RANDOM NOTES.....

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By now you've all probably heard about the ICOM IC-706 being discontinued. Whatever stock remains - is "IT". By the same token, you'll find a lot of 706's coming up for sale or auction as some operators are taking this time to either get something else, or, start a bankroll for whatever replaces it. I've heard that the IC-7000 is the replacement (makes sense, as ICOM has slowly slid the price upwards in that last couple years making the monetary difference between the two not as great).

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I've owned several incarnations of the 706 so I wanted to make sure that if you were looking to pick up a used one, to know there were more than a couple versions. Many original 706's are still on-the-air, whether it be base or mobile and usually can be found for a good price. I may be incorrect (any 706 aficionado can email me for correction) but the biggest thing to know when buying the first model is that the finals (the same ones the Yaesu FT-100 has) were discontinued years ago, and while a few still lurk about - it can be a very expensive repair once you've jumped through hoops in finding them. If memory serves me right, they're in the $150-$300 price range depending on who is selling their dwindling supply. This isn't quite as bad as the FT-100, which had VHF-UHF from the get go, and the VHF-UHF finals are definetely nowhere to be found, unless you pick up another used FT-100 for parts.

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The ARRL has announced that they now have a FACEBOOK page, so I wonder if they'll supply additions to the game-for-the-inane - "Farmville" (like towers, antenna farms "Hey! so'n so needs helps raising his tower", etc.) Naturally, I'm joking about Farmville add-ons because it would be the low point of our hobby. I read an article in a popular PC magazine recently that really laid into the online game with a final thought that if Farmville people spent as much time doing REAL things as they did on Farmville chores (imaginary), they'd get a lot more real life items done with less roundtuit's. Another ARRL note: They have posted a complete report on new equipment on display at Dayton, in PDF format, which can be found HERE.

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"I knew I was poking a stick into a hornets nest..."

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HAM-LITE. I got quite a few emails regarding that post, so thank you! Some were concise, others funny, and few were...off the deep end, but I was expecting a variety of responses because I knew I was poking a stick into a hornets nest! Once again, tnx for the emails.

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READER MAIL. I'll have some reader mail posted soon, and several may have questions that you can answer (I couldn't, but someone can).

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73

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WOODY