On 29 Nov 2005 20:49:50 GMT, (Chuck Sherwood)
wrote:

First of all. What happed to rec.radio.amateur? It is not supported on
my server.

Second. I was a ham back in the 90s. I have been inactive since 1996.
I had lots of gear and sold it all because I was tired of the hobby.
I am beginning to regret selling some of it. I had some really nice
antenna tuners, Heathkit SM220, nice TenTec radios, VHF/UHF all mode
all the way up to 1.2G, etc. All gone.

Oh man, you sold it before the ebay craze. Sorry to here that.

I just acquired a Kenwood 520 to listen to the HF bands. It seems
like a nice basic radio that will do for a while. I really would like
to get on 80m but I don't have the room for a 80m dipole. Is the
matching Kenwood tuner a good one? I think it will be a while before
any good hamfests because of the Wx in chicago.

I just put up a vertical ground mounted Hustler 5BTV. Works great on 20-40-80.


I researched rigs on line and so far I like the Icom 746 Pro but
I'm not ready to spend that kind of cash.

I have the 746 non-pro. Works great. Watch out for the "Pro". It has a flaw
causing the TX to fail, that has yet to be corrected. Here are some searches:

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...om+746+dead+TX

Here are the eham.net reviews. Notice the non-pro has much less problems and
better reviews.

http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/176
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1951


I was also told that I can upgrade to Extra with just a written
test. Since my license expires in 2 years it seems like the thing
to aim for.

50 question. Read ARRL's Extra Q&A, and memorize the answers.



Vinnie S.