My business-band 900 MHz two-way radio is installed in the glove box of my 2006 Jeep.  The last four cars I've driven have had mobile radios installed in the glove box.  Sometimes this required removing a small portion of the back of the plastic glove box with a Dremel tool.  That is easily patched or replaced (or ignored) when trading the vehicle.  I remoted the microphone to the driver's side of the center console.  The remote speaker is up under the dash.  It's the type of installation we've done for years in undercover police cars.

Your two meter radio is, no doubt, smaller than my commercial radio.  And, keep in mind that business band and public safety radios tend to stay on the same "channel" for long periods of time, so access to the front panel being limited is often not really an issue.  If you monitor the same repeater frequency most of the time, this could be a mounting option for you.  If not, it might spur some creative thinking.

73,

Terry, WØFM

KE3WD: 

Wow.  I'm sorry that you read something in my post that wasn't there.  There was no "derision" or "race baiting".  I am a professional musician.  I have good riends who are Hip Hop and Rap artists.  They happen to be black.  I also have white friends who have performed in Lawrence Welk's Orchestra (Google Kenny Trimble, Trombone).  BOTH RAP and WELK were referenced in my post about an electronic term that I was unfamiliar with.

Am I guilty of being a 65 year old from the Midwest who was "ignorant" of a Silicon Valley term?  Yes.  But it's dangerous to make assumptions, so holster your flame thrower.

WØFM

"Computer mobo"?  I thought at first that this was a typo.  After reading further and seeing that no one had flamed the OP for the typo I started thinking hard about it.  Took a minute but then I realized "mobo" was probably Hip Hop Jive-five Rap talk for "motherboard".  Wow.  Old dawg learns something new every day.

Glad I solved it or I would have never slept tonight (and possibly even missed Lawrence Welk).   

73, Terry WØFM

Not an issue, Wayne.  People do that all the time.  Some are better than others, but if the have all the right information, it shouldn't matter to the recipient.  Most household printers today can do a decent job printing QSL cards.  One of my favorite cards was from a 10 year old ham in Rhode Island back in the late 1960's.  She had just gotten her license and I was something like her third contact.  She had no QSL cards, so she made the card for me from scratch using a plain post card and some colored markers.  Great effort!

The cards I sent as ZF2FM during my trips to the Cayman Islands were photos I took printed on photo paper stock. 


73,

Terry, WØFM, ZF2FM

Sure Bill.  Guys do it all the time.  I have received hundreds of standard post cards and picture post cards over the years that were re-commissioned as QSL cards.  Many have pictures of state or city landmarks, etc.

One note of caution.  If you send them without an envelope, make sure all the vital QSO information is on the BACK of the card and leave room for postmark and other USPS info.  The USPS today often puts barcode labels on the cards and that could interfere with info you need for the prized QSO.

73,

Terry, WØFM

NI3S - the old fixtures were already down.  The new fixtures did come with strain reliefs for the knock-outs, although, probably not the expensive $1.00 version you might have been envisioning   

K2DC - Don, that was the feeling I had but I had no idea of why it would take so long.  Like anything else that MOVES slowly: BUREAURCRACY!

WX7G - Spot on.  The electrician explained to me this morning, that, because the nicked insulation would be inside the fixture, at the end of the branch and feeding no other circuits, he could simply repair it with good electrical tape or heatshrink.  Had it been inside the wall or a junction box it would require more.

My problem is solved and I can enjoy my new lights while I wait for the Code to catch up with technology.  Thanks to all for the somewhat OT bandwidth.

73,

Terry, WØFM

Good point Lee. Unfortunately it is one of the first 6 possible solutions I listed for myself.  The upper cabinets go all the way up to the ceiling with crown molding on top.  The underside of each of the 10 cabinets (18", 24", 36") are already individually wired for line voltage (120 VAC).  Changing to low voltage would be easy, except for the fact that the existing 120V lines centered under each cabinet would still need to be removed or "capped" to meet Code.  I could do that with blank junction boxes under each cabinet, but that would still require un-nicked line wiring going into the junction box.

Yes, I could pull each upper cabinet, their contents and crown molding and carve up the drywall and studs, but its a large kitchen and it would be a huge task at this point in the project.  Which is another reason why a I am disappointed that a heat shrink insulation option, of the same specs as the existing house wiring insulation, looms so disappointing in my thinking.

Terry, W0FM

I had an unfortunate discovery last weekend while finishing up a kitchen remodel.  While replacing under cabinet lighting (120 VAC) I found that my pea-brained home builder apparently let his equally pea-brained common laborer install my cabinet lighting.  A sharp, "custom" hole drilled in the back of the light fixture for the Romex entry had, over time, nicked through the insulation on the hot lead.  Not the wire.  But I could see where arcing had occured around the hot lead and the fixture hole.  The fixture was properly grounded.  Probably the best sight for my eyes at the time, but still a scary thought.

There is not enough 14/2 hot lead to cut it back and "lose" the tiny nick and I knew what that meant.  But I searched the internet for a solution nontheless.  Being a ham for 50+ years and having built and wired many HV instruments and ham shacks, my thoughts naturally evolved around "creativity", but always returned to safety.  Obviously, there are only a couple of code-approved fixes in Missouri and most other states.  I can do a "two-box splice" or pull the Romex out of the wall and replace it altogether.  Either way, a gut-wrenching thought while looking at brand new tile backsplash and granite countertops.

So, to my point.  I know that technology has evolved to produce tough shrink tubing with voltage, temperature and fire ratings equal to or better than my 17 year old 14/2 Romex house wiring insulation.  So why does the National Electrical Code not allow for this type of repair?  Does it typically take a very long time for the Code to be updated to products available in today's technology?  A quick Google search revealed many examples of high-rated, UL approved, industrial shrink tubing.

I know a lot of elecrician hams watch these posts.  I would never jeopardize the safety of my family or my home.  A licensed electrician will be out in the morning to do whatever has to be done to replace this line to Code.  But I'm not thrilled at the thought and I sit here scratching my head about the technology and today's NEC.

73,

Terry, WØFM   

Very nice, Dale.  You really have the magic touch for these things!

73,

Terry, WØFM

Was the farmer's daughter in that van with you Tom?

73,
Terry, WØFM

Fred,

Can I assume you've already tried the obvious?

A "MOP"?   

Good luck with the tower.

Terry, WØFM

Jim,

Are you saying that even though the old Flying Horse Callbooks said "Spring 1963" or "Winter 1964" on the cover they were really only printed at the beginning of each year and sectioned into "seasons" by the new license data available for that year? 

Terry, WØFM 

Hi Tom,

I've tried a number of "passive repeaters" in commercial VHF/UHF FM systems since 1975 and never had enough success to add them to my regular bag of tricks.  Sometimes they appeared to work to some extent.  Anytime a user needed just a pinch more signal somewhere the "passive repeater" would come up.  But the issue always seemed to be expense.  If a user needed just a little more signal into a building or room, they often could not justify the cost of a bi-directional amplifier.  The "duct-tape and bubble gum" two-way dealers would always quote the down and dirty pair of quarter-wave magmounts with a few feet of RG-58 connecting them.  Once the customer saw the low, low price of that kind of passive repeater, they would seldom even agree to the price of two good 8-9dBd Yagis with some low-loss hard line connecting them. 

We stopped wasting time with the passive solutions and began going only with BDAs or Distributed Antenna Systems.  Still, the determining factor was usually high gain directional antennas on the outside with an omni antenna inside and located as close to the area of desired coverag as possible.

73,

Terry, WØFM

You might try contacting Steve, W3HF.  He has a good collection of callbooks and has helped me in the past.  Also, the Quarter Century Wireless Association (QCWA) will help members track down call signs.

Keep in mind that most any Callbook research will only get you the calendar quarter of a specific year when a call sign was first published (Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall editions).  That means if it first appeared in a Fall, 1961 Callbook, it could have been issued anytime prior to the books publication.  So you can guess the date within a few months if you find the first Callbook that it appears in.  Good luck with your search.

73 de Terry, WØFM

I have the 269 that I use outside moving around my antennas.  It's very handy.

Ditto on Phil's comments.  I have both the original LP-100 and the LP-100A.  Great piece of "do-it-all" gear to leave in-line all the time.  Larry's products are fun to build and his support is first rate.

73,

Terry, WØFM