"Beachbum" wrote

Well, that was simple enough. EARCHI had a testing session this AM, and I
passed!

Congratulations! Now, that wasn't so hard, was it? ;-)

I've been listening in to a couple of the local repeater nets, getting a
feel for local practices and personalities.

Very smart: listen first, talk later.

Now comes decision time...Yaesu or Icom? I'm leaning to the Icom dual band
HT's right now.

Everyone has an opinion.... and of course there are multiple models from
each. Others with experience with them might chime in.

For the home portable/base, would a mag mount on the corrugated metal
carport roof work pretty well (vs. rooftop mag on the car)?

Either should work well, though the corrugated metal might not give enough
of a mechanical grip or enough capacitance for a good RF ground (have I got
that right?) ;-) There are three common antenna lengths (that I know of)
for mobile antennas: 1/4 wave, 1/2 wave, and 5/8 wave. The 1/2 wave and 5/8
wave antennas will give you a lower angle of radiation (i.e., gain over a
1/4 wave). Your QTH sounds like it's well above Honolulu proper, and you
could probably take good advantage of the longer antennas. And if you can
see other islands, you shouldn't have any trouble working stations on them,
too.

Howard N7SO