I understand that Del is SK. Too bad...what a colorful character!

My high school principal was pretty cool. He allowed me to install a 6 meter repeater in the main school building! The building was on top of a pretty high hill in southwest Baltimore, and being a good distance away from residences made a great 6 meter site. Of course, with TV Channel 2 in town there wasn't a lot of 6 meter activity, but it was still fun to brag that I had a repeater at my school! :-)

Yes, I know the Post Office is supposed to have them, or order them on request. But the few Post Offices near me (the same staff cycle around to all of them) say that IRCs don't exist any more, they can't get them, etc. And yes, I have directed them to Section 372 of the International Mail Manual; they still won't budge. Does anyone know of a way to buy IRCs online, or at an alternate location?

Don't forget that Herman Munster was a ham. As I recall the episode started off with a couple of FCC officials discussing what a wonderful thing it was that another ham radio operator would soon be taking to the airwaves! I believe Herman's call was W6XRL4. Now we just have to figure out how those kids' Channel 14 walkie-talkies ended up on an Amateur band (must have been 10 meters!)  <:-)

Has anyone else ever seen what is possibly the worst ham radio movie ever made? It's called "High Frequency" and the plot involves a teenage ham in the US who QSOs with a ham somewhere in the Alps. Bad guys get involved, there is a lot of shooting and I really don't recall how it turns out! I do remember that propagation was never an issue. The premise for the plot was OK but the movie itself was pretty bad. I happened to find a VHS copy on eBay about ten years ago and haven't watched it since!

I had the opportunity to visit AES in Las Vegas while on a business trip last year. Nice store, but I found the staff I dealt with to be rather standoffish and not very helpful. I probably wouldn't return to that particular store.

All good suggestions, and all good possibilities as many of the factors mentioned have come into play here. Conditions have been very dry (serious drought), and it is entirely possible I have a flaky electrical system, as the house is nearly 100 years old and still has signs of the original electrical system (the old screw-in fuse panel is still on the front porch! But long since disconnected...)

Maybe I should have an electrician come in and give things the once over; if nothing else, for peace of mind. If it isn't too expensive, maybe have a dedicated line run just for the radios.

Hi all. I have a problem I've not encountered before, and I've put together a lot of hamshacks. I am running my HF rig, Yaesu quad bander, and a 220 mobile in the shack all using an Astron RS-50M power supply. Occasionally when I go to connect the coax jumpers from the rigs to the feedlines (I always disconnect the feedlines when not in use) I get a small AC shock from the PL-259s. This happens no matter which radio or antenna I am connecting. It isn't always, just once in a while.

The VHF/UHF antennas are all grounded, as is the mounting pole. HF antenna is a Windom. Logistically I have no way to run a proper ground for the equipment. Does this sound like a grounding problem? Would an "artificial ground" such as MFJ carries be a viable solution?

Thanks for any help you can give.

Hy-Gain and Hustler are two different manufacturers.

From your description it sounds like the antenna is a Hy-Gain AV-14AVQ. It covers 10-40 meters and is a fine vertical. Google AV-14AVQ and you'll find lots of information on the antenna, and you can download a manual from the Hy-Gain website.

Years ago there was a gentleman (now SK) in the Baltimore area who would put on antenna demonstrations using antennas made from paper clips. I think he was using frequencies around 2300 MHz and could demo radiation patterns, gain and all kinds of interesting stuff for just about any kind of antenna you could think of. All made from paper clips. Pretty fascinating stuff.

147.300, +600 offset, 103.5 tone. Call sign is WD4WDW. I believe if you contact a member of the club you can get a special QSL card...but don't quote me on that!

You might also want to check out one of the "off-center fed" dipoles such as Buckmaster or Alpha Delta offer. You can also easily build your own with a 6:1 balun. Lots of good info on either of the above-mentioned manufacturers' websites.

Thanks for all the replies! I also had a mechanic friend suggest using one of those "grab tools", with a small claw on the end for picking up dropped screws and the like. It should be small enough to fit inside the fiberglass tube and snag the end of the element. I'm going to try that tomorrow.

In trying to assemble a Diamond V2000A antenna the instructions show the elements within the two fiberglass sections connecting together with a set screw. The element in the top section of my antenna is WAY up inside! First of all does anyone have a suggestion as to how to get to it (it's probably 6" up in there), and second will I do any damage by pulling the element down far enough to connect to the bottom element?