Hi Phil

As flat as Missouri is, my Creve Coeur home was in a virtual black
hole. There was a microwave installation that blocked me to the
northeast and several large steel buildings between my house and our
local repeater to the east. But to the northwest, I had no trouble
bringing up even the Columbia University repeater most days.

Since I'm new here, I'm not quite sure where Kingston is yet, but I'm
quickly getting used to the fact that what I considered a LONG DRIVE
in the St. Louis area, is just a SHORT HOP to the store here, hi
hi.....
We'll have to get together for an eyeball one of these days!
I missed the local hamfest which I really wanted to attend and get to
meet some faces.
Perhaps you can tell me where the local CANDY STORE is around these
parts. That's part of the reason I'm not up and running yet! Need
STUFF to get everything back up and on the air.

I enjoyed CW for umpteen years, it was my favorite! But then along
come distractions (rug rats) and limited time and I finally switched
over to voice where I could skedaddle quickly if need be.
I'm semi-retired, but often keep so busy, I wonder how I ever had time
to work in the first place.

Plus, I didn't know if where I was living would be temporary or
permanent. As of last friday I know it will be permanent, we bought
the place! So, now I hope to get set up before winter, but there are
many other more pressing issues to take care of now that we know we
will be permanent residents at this location here in south Knoxville.

TTUL
Gary

Hello Gary,

I guess the best components store around here would be Shields. I'm pretty
sure they have a web site. I usually order whatever I need from Mouser.

Kingston is about 20 miles west of Knoxville on I-40. Welcome to East TN,
congrats on the acquisition, and I hope you have a high tolerance for orange.
The locals get a little carried away with that around this time of year. I
am originally from this area, but I have spent a lot of time living elsewhere.
I guess I liked Memphis and KY best.

The Sevierville hamfest used to be (and may still be) one of the first ones of
the year, and it was a pretty good one. Oak Ridge or Clinton also has a nice
one. I believe Knoxville has a couple each year. I try to go to them when I
am not working, but I work a really strange schedule. I imagine e-Bay has had
a major impact on the hamfest business. I have been looking there for 222 MHz
equipment with the idea of getting into meteor scatter on that band. I
started out with an old TS-711 and an eleven element beam my dad got from Army
Mars years ago and discovered high speed CW and meteor scatter, and things
sort of grew from there. I now run a TS-2000X and deliver 1.5KW to four 9
element elevating yagis on 2 meters. I picked up my current callsign when I
decided to get into EME since WB4KMH would be a bit much to use in such a
difficult undertaking.

I hope you enjoy your time here in East TN. The weather usually isn't too
harsh, and the mountains are very colorful in the fall. Hope we hear you on
the air soon.

73, Phil - N1KI



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Hi Phil

Thanks for the name of the Candy Store!

Besides the killer orange, I live very close to the War Zone where the
touchdown BOMBINGS take place, hi hi.....
Thought I was back in Nam until I was told what it was!

My step son is going to school in Memphis, so far he has had one car
stolen, two destroyed beyond FMV by vandals and theives. Far cry from
what it was years ago when I stayed there for a few months.

Of all the years I have been a ham, I never got into to many of what
could be the interesting parts of it. When I first started, all the
locals were on 6 meter AM, my rig was a used Heathkit Sixer
(Lunchbox), just sold it before moving down here to Knoxville, along
with most of my Heathkit gear.
My first 40/80 CW transmitter was a home brew job and I used it for
years. Using a Heath HR10B for the receiver. I finally built an
HW-101 in the early 70's and used it for over 20 years.
It was when I finally burned out on CW that I found the need to
upgrade to something that handled voice a whole lot better. So I
purchased a used 830-S and have been using it ever since.
Plus the array of HT's and old equipment I would keep barely working.
I really hated to let almost everything go, but you just can move 20
years of accumulated junk very easily. I still had 7 trailer loads
when I moved south, but that included one small business I retained
too.

I will probably live out the rest of my days here! It's nice country
now and will probably shift in the area I'm in downward, but I can
hope for the best. I can't visualize having to move again, hi hi.....

I do hope to get back on the air before winter sets in! I finally
made life member status at our local repeater club (no more dues, hi
hi) Then I up and move! Figures.

TTUL - 73+ de Gary - KGØZP