You asked  a direct question and I have a direct reply.  The Will county Illinois ARES was activated on 4-18-13 to staff shelters opened to house people displaced by river flooding.  There were no issues during this deployment.  Comms in the affected areas were handled by Police, Fire and Emergency Management personnel.
Art

Hi,
I guess that whatever works well for you is good.  I have a K1 which I use on 20 & 40 with either a 24 foot or 52.5 foot wire with the same length of counterpoise and a 9:1 UNUN.  Last summer I had a Slovenia contact using the 24 foot wire tossed up a tree in my backyard in the Chicago area.  With the 52.5 ft wire I have near 1:1 on 20 & 40.  With the 24 foot wire I have between 1:3 and 1:5 on both bands.  Go out and have fun.
Art

Robert,
The mod looked straight foreward to me but I chose to have the ICOM shop in St. Joseph Michigan do the mod.  The radio was sent
from AES to the ICOM shop for the mod and then to me.  The cost was $35 and the job took about a week.  You will enjoy this
radio on the MARS bands and it is easy to use in mixed mode nets.
Art

I thought that this was supposed to be a hobby but sometimes I wonder.  There are those that have disposable income and they usually sit and read this stuff and seldom comment.  They are using the likes of Rhode & Schwarz or Harris.  Myself, I like the Harris Falcon.  These are all made in the  US of A.  A bit pricy but they do work.
Art, N9AOP

I know how good that contact felt.  Last summer I worked Belgrade with my K1 and 24 foot of wire tossed up a tree.  You could actually take a hex beam with you but you would need a sherpa or a sturdy YL to pack it.
Art

I have been on a few state sponsored comms exercises where we had to be self sufficient.  You would be prudent to plan on being self sufficient for 72 hours.  This means food, water and medicinals.  36 hours was the longest that I had to go but in an actual disaster area deployment, it may take a couple of days or more to get supplied.
Art

Hi Mike,
I am a team leader with ITECS#3 in Will county.  This is one of the state's comm units on a trailer.  Since short vertical antennas are generally not that efficient, I prefer a wire which is cheap.  For NVIS I use either a 124 foot or a 52.5 foot length.  This is set up as a short inverted L and fed at the base thru a remote tuner.  Attach end of the wire to the antenna feed on the tuner.  Run it up on a support about 12 to 16 feet and then out as far as it goes.  This way you only need two supports.  I use the surplus 4ft military fiberglass masts stacked together.  Attach another wire of the same length to the ground connection on the tuner and run it out on the ground under the elevated wire.  If you don't have a remote tuner you can use a 9:1 UNUN and it will perform just about as well.  I have used this setup on MARS nets and have had good comms with Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Iowa.  As I said, this doesn't cost much and any kind of wire that you have will work.  I was once on a field operation and used electric fence wire and it worked OK.  That vertical will work but you will have to have a good ground plane or use some radials.  Don't forget to adjust the stinger everytime you change frequency in addition to the wander lead.  Where do you need the signal to go to--Springfield or Langly?
Art

Hard to say.  I have an 811H with 572b's that runs about 2hrs a day and the tubes will be 10 years old in April.
Art

I did the mod on the FT-60 a long time ago and it was no problem as I remember it.  I did this to get on the local MARS repeater.  As far as using a modified HT to get on a police or fire frequency to call for help in these days of 2 cellphones in every pocket I would be wary.  There are some agencies in this area that are downright anal about anyone using their frequency that is not authorized to do so.  They will probably thank you profusly for doing your civic duty and confiscate your HT.  You'll most likely get it back in court (maybe) but the lawyers fees will cost more than 4 radios.  I am not judging whether this is right or wrong, only that it is a fact of life in this area.
Anyway, go and mod the FT60--you will find it an easy job.
Art, N9AOP

I have a tin of Kester soldering paste that I bought in 1962 or 63.  It works as good  today as it did when  I bought it.
You don't use this stuff very often and when you do you don't use much.
Art, N9AOP

Thanks WX7G, I did not know that.  Guess I should have looked at all their documentation.  Anyway that will simplify being able to try one out.  If it is as good as everyone says, I won't be sending it back.
Art

Did you mean just packet or do you mean pactor/winlink and winmor.

At one time I was an avid packet operator but today the digital sound card modes give you the same or better thruput with less equipment.  Sure, packet is true ARQ but over VHF and UHF the path is usually such that the S/N is adequate for flawless transmission and this has been tested throughout the county I live in.

If you mean pactor/winlink, this has a lot of usefulness in a wide area complete comms outage.  A good pactor setup is usually pricy.
Art, N9AOP

Begali-The threads on the adjustment screws are so fine that once set, it stays that way.  This keyer is a pleasure to use at over 25wpm.  For slower speeds i.e. 20 and under I like the Vibroplex Iambic set to wider spacing.  The Vibroplex has course screw threads but any shifting at slow speeds is not usually a problem.
Art, N9AOP

So far the comments have been interesting.  Certainly the radio has to be a good fit with the user and suit their needs.  I have a K1 which is crippled by having only 4 bands and no SSB.  However it is a great piece of work and meets my needs.

I do own TenTec products and the one thing I really like about them is the fact that you can try one of their products in your home and compare it to what you are using.  If it doesn't meet your needs then send it back and all you pay is the postage.

I would sure like to try the KX3 and see how it compares to my Orion2 but I don't see this happening until someone in the area has one since they don't offer trials of their equipment.  I value other users reports but need to personally try it.

To me I look more at size and what I am going to use the radio for assuming that they both listen the same.  The KX3 definitely has the advantage here.  The argonaut is larger and would probably need an external tuner.  If I am going to take that much bulk, I may as well take my ICOM 7200. 
Art, N9AOP

Early on I was told that when someone calls CQ DX, they are looking for a contact outside the country of their call.  What I would really like to know is what the record time of a CQ DX is.  In June I heard one that seemed to go on forever.  When the op called again I timed it and got 46 seconds from start to finish.