N1OU, I vehemently disagree with you that fat ladies and exploding toilets are "urban myths".  Why, I see lots of fat ladies every day at the Safeway.  And as for exploding toilets, you should see mine in the morning after I've had a couple of cups of strong coffee!

I have been completely unable to use my retroencabulator due to excessive sinusoidal depleneration of its input signal.  Would anyone have a schematic and specifications for an appropriate depleneration filter?

Martin, I'm afraid I could never recommend that anybody get into ham radio because I value my credibility.

Thanks for the tips, Tom!  I have a Valiant too, which I am trying to get on the air, and I am sure I will find your advice very helpful.  I bought it only a couple of months ago.  My elmer, Lee Grabowski, K6UJR (SK) had a Valiant back in the late '50's and it is one of my earliest recollections about ham radio.  I have always wanted a Valiant, and now I finally have one.

I am very opposed to banning anyone from the board for anything they say.  The danger of restricting free speech is much greater than the danger that someone might be offended by another user's posts.  Banning people from the site is a slippery slope: Once you start banning people, where do you stop?  Example: QRZ.COM has a list of hundreds of people that they have banned.  Why is that necessary?  Has it made QRZ.COM a better website?  I submit that it has not: eham.net is a much better site, even though it has banned very few people. IMHO, we need more dissenting views on here.  I am really sick and tired of reading the pollyanna-ish posts from all the ham radio boosters who simply can't abide any critcism of our hobby.  If someone says something that offends you, then either respond to it rationally or ignore it.  

I've been a lawyer for over 30 years, a ham for even longer than that, and have tried to keep abreast of amateur radio law the entire time.  The people who are telling you that you cannot discuss your self-employment on amateur radio are just plain wrong.  The only thing that is prohibited is using amateur radio in order to increase the remuneration provided by your business, and you are not doing that.  For example, hams have a perfect right, as a matter of free speech, to discuss their investment strategies on the air.  You cannot use ham radio to advertise or facilitate the operation of your business, but you're not doing that, either.  Also, if someone asked you on the air if they could hire you, you would be required to tell them to talk to you about it on the landline.  Aside from that, feel free to talk to your fellow hams about your self-employment and just ignore the naysayer idiots.  They don't know what they're talking about.  

Yes, lots of hams are jerks. Other hams have occasionally told me that I am a jerk, too, but I know that's just not true.
But I have always found the salespeople at HRO, AES, etc. to be very courteous and helpful, even to an alleged jerk like me.

Hi, Mike.  I am running FreeBSD that I cloned off another computer, and it runs fine except for the video because I am using a different kind of monitor than the system I cloned.  I need to edit the XF86Config source code, I think.

Yeah, women are too much trouble!  I've got a hamster wrapped in duct tape instead.

Do any linux users out there know how to modify XF86Config to match your monitor specs?  Thanks!

No, I believe there is a rule change pending before the Commission that would upgrade all Advanced licensees into Extra.

Are you sure you haven't been banned?  Have you ever seen the huge long list of stations that Fred has banned?

I bought such a system from Fry's (the kind you have to run right down there and buy before they're all sold out).  It's a 1.6 GHz AMD K7 system with a 266 MHz bus, I think it is, and 128 megabytes of memory.  The $200.00 price quoted in the previous posts usually doesn't include a monitor.  I paid $150.00 for the computer and $125.00 for the monitor.  Got rid of Lindows and am running FreeBSD Linux, the fluxbox window environment and Mozilla which I was lucky enough to have been able to clone off another computer.  I still haven't got it working quite right.  It doesn't display video quite right because I'm using a different monitor than the system I cloned, and I don't understand how to configure the monitor using XF86Config.  If anybody could help me, I really would appreciate it.  Thanks es 73.

When are Advanced class operators going to be upgraded to Extra privileges?

When are Advanced class operators going to be upgraded to Extra privileges?