters that identify the license county or something else, but you don't run them in some states and in other states you do.  Out of state plates can be a pain and I always hated running them, especially commercial vehicle plates and trailer plates (some states have TL on the plate where you run it and other states you don't...confusing, yes.), but that is why, as a dispatcher, you should be fully versed in accessing the NCIC Help File to help you run the plate.  Generally, I would run the plate as given, if I got a funky return, I would immediately ask for the VIN while checking the Help File.  But dispatchers only know as much as what an officer tells them. 

Now here in Arizona, our HAM plate has no hidden characters.  What's on the plate is the only thing you'll run in NCIC.  But other plates do; for example, collegiate plates.  Arizona State University plates have a hidden "B" in front of the displayed characters because their logo takes the space.  That is a throw back to when AZ had a six digit plates, their logo covered what would have been the sixth digit, so MVD gave the plate the B for the sixth digit and for the plate identifier in their system. Arizona veteran's plates can be run three ways depending on the age of the plate; such as V over T before the plate characters, V over T after the plate characters, or no V over T at all.  

Your problem really isn't with law enforcement, unless the MVD for that state is run by the State's law enforcement agency.  Here in Arizona, our MVD is not part of the State Police, so we are at their mercy for how they enter things.  And, they enter things only for the benefit of their own databases, not for the ease of law enforcement.  Back to the ASU plate example, if you run the plate without the hidden B, the characters on the plate are also in use on the standard issue plate....yes...you are correct, there are in some cases two vehicles out there with the exact same plate characters with the only difference being that one is a vanity collegiate plate.  I've run many of those ASU plates, not knowing they were ASU plates and had the return come back on a completely different vehicle which leads to an investigatory traffic stop.  Some officers just aren't always keyed in on providing us those details.  

Now the number of patrol cars that joined in your stop seem excessive, and it should have been cleared very quickly by running the VIN...so I have no answers for you there.  But your California HAM plate looks the same as the regular plate, so he would really have no way of knowing what it was.

Now for the guy in Texas who has the same number plate on multiple vehicles, I guarantee you that your MVD is using hidden characters.

At my agency, officers are given little to no training on how to run plates....we just throw a MDC in their car and tell them to go at it.  We tried to get a more comprehensive radio communications/data class into their basic academy or advanced academies and were always turned down.  We always found it odd and perplexing that with all the training they are given for the tools on their belts that radio communications/MDC data entry and interpretation of the NCIC returns was a "just wing it" affair to the officers.  I wish we would not have given them MDCs because they constantly call us to ask "I don't understand this return can you run it and tell me."  One agency got bit in the butt last year when a line of duty death resulted in a suspect pursuit outside their town's radio range.  They had new high tech radios in their car but the guys with the badges refused radio training (for some reason officers just don't view it as important...go figure).  They learned their lesson when they were out of range and had no idea how to switch their radios over to Interagency for assistance leaving them high and dry for assistance when assistance was only a few button pushes away.  I should step off my soapbox now.

Just wondering how everyone enters their PSK31 contacts on LoTW.

I entered in over 100 of them and got errors back on more than 60.  (I reverified and all of mine were correctly entered....a few of those I even had paper cards for already.)

On LoTW, for the mode choice Data is at the top of the list below CW and Phone; burried way down at the bottom of the list is PSK31 and the other more specific data modes.

Is everyone using the generic Data mode or being very specific by chosing PSK31?

Just curious.

IC718 arrived.  I plugged the PS-55 directly into the 718 and surprisingly the power supply turned on.  Apparently Icom had already bridged Pins 3 and 6 within the 718; which means the that the supply was always on....which is a waste of electricity and unneeded heat in the shack.

I found that you could switch this supply two different ways. 

Look for the yellow and blue wires (approximately 16 gauge in size, could be a little smaller) coming from the Molex connector.

1.  For the IC718 where Pins 3 and 6 are bridged within the radio causing a closed circuit all the time, you need to cut either the blue or the yellow wire.  It doesn't matter which one.  Place a switch at that cut to open and close the circuit. 

2.  For other projects that are not using Pins 3 and 6 there will be an open circuit at Pins 3 and 6; say for example you're only going to use this supply to run a couple of cooling fans.    Do not cut any wires, simply bridge a switch across the blue and yellow wire to close and open the circuit. 

I did modification #2 which worked perfectly to turn the supply off and on; until I plugged it into the IC718 which had Pins 3 and 6 bridged.  So I had to undo Mod #2 and complete Mod #1.

I had an automotive 12V 20A rocker switch, which is overkill, but it came with dash mounting hardware.  I was able to use an existing chassis screw to mount this to the top of the power supply.

Hopefully this helps anyone using a PS-55 for other things other than the IC-735 for which it was designed.

Thanks for the reply.

I haven't opened mine up yet to look inside.  

I'm assuming you just connected a switch between the positive and negative wires leading to those two pins on the Molex connector?  Some how I'm thinking it wasn't as easy as that.  But I'm assuming the open circuit occurs at the Molex connector and therefore bridging those two pins with a switch will close the circuit.

Do you happen to remember the current rating for the switch you used?

I just saw on another website that you should bridge across Pins 3 and 6.  Well, not bridge and keep live current flowing all the time, but use a switch across the two.  Is that what you did?

1.  I'd have to agree with one of the comments mentioned earlier.  Don't teach the kids any bad habits about straying outside of what the law specifies.  Attitudes like that have caused major problems with our society nowadays.  I know, I work for the AZ Highway Patrol, and I've seen the "law doesn't apply to me" attitude quite frequently.

2.  You have a ham ticket, use it.

3.  Even if you erected an awesome antenna and your signal was strong at the receiving end; odds are the person that would be hearing you would in no way have any similar setup to respond to you.  You could be doing a lot of talking to a lot of dead air unless you want to work local stations.  

Anyone know if an old Icom PS-55 power supply is compatible with the new Icom 718?

I checked the manuals and 4 of the 6 pins match up.

Its the last two pins on the 718 that I'm not sure if they are used to switch the supply on/off as there is no on/off switch on the PS-55.