"AND THE BATTLE RAGES ON....."

-

Yes fervent fans, the Divorce will continue into the next year!! (glad we didn't have kids - I'd be saying next century). On the bright side, going to court will sell and split everything, so in reality, I'll get more than I thought I would and she'll have to find a place to live. I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed living closer to work, and filling my gas tank once a month or so. But with enjoyment comes compromise - I'm in an apartment, not a house, so no outdoor antenna's, thus I'm an HF listener and a VHF-UHF talker!
-
Unfortunately, I had to sell off all my HT's, but if (BIG "IF") we get a bonus this year, I'll pick up another. I do like my Kenwood TS-480s so I can listen to 11m and 80m, but without many (or any) sunspots, all I get is static, so I spend less time on the radio. Fortunately, as a man, I have more hobbies than I can either deal with or afford, and some of these work fine in an apartment! Which reminds me, "Why is it, that men have a/or more hobbies than women?" I don't know how many women I've asked "So what hobbies do you have?" and get a "Why would I want a hobby" look back at me.
-
I still look occasionally on e-bay for some pristine transceiver or receiver (but it has to be "as new", but being a collector, and having to shrink down what I collect, I'll p/u and occasional cw key, I'm going to try to get one of every camera I've owned (35mm), and a few walkie-talkies. None of these take up much room so onward I go.
-
If you are a regular reader of my blog, well, you'll never know what to expect, but there will be radio entries as well - Oh, I almost forgot! I collect "Doc Savage" paperbacks, and back to the TS-480s, while it's a nice rig, I may move that out for something that will p/u HF-UHF (maybe another FT-817nb?). I really liked that rig, but had to sell it to make ends meet this year. As well, I have my yearly car maintenance to take care of, and other things not so fun (lawyer fee's, repayment of money borrowed, etc.).
-
As for the Doctor report - not all of the tests have come back yet. The last, and final test was a week before Thanksgiving and they said usually it takes ten days to get the results back, but because of turkey-day, maybe 15............and here we are knocking on Christmas Eve.
-
So, if this is my only December post, I wish you all a Merry Christmas!! And if I sneak another one in after Christmas, your mission is to email me with any cool ham gear you may have received (and of course, your opinion of it/them).
-

'Nuff Said

Woody

-

"Back To Cameras Again"

-

An electronic problem ended my love affair with my Minolta XK, but I still had the others. The year was 1989, and once again I found myself drooling at all the goodies locked up in the brightly lit glass cases.

-

It was like radio heaven, only for cameras. They had [have] new, used,rentals, accessories, and a very knowledgeable staff. My problem was that I was always looking for exotic lenses [used, of course] - especially wide angle lenses.

-

One day I happened to ask about some Minolta lens and of course the sales guy said "Nope, nothing used, but I can order a new one for you". The blood draining from my face, must have been the clue, 'cause as he stared at my bloodless, pasty white face, he said:"I know you've been in here year after year, only to walk out empty handed, so it's time you changed brands"

(SOMEHOW i KNEW THIS WOULD BE EXPENSIVE)

-

He went on to tell me about Nikon's, and how I could walk into practically any camera store in the world, and find a used lens, in the Focal Length I wanted. Not only that, there were bunch-O-bodies of various price ranges that these lenses would fit on. That was the day I became a 35mm Nikon man! I bought a beat up looking but perfectly functional F3, with a 43-86 zoom....."A good start", I thought.

-

It wasn't long after that the "fever" hit me. I love wide-angle for the outdoors, so my next purchase was a Nikkor 20mm 3.5 lens, and I probably shot 75% of my photo's with it. Next came "Normal" lens (much cheaper), and that kept me happy for awhile and I developed an itch for a 105mm f2.5 semi-telephoto, but razor sharp when it came to pictures!!

THE 105mm 2.5 Lens

-

I suppose next to my F3, the FE's were my next-in-line-favorites. I also owned an FM, and FM2, but the guy was right - I could walk into any camera store in whatever state I happened to be in, and fine what I wanted, "used".
-
Woody
-

"AS I WAS SAYING....."

-

-

Whew! tack on one more cat scan, and the unexpected loss of my left hand (death to two-handed typer's around the globe). It wasn't a stroke, and the last set of tests came back ok, so the neurologist just said "Lets wait six weeks and see if it's any better then". So I've been working on the index finger, and got it to uncurl, so I'm two finger typing now.

-

I haven't been putting off a new post because of the [weeeeeeell maybe a little], just busy, both at work and play. Work seems pissed off because they want some kinda date when I'll be 100%, and with light duty, I have to ask for help on 1 outta 3 calls -as least I'm not doing that 100mi. round trip drive from the old QTH and where I reside now.

-

PLAY?? I saw Cheech and Chong, live, here in Houston on Halloween night. A few weeks ago, I met THE man, when it comes to sci-fi, humor, and monsters! Any guesses? Geez, if chins could kill, my guess is there are quite a few dead guessers out there. Yes, here's a shot of yours truly with Bruce Campbell - and yes, I saw his newest movie making the rounds: "My Name is Bruce", and it goes without saying it was great. if you don't recognize the shirt I'm wearing, it's from a movie he wrote and directed - "The Man with the Screaming Brain"

-

Sold most of what I bought with my bonus money [rigs], and it was easy to see that people are putting food b4 radios this fall, which explains about our economy to me more than anything else - especially at the give-a-way prices I saw, and had to experience when selling.

-

Yep BC likes to do Q &A's with his fans

-

Divorce coming to a conclusion......makes me wonder what i'll end up with. Still waiting on items, books, camera lenses and bodies I owned pre-marriage, and once again - that's all I have to say about it.........

-

So, not so bad for limited typing, eh?

Regards, Woody

-

NOTHING ABOUT MUCH

-

I've had quite a few e-mails about the divorce, my website, and my picture change.

1. DIVORCE - Still ongoing, still don't have my radio stuff, and I've paid out around 26k so far for "Spousal Support". Other than that, I have nothing else I want to say about it.
   
2. WEBSITE - It's down probably until the first of next year. It's still there, nothing has changed.
   
3. PICTURE CHANGE - I've had a lot of MRI's, CATscans, etc. and I made copies of some because they look cool and it is ME.
   -
   

ON TO OTTER THINGS

-

You may be disapointed, but it's not radio related. While back I noticed that there seemed to be a weird coincidence between HAM radio and Photography. I noticed this back when I was working at Compaq (when Compaq was still Compaq and it felt more like a campus than a sweatshop.)

That got me down memory lane. My dad loaned me his rangefinder when I was 13 (just to make sure it wasn't just another way to spend his money), and after awhile, and with the help of his financial resources, and money I had made picking tobbacco, I got my first genuine SLR Camera, the Hanimex Practika. It was loud, built like a tank, used screw in lenses and was not very expensive, but I liked it. I took photos of just about everything - and my dad built a darkroom in the basement, so I didn't have to worry about developement costs.

A friend of mine at the time took me over to his house, where his dad had a darkroom too, and his camera preference was the Honeywell Pentax. My friend was not into photography like his dad though. I think I kept the Practika for about a year, and after 12 issues of Popular Photography, my sights were set for a Minolta camera. My choices were the SRT-100, 101, or 102. The 102 had split screen focusing which I like, but I could only afford the 101 after trading in my Hanimex and some cash. The Minolta line lasted almost two decades, and I never had any complaints. That first 101 was chrome and black, so I added an all black one to my collection, then skipped the 102 for Minolta's challange to Nikon - The Minolta XK. I was hooked on that XK! For the first time I could change screens and there was so much electronic features my head spun around.

I used the XK on two road trips to Southern California, and the pictures were perfect, with many being blown up to 16x20 and framed for gifts or to hang on my own walls. But the more I got into it, I found that many accessories and special lenses were hard to find used (much less new) and the new price was just too much. I think I hung around Camera Exchange quite a bit back then (we're now in the 80's). The XK had crapped out with and electronic problem that cost more than I wanted to pay, so I was back with my two 101's.

(To Be Continued)

-

JUST TO SET IT STRAIGHT

-
You'll see some of my items going out forsale from my separated XYL. To some extent it's wierd seeing 16 years of stuff I've bought being sold. But that's the way it goes....
-

• The difference is that I would buy a dead rig that looked MINT and then hope to run across a dog so I could switch the insides out. Many were missing either power cords or microphones, or both, and she references an old name "CBGAZETTE" which in my thoughts, makes the buyer willing to trust everything is for sale (heck, I didn't even have time to test most of them for that matter.) With books and similar items, you don't have to worry if it works or not. But on others, you should ask questions like:
• Does it have a microphone?
• Does it have a power cord?
• Have you tested all the channels? if a sideband radio, is LSB and USB both working?
• If it's a microphone: what is it wired for and does it work
• So you get the idea. I just don't want you getting stuck, or her with a ton of refunds. If you scroll back to '98 or so you'll see when I was selling of that account, but she wanted to sell some other stuff and I started my own, which is not related to Collectmenots.

Regards,

Woody

-

"AND I THOUGHT I WAS THROUGH WITH THE LAST POST....."

=

I received some input on the last post where the writer thought the difference from 70's rigs and todays were black and white. Yes, today's radios have all sorts of features you could almost imagine, he mentioned DSP as one of them (ed. - of which I'm not a great fan of), but true the newer rigs have more features in them, however, if you're young, on a budget, etc. You can still make plenty of contacts using older equipment, or even something you made yourself.
=

While I included price charts I did not include any pictures, so let the slide projector roll....

-

ICOM-751

Depending on what filters it has in it, or if it has the optional internal PS,

and the market at the time it's posted, you can pick up one w/o options in the

$300 price range. The "A" model had some improvements in it which usually

makes it more expensive than the non-"A" rig.

- The Kenwoods TS-430S, still a great talker after all of these years.

The Kenwoods TS-820s, Hy-brid rig runs more than the TS-520but both are still great talking Amateur radios.

This is one not mentioned in the earlier post, it's a Yaesu FTDX-560, all tube,probably weighs in at around 70lbs or so. But this is an example of an older rigthat would work fine, but it's more of a collectors item now, so pretty pricey.
=

Also an older, yet solid-state model, the Yaesu FT-7

=

One of the famous Yaesu FT-101's (This one is an "EE"), and they still command what i consider to be a great value with little to no depreciation. In the 80's you could find them in the $200-$400 range, same in the 90's, as well as 2008. If you make a good purchase on a nice 101 today the chances of losing a bunch of money when it comes to sell it, is very low, and depending on the market, you might even make a few bucks!

The 101 series did have one model with a built-in digital display, that being the FT-101ZD
=

Once again, an example of an older rig that sells for what you could buy a new rig with, the Yaesu FT-102

-

This is the Yaesu FT-757GX. Yaesu sold a ton of 101's, and I'd have to attribute that to it's ability to be put on the 11m band relatively easily. The 757 was a huge hit, and Yaesu continued the trend making 11m possible by merely moving a switch. Both this and Kenwoods TS-430 were similar sized and featured.

-

Of course, my viewpoints in the last two posts are mine an mine along, and others certainly do, for instance I received my new QST and there was an article touching on the same subject "Your First Rig", only he was seemed to be leaning towards new rigs. And, hey, if you're an adult and have the $$$ more power to you my friend. I'm just thinking about a Jr. High or High School kid who wants to be a HAM, but doesn't want to blow his extra XBox funds on a new rig. I'm also thinking of the high schools who still have "Basic Electricity" and "Electronics" classes, and those who want to build something with their own hands, customize, and talk around the world.

-

I'll leave you with these words of wisdom: "Buy what you can afford in a working rig (used or otherwise) but save the planning, and a good chunk of $$$ for the antenna, because without a good antenna system, it doesn't matter what you're talking on".

-

Have a GREAT weekend!

'Nuff Said,

Woody

-

WELCOME NEW HAM OPS !!!!!

-

You've been living in a world of FM either by HT or a mobile rig in the car. In your case, you wanted a dual bander so you bought an HT, perhaps the Yaesu FT-60 or the like (under $200). But you went over to another HAM's "Shack" and was amazed with his HF rig......suddenly, you're world was turned over! Studying and studying, you took the GENERAL class license test - and passed! It was only after everyone had patted you on your back with the "Good going", that you realized you didn't have enough money to buy an HF rig (and you certainly didn't want to sell your HT)
-

First and foremost, you can buy an older, used rig for a decent price that will get you on-the-air in the wonderful world of HF. Sure, if you have the $$$, you can buy a new rig, but most HF rigs that are 30-35 years old will do the trick at a lower price.

-
Unlike computers, Amateur radios are not considered obsolete every year or so. Computers get faster, and as the get faster, the Software gets fatter, so in would be very painful (if not impossible) to run XP on a PC made ten years ago - and even if you could, it would be so slow you would not be able to use it for what it was intended for.

-
Radios on the other hand have had the same objective year after year - to contact another person a mile away or thousands of miles away, through the airwaves. So I can take a radio over 50 years old and either talk or use Morse Code to someone just as well as one of the latest rigs off the shelf.
-

Take a look at the chart above. This is for the Kenwood TS-520, which is mostly solid-state with tube finals (70's era). The price is consistently in the $200 range and would make a nice starter rig. It is Ham band only (no general coverage receiver), but has great audio and is resistant to a higher SWR, one that would shutdown a solid-state rig.

In the same category you'll find the Yaesu FT-101 which is solid-state except for the finals as well (like the 520 above, a 70's model). Many times you'll see one selling near or over $300 as the chart indicates, but I've seen them go for under $200 at times, you just have to keep a constant watch on Ebay and snap one up. I've never used the Kenwood, but have used (and still do) the FT-101 which had many different versions (101,101b,101e,101ee,101ex,101f, etc.).

=

Now the 101 never had a built-in digital readout, but they did offer the YC-601 external readout with big red digits. This was one of my first ham rigs, so I guess I always come back it from now and then......I guess throughout the years I've bought and sold at least a couple dozen.

The chart above is for the ICOM IC-730, which is all solid-state and sells in the mid-$200 range. BTW, before I go any further, you can always check on the reliability of this rigs by going to EHAM-REVIEWS which is filled with the opinions of your fellow Amateur Radio Operators. Unlike the Hybrid rigs like the 520 and 101, most solid-state rigs run on 12vdc and require an external power supply, so if you don't happen to have a 12v 20-25amp power supply laying around, you'll have to add that cost to your setup. You can find the ICOM matching power supply, or buy one from another vendor. Usually if you buy one, for instance a Kenwood PS-30 it's plug will fit and work on the Yaesu as well. I believe the same is true for ICOM, but never having done it before, I'm not going to say it will.


Getting a bit pricier, the ICOM IC-735, but the receiver is sharper and it is newer than the IC-730.(Usually,NEWer = More $$$)

The ICOM IC-740 and 745 still run in the 300-400 range

=

TS-430

=

FT-757GX

I'm skipping through the years, and there are many other models you could pick, but I had to mention Kenwood's TS-430 and the Yaesu FT-757GX which were breakaway hits because they were a lot smaller compared to a 520 or 101, yet not only did they have the HAM bands, they also had "General Coverage" receivers, for shortwave buffs, and other groups, including some on the 11m band, because by moving a switch or clipping a diode gave you General Coverage TRANSMIT as well. A no-no to do, none-the-less it was done to many rigs.
-
If you made a graph starting from the 50's to 2000, you'd find it looking like a "U", because the oldest rigs are now "Collectors" items (thus pricey) and the newer rigs are somewhat expensive as well. A good example of an older rig being pricey is Heathkit (pick a model, any model) and it can get out of your price range and quite a few others. My first HAM Rig was a Heathkit HW-5400 with matching PS/Spkr and regret selling it because whenever they come up for auction on EBAY, the price expensive!
-
With a little electronic knowledge behind you, it's possible to build your own rig. It may not be pretty, or have all the bands, but you'll learn things via mistakes, come to appreciate what you've done, and after you make your first QSO on it - pat yourself on the back!!
-
So there you have it......something to think about
-

"IS IT WORTH IT?"

-
With Gas prices zooming upwards, it becomes increasingly difficult to make the decision to purchase, or pass on that Ebay item you've been looking at. I've seen some pretty decent buys, but shipping costs were more than the rig itself, and I can understand why I see more sellers stating "Local Pickup Only".
-
As a buyer, you have to consider just how bad you want the item, and when selling, you have decisions to be made: Increase the price to make up for shipping, or charge a nominal amount and eat the loss. (At one point I was considering a roadtrip to pick up the item, vs. paying the shipping amount).
-
Granted, some sellers just "guesstimate" shipping (example: two tubes, and $15 to ship), but every time I drive by the local gas station and see the latest price, I cringe and wonder how FedEx, UPS, etc. can keep up with the changes.
=

"UPDATES"

=
I guess some of you have wondered if I was still around, or living under a bridge somewhere, but the first Quarter is always busy at work, and yes, the Divorce is ongoing, but there is light at the end of that tunnel.
-


I did make it to another horror/fear-fest recently, and met some nice folks. I had gone to get Director Neil Marshall's autograph, but he never seemed to be where he was supposed to be. I enjoyed talking with John Saxon, and bought his autographed book about his days filming with Bruce Lee.

=

Mr. Saxon is a photographer and he includes several 8x10's of the pictures he took while on the set, and yes, he looks in fine condition, so perhaps we'll catch him in another film sometime. At times, people found me, and...well....I got surrounded.....
=

But for now, I just wanted to get a quick update online! 73 - Woody

-

"THE CASE OF THE MALTESE CB...."

-


It was a hot and humid day in January, no different than any other winter in Houston, when, while scrolling through E-bay at work (Lunch time only of course) she walked into my life....."Help Me" she pleaded, "I don't remember who I am". Well, this was the first time a radio didn't know what it was, so naturally I was intrigued. I was also intrigued because - I'd never seen one like it either. Being the good detective I was, I knew that there were many radios sold under different brands, some looking the same, some not...but they were identical inside.


-


The seller of this radio said the ps had a Uniden stamp on it, but nothing else inside was marked. I would take a guess and say "YES, it's a Uniden made radio" but from what country it came from was still a mystery! Not only were was is a SSB rig, but also had positions for AM, FM, AND CW. Of course, the typical a-f band switch as well. This would probably be one of the early "Rack-mount" designs. So, I'm grabbing my grubby raincoat and hitting the streets once again, showing the picture at every CB, RADIO, or Pawn shop I run across - unless of course one of you know? Is there someone out there that can put a name to the rig? Let's see....
-

Woody