I'm looking at upgrading my old Icom 735 to something newer, but not "new."  I'd like to spend no more than $1500, but would like to get the biggest bang for the buck on a used radio.  What are some of the better options?  I've been seeing 756 pro II's going for $1200-1500 but not sure what other good stuff might be floating around in the used market.

What are people using for a good outdoor rope these days?  And where's the best place to get it?  My dipole is lightweight, I'd like to string it up in the trees here but want to use decent, fairly light weight rope that will hold up to the outdoor elements here in Minnesota.

I got a kick out of listening to the automated CQ calls for the sweeps contest today.  

I heard a few running together so fast that people trying to respond couldn't get their whole call in before the auto-announcer keyed right over the top of them.  Do those folks realize how annoying that is?

An interesting thing, the whole country is avaiable on 20 meters today, and who do I get one one of my first calls?  A good ham less than 10 blocks away. What are the odds of that?

Anyone else have some fun/interesting observations from this weekend?

I just gotta say what I heard this weekend was nothing less than annoying...

1. Guys running so much power that the are transmitting further than they can hear. I always learned that you sohuld use the minium amount of power to carry out a conversion.

2. Auto-ID's - Guys running their auto-id's is annoying enough, but some were running them so fast and close together that it made it really difficult to respond before before keying keyed over by their own ID firing again.

3. Guys arguing with each other as to who was on the frequency first.

Am I the only one annoyed witht he bands this weekend?  
       

Thanks for all the replies everyone!  

Anyone in Minneapolis (or west of want to help me hang this thing?  

I've already got 3 tennis balls stuck up in the trees from trying to re-hang the dipole this weekend!  

I’d like some thoughts/idea/advice on my antenna.  I uploaded a quick diagram to www.scottandjenny.com/antenna.pdf

I’m in Minneapolis and use primarily 20/40/80 meters with about 100w max.  I have a 102’ G5RV antenna about 20 feet off the ground.  It does okay, but the antenna is not real high.  I seem to hear and be heard the best to the southeast, like KY, TN, FL, GA.  It is rare that I hear foreign calls on any bands, but I’m interested in that.  I have a decent size lot but have a lot of trees to run wire through.  

On the diagram, it looks like the antenna cuts across the house, but it really is about 5-7 feet apart.  

My questions:
1.   What effect, if any, is the aluminum siding on the house going to have?

2.   How much of a difference will it really make if I can get the antenna above the roofline?  The trees are pretty tall, but I'm worried it's going to be a pain to get the antenna higher.

3.   How important really is it for the dipole to be straight?  If you look where the right side is attached, I’d like to attach it the next tree to the south, however I have another large tree in the way.  Wife won’t let me cut down any trees.  

4.   What general things can I do to improve performance with minimal investment?

Okay, so I have not had the radio on since about March.  Turned it on yesterday and heard a few conversations on 20, 2 on 40, nothing on any other bands -  I was getting nearly an s9 noise level all over the place.

I re-checked all the connections, moved power cords around, etc.  Are the band really that bands these days?

I heard them on this past weekend loud and clear in Minnesota.  Man, those guys work fast!  It was like listening to busy air traffic controllers.

This last weekend I made my first non-US contact with a Brazilian station using 75 watts from Minnesota. When we were done, another PY station hopped in for a few minutes.

I was pretty excited and told my wife that I just talked to Brazilian people. She tried to share in my excitement and said "Wow, that’s a lot of people! How many is a brazilian anyway?"

I’m so glad she supports me in this hobby.

Okay, if you've got the money to maintain a 7 series, why not spend $250 and get a dual band with a seperation kit?  That way, from the driver seat, you have a small remote head you can velcro up in front.

I've got an A8 and struggled with the same problem.  I mounted the radio in the trunk.  

I ran power, remote speaker cable and seperation cable under the plastic door sills and tie wrapped everything in the trunk.  My speaker is mounted in the passenger footwell under the glove compartment, nobody would ever know it is there.  The remote head is mounted using velcro on the face of the ashtray area.  For antenna, I for a 19" black whip and used a black lip mount I found at our local ham store.  It looks like it is OEM for the car, you'd never know the car had a radio in it from the outside and hardly notice on the inside either.  

Good luck!

Okay, so I’m a little intimidated to call CQ on 80 meters.  By the time I get the kids to bed and turn on the radio, it's usually 8-9pmCST and 80 meters is about the only band I hear with activity.  Unfortunately, most of what I hear is hams getting ripped on by other operators.  My wife, also a ham, isn't too keen on all the racist and sexist talk she hears on 80 either.  

Last night we heard several conversations where new stations popped into a conversation for signal reports or to say hi; they were referred to as idiots, jackasses, etc.  Then after the new station leaves the conversation, they go on to keep making fun of the last station.  

I also heard a k5 station calling CQ on 80, another powerful station came on and told him to "go find a pair of family radios and go bother someone else."  

I’ve been licensed since 1991, but have not done anything on HF until the last month or so.  It’s fun to hear stations from all over the country, but this kind of stuff make me not even want to bother with HF.  

Can someone please educate me on what the "real world" rules are on HF so I don’t get ripped?
 

I'm looking for a little app that would display multiple clocks on my screen, so at a glance I can see my time zone, utc, and maybe even a few other time zones.  

Anyone know of anything that might do that?

Just a follow-up - The antenna is fine, it was indeed technique.  

Since my original post, I have made a few contacts on 80, 40 and 20 - 100's of miles away.  I'm outside Minneapolis and was reported as 59 in Texes, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Nichigan, and a few other places quite far away.  It was quite exciting!  Thanks for your advice everyone!

Thanks Rick, I did have a little chat with a nice person at the FCC who was going to look into why I was listed as a tech.  Glad to see it got corrected quickly.  

John/K1BXI,
The VE did indeed send it in and I received my paper license from the FCC about 3 weeks later.  I will have time to call on this later today.  In the meantime I'll go back to /ag.  Thanks.