I had to come and ask the people with real knowledge, hams! Sure I'm licensed but I know there are a lot of true engineers here.

Supposedly the iphone4's metal band is segmented into various antennas. My first thought was, would the fcc approve a device where in normal use you contact the transmitting antenna? Second, in my informal experience, touching any antenna anywhere in the vhf or above range does nothing but bad things!

So now there are posts by users of the phone claiming their "bars go way down" if they hold the phone.

Any opinions on this? I'm puzzled by it! One thing is for sure, I'm not wrapping tinfoil around my ht and making that into a low profile antenna any time soon!

I had this happen a long time ago with a different keyer. You really should try to get the rfi out (choke outside the house, coil the coax near ant etc.)

But for me, I just switched to shielded coax for the key (thinner stuff used for audio) and that did the trick.

Ordered baluns, and other parts from radioworks.com. At first I was disappointed to see no real internet ordering, you have to call.

Well, I'm used to not so good phone service from the big corporations etc.., but fear  not here. Bam, my order was taken quickly, and I had the stuff in no time.

Plus, the manual for the baluns (covers many products) is full of useful info.

It shouldn't be a rarity that service is so good, but it's sadly true. Just not having someone at the other end of a phone wrestle with a computer, and have no idea what your items are is a nice change indeed.

When you get a good one you want to let others know.

Rick

Just picked up a th-f6a and was wondering what optinions are on mounting.

Yes its tiny, but I used to like years ago when I had a nice drop in for my old ht.

I take it there may be some kind of good way to mount it that someone discovered. Maybe just some velcro? Too bad they didn't have connectors like cell phones, with antennal and power connections for a drop it, that would be great!

Also recommendations on a speaker mic for this?

rick

I'm glad you replied, I didn't understand the mentality or purpose. I didn't realize the 10khz spread would help that much, figuring on one freq he would generally pick out one strong call at a time.

I have to say, even with 10khz it was still a big mess to my ears!

Ok, on the call, thought it wasn't legal to just should out your call in a non cq way. As a listener, all I hear is a guy saying his call, maybe not aware of the dx split, and clearly many of them aren't listening on their tx freq either (is that ok or not, not sure!)

The signal report comment was just that if he's giving out 59 all the time, like you said, why bother? I guess if rate counts you don't care, but to me I'd be curious.

Also, my new rig's bandscope is interesting as a pileup has quite a distinctive look to it! Easy to see!

rick

Oddly I just wrote this below in hearing just this thing.... being new I don't know what's normal, things sounded bad to me in terms of operating, elmer opinions needed since I've been out of it a while....
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Just getting a new rig and back into things, I never really worked much voice.

I've heard something though that I'm curious about. We know ssb takes up a bit more than cw, but how about taking up 10khz! To me that's quite a bit.

It's a pileup. A dx station transmitting on one freq, but listening on a wide range, say 14.220-230. So now we have the dx on one freq, and 10khz of pile!

That just strikes me as such a waste. Is working a big range doing anything useful? He can only work them one at a time.

Also, it seems most in the pile work illegally(?), just transmitting their call, not the other stations, and often just a few letters in the call.

Pileups can be fun I suppose but to me it was a big mess taking up a lot of space. Split makes sense to keep the dx station clear, but multiple listening freqs?

And everybody's a 59, not!

Or is it just me not being used to this sort of thing?

Rick

I've got a nice new ic756pro... boxed! I want to set it up in a room with kid (3yrs) access, and all those buttons are too tempting.

I need to put a desk up, and a lockable roll top type  is what I thought of as an option for hiding the rig. I wonder if anyone else has done other things to hide rigs from curious fingers....

rick

It still comes down to less cw-only band, right?

I'm not concerned about speed... I don't see why speed has to be separated into band areas. I guess a lot of hams don't like to scan around like I do, but I enjoy it. And there are wide variants in speed in the general band already, right?

Rick

ARRL talking about eliminating novice subbands (see http://www.arrl.org/news/stories/2001/12/21/2/?nc=1)

They mention: "A guiding principle was that no class of licensees would lose any privileges as a result of refarming."

What they want to do is stretch voice into the novice band.

But it seems like that's losing privs to me! Although you can operate CW in a voice band, the practicality would say no.

And even if so, it looks like if you're a general, you would not be able to do CW where you previously could in the novice area.

What does everyone else read in this? It sure doesn't seem like a win for cw use does it?

Rick

Final note, astron came, runs great and $10 off to help with my return shipping costs. Can't beat that.

Well I'm getting even more service....

My second new supply came and was new, but the other problem was rfi hash. After a while I decided for me linear was what I need.

So no problem, HRO will let me return and I'm getting an astron, no problem!

They're really great, and smart too. When I buy my 746 (or pro), I know I'm getting it there for sure. Service like this easily gets loyalty and repeat business.

Rick

If things go OK, it's easy to like a place. A goof is the real test.

Ordered an alinco 330 switching supply (cheap price there!). It arrived quickly, but oddly the warranty card was half gone, filled in the other half, and open. This clearly was used or a return.

I was expecting pain to get this resolved, but no. Barry Onigman replied fast and very nicely, and I got a replacement two days later, even before the old was picked up!

That's the real test. I don't mind the occasional mistake, it's the remedy that tells you where to buy.

Rick