Question, to what extent do they care? imagine 4 million guys talking sex to their girl friends and jerking off while having a sex call - there aren't enough CIA/FBI etc guys to listen!

If a guy needed to contact a Middle East terrorist group with  a pre-arranged HF schedule, it would be very hard to intercept him, unless you know approximately where he is. Sad but true.

Any time you AM and FM at the same time, you will get assymetric sidebands. Question is , How Bad? Does it really matter?

I always felt it was good until it turned into '2m FM Repeater user monthly' in the early 70s.

I've found that clear nail varnish is very good.

KE3WD said

> I smiled and said, "really?" and then said, "thanks" and did not pursue it one iota further. <

Thus the tongue in cheek joke question.....

RSGB did not create IOTA: that was done by an SWL, Geoff Watts, back in the 1960s. RSGB took it over after he died.

Any equipment with slotted grub screws in the knobs should have them replaced by hex head grub screws. Or Bristol if you prefer. I always put a good smear of grease on the grub screws, too - especially with aluminium knobs or plastic knobs with aluminium inserts, but even with brass inserts. Helps no end when years later, that knob needs removing. Worth going to stainless steel grub screws too, but the grease is essential.

Unless of course, you don't aim on keeping the equipment and don't mind if some other Joe Soap gets the problem....

Was it the IOTA contest?

Check the wire from the slug antenna - make sure it isn't either Litz or bunched conductors with several fine wires served  with cotton, silk or a fine plastic serving.  You want a single conductor.

Especially somewhere that can see hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, brush fires etc, the first time hams are involved in EMCOM to help should be used as an excuse to ask for easement. If refused, the next time disaster strikes, ARES should walk away and tell the HOA and everybody who didn't want ham radio that it is their own problem. Cruel, but the only way to deal with these Nazis.

My first house had a covenant against antennas, but apparently in UK law, only the person or corporation putting the covenant in place can enforce it. The estate was finished shortly after I moved in, the builder who had put the covenant in place wasn't interested any more - no more houses to sell there! - so I put a 25 foot pole up at the end of the garden in full view of everyone.

Ran a doublet quite happily, and had a 5 ele 2m beam up on the side of the house.

Five years later when we came to sell, it turned out the buyer was ham, so he bought the antennas. Some neighbours walking by saw the For Sale sign and asked if we'd sell the antennas - we had four households of hams within 200 feet of my house. They were all VHF types, though.....This house has no restrictions other than planning (zoning, I guess in US terms)

Provided you can find an excuse to put up a TV antenna for Ch 2, you can gamma match the boom successfully, and work 10, 12, 15 or maybe even 17 metres by suitable tuning. N4KG suggested that to me for using a 5 ele 20m beam on 40 some 30 years ago...

Have a financial interest in the company?

Again, very true. There are also many who seem to think that DX stations have a magic transceiver that runs full duplex, so while transmitting, they can hear people calling them!

Lord save us from the lid with 1500 watts and stacked Yagis.....

With hearing aids using radio in the 900 MHz band, that could happen - especially if you use digitised speech and FSK modulation!

If it's tuning to 40m with 100pF, then it's about 5 microhenries. Probably a bit less to allow for stray capacity around the bandswitch.

That's true, but 40 is a bit easier. It always has been a great DX band.....If I was fighting a pile up on 40 for KP1, I'd want an amplifier even if only to 'make sure'.