I'm going to start eating lard.  It's probably more healthy than most of the stuff Hostess makes.

I would cherish that card until the day I died.

I doubt that will be their price.  The new 2m/440 mobile dual bander is already priced at $289.

Placed an order for an LDG IT-100 tuner and an antenna switch at 2:41 PM and it was packed, shipped and picked up by FedEx at 3:23 PM.

I almost wet myself.

They beat everyone's prices and shipping was very reasonable.

Crimp only.

Made a rotatable dipole from two 102" SS CB whips and a MFJ-347 dipole bracket.  Works very well on 10m and 12m.

Also have an IMAX 2000. Great Rx / Tx on 10m and 12m. Fair on 15m. Bites on 17m.

Your story is similar to others.  It is difficult to get contacts on repeaters if you are "unknown" to the community.
 
My solution to the same problem was to check into all the local 2 meter nets, stick around and rag chew during the informal portion; then I joined the largest Amateur Radio club in my area.   Rag chewing shows your character to the community and generally assures them that you are not a mass murdering, Satan worshiping, axe wielding, drug crazed arsonist and mixing with the local folks face to face at meetings allays any fears that you may have multiple heads with horns.
It also helps immensely if you volunteer to work a shift at the Ham Fest and/or become an alternate Net Control Operator, but that can wait until they actually talk to you.

In regard to 146.520, unless you have a 10' to 12' Yagi or you live on a mountain, contacts on that freq are always rather spotty. I have excellent antennas and only hear activity there every few weeks.
I do recommend that you scan all the 2 meter Simplex frequencies and not just the call freq because ~90% of 2 meter FM Simplex occurs there. 147.505, 147.555 and 146.550 are the most popular in my area, I'm sure it's different where you live.       

Congratulations Bryan.
I started in SWL myself. It was fun and informative. Welcome to the new hobby.

I have a UV-5R myself and you will be surprised what you can do with 4 watts, good coax and a good outside antenna.  Remember to program some distant repeaters into your UV-5R, monitor http://aprs.mountainlake.k12.mn.us/ and when conditions are favorable you can "DX" more than a hundred miles. 

73,
Tony KE4VVF

When the price of essentials like meat, gas, bread and heating fuel have doubled in just a few years it is expected that Hams will gravitate toward inexpensive radio equipment.  Just wait until the latest round of Quantitative Easing, otherwise know as irresponsible money printing, devalues our dollars even more.  Yaesu, Icom and Kenwood may become something only attainable by someone who lives the "Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous". 

Frankly, Middle Class Hams have taken a huge hit financially and many find themselves in jobs making HALF of what they earned 5 years ago.   

Unfortunately this antenna is 25' away from any structure and it is at least 35' from the nearest tree.  I have it on a 20' mast set into a socket that is essentially in the middle of my yard.  The mast has only one antenna and is fed with LL400.

Bought a Jetstream JTB4 tri-band (6m, 2m, 70cm) antenna.  It has three radials, two the same size and one which is longer and appears to have a loading coil.  The long radial is for 6m.  Had it up a while and then replaced it with a 10m vertical. 

Just installed it again and noticed that 2m repeaters I used to hit easily were weak.  I rotated my vertical (yea, it sounds silly) and found that 2m favors the long radial direction by about S2.  Is this normal?  Will I see similar directionality on the other bands? 

Darn shame if I have to put a rotor on my omni.

I love the experimentation aspect.  Pushing the limits of technology is always fun.


On the facetious side, Amateur Radio is one of the few hobbies you can enjoy while only wearing your skivvies. 

Last time I went to the Shelby Hamfest was in 2001.  
How is it now since it moved?
  
I have been making my wish list and was wondering what to expect.

I use my Realistic HTX-202 almost daily and my mobile antenna is still the infamous Radio Shack 2m 5/8 wave (20 years old and still performing great.).  I wouldn't ever part with either of them.

It's unfortunate how far they have fallen. 

I have the FT-2900R and have to run 75 watts to hit distant repeaters.  After 20 minutes in round table discussions it gets really hot. BTW my SWR is almost perfect.   

The heat sink only designs work well for casual use but when you go over 25% duty cycle then they get very hot very fast, especially in a hot car during summer.  The only real solution is to add a fan or two.  My greatest hurdle to overcome is finding a thermal switch to turn on the fan(s) when the radio starts to get hot.