If you are old enough to remember the intro to "Sky King" - you may remember what kind of radio they used at the ground station.

Image here: http://home.kscable.com/fcr/mitch.jpg

I remember the guy on the ground clicking a toggle switch between receive and transmit.

I don't remember niece Penny being that "healthy", but I was very young back then.

There are more problems in this situation than you can imagine. The city council just appointed an ombudsman to deal with the harassment claims generated by this police department, so my next move is to get in that line and see what he can do. Obviously, when things get to this state, there are MANY problems.

Radio Shacks works as well as any other. In the catalog, on the web, maybe in your local store.

I'm having a problem with a law enforcement official who is very tenacious but not especially bright. He is obsessed with the fact that I own linear amps attached to modified CBs. I have repeatedly explained to Officer Unfriendly that linear amps and modified CBs are legal items for licensed amateur operators. I am an Extra with a GROL.

I have found the FCC regs that give us permission to build and modify linear and non-linear RF amps. I have found the Part 95 rules that forbid modification of CBs ( Thats why you never, ever hear of modified CBs, right? ). What I can't find are Part 97 rules that state that Amateurs are allowed to build and modify radios to suit our needs.

Is this privilege specifically stated in a rule, or merely implied by the absence of rules against it?

I have a Cobra 134 23 Channel SSB CB and a Realistic TRC-451 I want to move to 12 and 10 meters, respectively. Is there a web site with info on how to do this? A book? I remember some articles in 73 a few years ago, but I no longer have those.

Now, WHY the Q-codes. The letter Q doesn't get used much. The messages contained in Q-codes are common messages that take a while to send and tie up the frequencies. So they came up with Q codes to reduce traffic. If you hear the lettter Q, it's more likely to be a Q code than one of the few words that start with Q.

Regarding "Roger" for yes - in the early days they sent the letter "R" at acknowledge that the message was received. When CW military types moved to phone, they pronounced the "R" phonetically. They'd get an order, over the radio, "Roger" it, and perform the task. So Roger for received became Roger for yes.

As to "SOS" - it makes a distinctive sound. It did not mean "Save Our Ship".

Is there an easy way to find out who had your call sign in the past?

I just upgraded to Extra ( Yes, I'm a 5WPM Extra ). While they upgraded my license, I still have a renewal date of April 2002. I believed that upgrading your license caused it to be renewed at the same time, so I thought I would be good until 2010 by upgrading this year. Was I confused, or is this a new policy?

I am baffled by some of the wording in 47CFR97.317, Certification of External RF Power Amplifiers. Regrettably, I don't have a copy in front of me, but the baffling part goes something like this: An external RF power amplifier can not be certified if it has internal RF sensing circuitry that switches it to transmit mode, or if it has an external switch to put it in transmit mode. I don't have a finely honed legal mind, but it looks to me as if you can't have one if it works?