Local News: An online email newspaper in a town of 6,700.
OTOH, him being in a small town is a good thing.
MUCH more likely to be known and recognized.
Well, it's a start!
I've been reading ham and radio forums
for a long time and this guy is almost as notorious
as whats-his-name over at Radio Mart. And he
has the temerity to post photos of himself on the
Net with his quad runners, motorcycles, and
other boy toys.....no doubt helped funded by ill
gotten gains from hard working hams.

This a**bite makes me puke.
I hope and pray he gets what's coming to him.
The fellows scammed won't get their money or gear back,
but it'd be nice to see Pinson behind bars for a few years,
ending up some big dude's BGFF! 

Scamming through the mail is a Federal felony,
too bad the Federal prisons are far, far nicer than the
state prisons!
73, Ken  AD6KA

Sam, W9KDX, is correct.

Any check, money order, etc can "clear" and not be PAID.
There is a difference. Banks "clear" checks before payment
in a few days for convenience and to keep the wheels of
commerce turning. If you dig down deep enough into
bank legal boilerplate, we learn that your endorsement signature
on the back of that check is your promise to pay that check
(or whatever vehicle) to the bank if it proves to be forged,
fraudulent, insufficient funds, etc.

Banks have up to a year to come after you and demand
payment for a bad or forged check even if it has "cleared".
Doesn't happen a lot, but it can and does happen.

Re the original post, yes it's rewarding to help our brother
hams in Third World countries who do have a problem getting
equipment. I have helped hams in TA (Turkey) and 5R8
(Madagascar) get gear, including HF rigs. However, I was paid
fully in advance, and delivery to Turkey was by a relative of mine
travelling there, and to 5R8, travelling there myself.

But if you feel the slightest big uncomfortable about any
aspect of the deal, I would pass, but that's me.
73, Ken AD6KA

Benjamin:

Sorry to hear about this bad transaction.

You can find this person's telephone number
by entering his name and City, Zip Code, or State
(from QRZ Info on the Callsign you listed) at:

http://www.anywho.com/whitepages

The QRZ name and address matches the listed
phone number address exactly, even down to the Apt #.

A phone call won't get your money back, but
maybe you can make sure it was him, and not someone
who stole his callsign to use in a scam. This is very
common unfortunately. If it is not him, I am sure
he would appreciate being notified his call has been
"hijacked", though someone can always deny being
the thief even if they ARE guilty.

You can often tell when someone is lying by changes in
their tone of voice and demeanor. An innocent ham whose
call has been hijacked will ask a lot of questions. A guilty
guy will huff and puff, get loud, make threats, and hang up
on you.

This kind of thing makes me sick.
This USED to be a gentleman's hobby.....
OTOH it seems to be the way our society is heading.
Degradation of personal integrity, morality, ethics, values.
73, Ken  AD6KA

Almost but not all. You would not be able to run 220Mhz
or UHF higher than the 70cm band. (440MHz). The radio has 440,
but not that antenna. None of the "shack in a box" rigs cover
220. Admittedly this is a Nit Pick, not that many techs operate above 440,
though you will find some on 1.2 GHz repeaters.

I find claimed the Bandwidth figures for the Challenger
somewhat unbelievable, but then again I have never used the antenna.
Every setup is different, though.
http://www.gapantenna.com/challenger.html

There are ways to make multiband verticals "work"
but whether they are efficient or not is a matter of debate.

If you find you really like 2m & 440 it would not be that difficult
to buy or make yagis (beams) with low loss feedlines. One
of the fun things about VHF/UHF is that the antenna dimensions
are small (wavelength inversely proportional to frequency)
allowing fabrication with inexpensive materials and common tools.
You can also build a decent 2m 1/4 wave ground plane with an SO-239
connector and five 19.25" pieces of stiff copper or piano wire or thin tubing.
Change dimensions for 440.
There is a construction article about these antennas in the March 2013 QST.

(Though from what you say about the number of machines
in your area, you might not need yagis for repeater work).
You would need horizontally polarized yagis for VHF/UHF SSB work.

I know at this point is sounds complicated but it really isn't
once you get familiar with the terminology!
GL ES 73, Ken  AD6KA

Nahhhhh.
No more complicated than manually programming the
cross band dual band VHF/UHF rig that you
are considering, perhaps even less so.

Good luck no matter what you decide!
73, Ken  AD6KA

Welcome to ham radio, glad you made it!

All good advice given.
Good one re the clubs, figuring out what you want
to do before buying, and getting a PS with more "headroom".
A 20-23 Amp power supply is not much more money
than a 12 or 15 Amp power supply. EX: The Samlex SEC-1223 (23A)
is only $10 more than the SEC 1212 (12A).
So when you get your first (12v) HF rig you are ready to go!

Sounds like you have a good VHF/UHF FM setup in mind.
But keep HF in mind, especially since you have a
large lot. Wow, I would love to have 2 acres! 
Remember, you already have Phone privileges on 10m from
28.300 to 28.500. (And CW & Data 28.000 to 28.300)
Also, CW on portions of 15m, 40m and 80m.

Go to some club meetings and make friends.
Stick your hand out and introduce yourself, don't wait
for people to come to you. By all means tell people
you are new,what you plan to do, and ask what they recommend.
(After all, they will know the repeaters in the area and
their capabilities)
Often some nice folks will lend you a 2m rig or dual
bander so you can get on the air and check it out.
And you can also visit their stations and actually
see and hear what works for them.

Bear in mind that you might want to consider saving
up your money and buying a used "Shack in a box"
HF/VHF/UHF rig such as an IC-706MkIIG, FT-857D,
FT-100D, FT-897. Then you would have HF and
VHF/UHF FM AND VHF/UHF SSB!

GL, hope to meet you on the air!
73, Ke  AD6KA

I guess the consensus is "Yes they work but take care". 
Like the man said, best to telescope it out only when
you need to.

Almost any after market antenna will work better
than the factory duck (except maybe those "stubby" things!).
I have a Comet 19" flexible whip on my VX-150 and it works
much better than the antenna it came with. It's a great HT
for hiking. I've dropped it several times, no problems.

The FT-60 uses an SMA antenna connector, if I am
not mistaken, so you will need the SMA->BNC adaptor.
(HRO gets $8.99 for those, and the Icom version is $18.95!)
I have not seen a telescoping HT whip in SMA, but I
could be wrong.

For hiking emergencies, I have been thinking of making
a "roll up" J-Pole out of Ladder Line fed with maybe 12-15'
of RG-58 or RG-174. Toss it up in a tree if I am in a place
where I can't get out well. (Though %95 of my hiking is
in the hills above L.A., where I can hit many repeaters
AND have cell phone service. But every other year my family
goes to Yosemite, where there is a repeater above the Valley).

Has anybody tried the "roll up" J-Pole? Or wouldn't it work all that
much better than a long whip? I am more of an HF guy!
73, ken  AD6KA

Almost anything will radiate and "work" per se.
People have run coax to a balun and a 250w light
bulb 10 feet in the air and made contacts.

But a vertical will just not work very well without
a radial system. And I don't think that 8 14' radials
will work very well except perhaps on 10-15-20.

Can you put a shorter, loaded vertical like a 5BTV or HF6V
with two tuned radials for each band up on the roof? This would
work a whole lot better than a 43' vertical on the ground
with just a ground rod. If you don't want to or can't put
up radials on the roof, maybe a counterpoise type vertical
like a Cuschraft R8 could fit the bill for you.

I would weigh any advantage you get on these
long telescoping HT antennas against the fact that
over time they WILL put a lot of strain on the
antenna connector, possibly breaking that connection
inside the radio.

Some of these antennas are 3+ feet long, and
they act like a lever if you bump them into anything
or anyone, putting a lot of force on that BNC or SMA connection.

I might carry one in my backpack to use in an emergency
while hiking, but I wouldn't leave it on the radio as my
"every day" antenna.
YMMV.
GL ES 73, Ken  AD6KA

Agreed.
Just get on the air and have fun! 

Do you know how many city hams (like me) who would give
their right arm to be able to get their antennas up 70 feet?
You are lucky my friend, count your blessings.

GL ES 73, Ken  AD6KA

What transceiver and microphone are you
currently using that you feel you need an outboard
Speech Processor?
A mic upgrade might be a better value in the long run.
73, Ken  AD6KA

Suggest you register and post this question
(and perhaps the reason/problem you need
the schematic for) on RadioReference.com.
http://forums.radioreference.com/

LOTS of very knowledgeable scanner enthusiasts
at that site. They've been very helpful to me in the past.
73, Ken  AD6KA

For CAT control of the 940 you will need a Level Converter/Interface Board.
Kenwood made one for the 940 but they are now scarce as hen's
teeth. Most folks use the Piexx unit made specifically for the 940:
http://www.piexx.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7&products_id=20

It uses a DB9 connector. Since most newer computers don't
have Serial Ports anymore, you will also probably need
a Serial-USB converter cable. If you are running Windows 7 or
better, suggest you make SURE you get a cable with the FTDI
Chipset and drivers . I know I sure had problems with generic Serial-USB cables
on WinBlows 7 that worked just FINE with XP!

GL with your CAT setup and 940.
I own a 940 but have never tried CAT control of it.
I DO sometimes use CAT control with my PROII and HRD.
73, Ken  AD6KA

Yup, we all have made similar and dumbass mistakes.

I remember bringing home my brand new Kenwood TS-940S/AT.
At the time it was my very FIRST "bought new in the box"
rig. Was I excited! $2,500 1986 bucks! Fired that puppy up and
NO AUDIO on receive. OH God, NO!
Twenty minutes later I figured out that it left the
factory with the RF Gain turned all the way down. DOH!
73, Ken  AD6KA

While it sounds like the KX-3 is really an outstanding
radio, for the newcomers remember that you don't need
to spend a kilobuck ($1k) to have fun with QRP.

There are a lot of really great kit QRP monoband kit rigs for
SSB, CW and digimodes for $150 and down even to $30 for
the Small Wonder Labs Rockmite. (If you don't mind
being rockbound).
http://smallwonderlabs.com/Rockmite.htm

For 20m SSB the BITX20A is nice,
though they now force you to buy their enclosure.
And LOTS of great mods out there on the Net for it.
http://www.qrpkits.com/bitx20a.html
(Though it is outclassed by the long discontinued
SWL White Mountain 20).

For those with the stones to try 80m QRP SSB, the
MKARS80 by RadioKits.UK is a terrific value and
another fun build, and comes with a digital frequency
display, usually an extra $ option on most kit rigs.
http://www.radio-kits.co.uk/

It's too bad that Small Wonder Labs discontinued
their popular PSK Series monoband PSK-31 rigs,
but you can still find used assembled units, and
once in a blue moon an unassembled kit.

If you think making DX QRP contacts with a store bought
rig is cool, wait until you do it with a $100 rig that
you built yourself! We're having some fun now! 
73, Ken  AD6KA