A few years ago I was chatting with one of my customers who had been a ham at one time. He asked if I might be interested in his ham gear. I told him "Sure! But there's always the problem of a lack of $$$." A couple of weeks ago our paths crossed again, and, after getting caught up he asked if I still might be interested in his gear. My response was essentially the same as the previous one...but this time he said "I don't care. I need the space in my storage unit...it's yours if you want it. Needs a good home. No charge." A couple of days later I met him at his storage unit & came home with:

A Kenwood TS-180S 160-10M transceiver.
Matching power supply.
Original boxes for both.
A Kenwood 2 meter mobile.
Hefty Astron 12V supply to power the 2 meter rig at home.
An RF analyzer.
And a very nice Nye-Viking straight key.
:banana::banana:

So...a couple of days ago I finished constructing the support for the garage-end of my dipole...now I'm working on the "house end". It'll be 35' tall or so...mounted away from the house about 8" on insulated supports & sitting on a Coke bottle for a base insulator. I'll have both a dipole & a vertical in one package. Once I get the little bedroom upstairs cleaned out I'll start putting all the gear back in place. It'll be cool:

Semi-modern SSB: The Kenwood.
Vintage SSB: My National 200
Vintage AM: My Knight-Kit T-60 & a Heathkit HR-10B I got from my brother-in-law.
General listening: RME-45 or one of my various S-38s.
MFJ tuner to match it all up.

Want to get everything shipshape well in advance of winter. Need to update the ol' sig as well:)

Nice rig, electronjohn. Very excellent performer. I liked them when they were new.

Ahh HATE Yew !.....-Yosemite Sam, Esq..(grin) Seriously, GREAT score ! And I can't really think of anyone more appreciative and/or deserving...

I got my first amateur license in 1972. First rig was a Heathkit DX-40 transmitter, Hallicrafters SX101A Mark III receiver with WWV (I liked seeing all seven tuning scales light up when the receiver's band switch was on the WWV position), and a 25-foot loaded vertical antenna permanently set for 40 meters. When the Novice ticket expired, I upgraded to Technician Plus and got back on HF with the DX40 and SX101A, but by this time I had moved back to my hometown -- which meant a new antenna. I put up a trap vertical for 80 through ten meters, and fed it with the DX40 in the beginning, then with a Tempo "ONE" 240-watt all-band transceiver, then with a Kenwood TS-530, and finally, with an Icom 9-band 100-watt rig I had won at a hamfest. I used these three rigs to work 49 states and a handful of foreign countries with, by now, a 70-foot dipole in my back yard. Skipping the details, I had to give all this up in August 1999 when the antenna came down and I found out, shortly thereafter, I would have to move. This meant, once I was settled in the apartment in which I live today, I had to give up high-power hamming, which left me with only 2 meters using a handheld with a local repeater. Much later, I discovered EchoLink, which was developed by a New England amateur (Jonathan Taylor, K1RFD) in the '90s and enables licensed hams to communicate in real time with each other over the Internet; no antennas required by user stations, although it is a bit more complicated if you want to operate your own repeater or link station using the software and a hardware interface unit. I installed the software on my computer, validated my callsign, and was on the air, in a manner of speaking, in minutes after that.

The program is still on my computer (I had upgraded from Win98 to XP a year or so earlier, so had to reinstall the software) but I haven't used it much except for testing via the EL test server. I don't know why I don't use the setup as much as I know I could nowadays; with no worries about TVI/RFI or overloading power lines with a high-power linear amplifier, to say nothing of freedom from worrying about losing antennas in wind or snow storms (I had my share of such problems with the all-band dipole at my former home), I can now get on the air any time. With some 4,500 stations on the air on EL at any given time, there is no shortage of people I can talk to. Granted, EL is not set up for CW (I worked mostly 30-meter CW from my former home in a Cleveland suburb), but I am happy to be back on the air regardless.

One program I would not recommend, however, is CQ-100, a program developed by a Canadian amateur (VE3EFD) and modeled, somewhat, after K1RFD's Echolink. This program allows communication between licensed hams over the Internet somewhat similar to EL, but that is where the similarity ends. CQ-100 is a QSO "simulator", little more than a glorified chat room, access to which is granted only to licensed amateurs (the callsign validation procedure, however, is almost identical to that for EchoLink).

Even though the transceiver-like interface for CQ-100 has a clickable button marked "CW", however, I do not think the software actually supports CW or any other emission mode but voice. If it does support code transmission, it is likely that the sending process is via the computer keyboard, not a straight key or keyer paddle.

Again, I do not recommend CQ-100 if you're looking for an antenna-less way to get back into HF ham radio, as this is definitely not amateur radio as we know it; it is literally a glorified chat room -- and, although the CQ100 software is freeware, there is a charge of over $30 annually for access to the system's servers. EchoLink, on the other hand, is 100 percent free and allows communications with real amateur stations at any time. If you want to get back into ham radio without worrying about antennas (or if, like myself, you cannot erect outdoor ones), K1RFD's EchoLink is the way to go.

I suppose Echolink can satisfy the needs for those who don't put up antennas, but frankly I don't find any pleasure in it. I tried it for a while but it's not for me.

I run a small antenna farm on my city lot, all bands from 10 through 160 except 160 needs a little work and I took down my 60m dipole. My triband yagi is up at about 58 feet and I work everything.

The rig is a venerable TS-940S with a TL-922 amplifier. I operate SSB, CW, and occasional PSK and RTTY and, rarely, AM. Worked well over 300 countries and so far the thrill hasn't faded.

Years ago I gave up using VFH and UHF although I still have the gear. I don't feel inspired by the stuff that goes on up there, and I have no interest in 6 meters.

I say all this merely to tell the gang here what I do with ham radio, and invite all to join me on the HF bands which, to me, is the fundamental basis for ham radio.

I have had my license since 1949. Was a MARS operator for a few years, too. First rig was a homebrew transmitter using a single 807, VFO controlled, on 10 meters CW then used NBFM for quite a while. Receiver back then was SX-25, one of the best, which I bought from a friend in 1948 for $45. I am a VE as well.

I still have my 'old' TS-930S which I should sell, and a TS-440S in case I want to go mobile. (The last time I went mobile was on a trip to Oregon, worked 14 countries from the car.)

Bob K6DDX

That's the Thing...Yes, I can get VIRTUALLY everything I want to over the Internet w/a few keystrokes, but it just AIN'T THE SAME as twiddlin' a big, meaty knob on a man-sized, big ol' Tooob set...Did I REALLY hear that 1-lunger daytimer thru the fading/static...The internoot kinda takes all the fun, the ROMANCE, if you will, out of it...

Sandy, you hit the nail on the head! What a thrill, connecting with someone in a distant place, knowing it's direct, your house to his house, no wires, no help from ISPs or anything.

I tried echolink, and it just wasn't the same. I do think it is a great way for some hams to stay on the air. Even with El you still get on the air via someone's station, and the technology is interesting. My few hf contacts have all been in excess of 700 miles from my QTH. no Internet involved, and I only used the ts440 and a wire dipole antenna so I didn't even need household electricity, just a charged battery.