What I've been up to......

[Jeffhs]

Your setup reminds me of what I had before I moved. HF, 2 meters and packet, with a 70-foot loaded all-band dipole in my back yard (which was contantly coming down every time there was a good wind) and a CushCraft Ringo Ranger ARX-2 for 2m. Then came November 1999, and I had to give it all up when I moved to the apartment I live in today. I still have my license, but next to no equipment; all I have now is an Icom 2m handheld, which brings up just one repeater in this area. I also have Echolink on my computer, but I don't use it much these days (no provision to use CW, which I miss very much). I miss the old days when I could work stations left and right with 5-10w on 30m CW.

If I could, believe me I would move to a house so I could put up an antenna again, but very unfortunately, due to circumstances, I am stuck here in this apartment indefinitely (been here 18 years so far). To make matters even worse (!), I don't drive, which means I cannot get to the meetings of the radio club (Lake County, Ohio ARA) I belong to. I used to be able to get to those meetings quite regularly after I moved here, but since the transit system here cut back their hours severely a few years ago, I can no longer get to the club meeting site, and there is no one near me who would take me there.

Oh well. It was loads of fun while it lasted (I worked 49 states and a bunch of foreign countries, almost all on 80-40-20m CW), but as I said, due to circumstances that forced me to move to where I live now, it is all just a memory. If Echolink supported CW operations I'd feel better about using it, but since it only supports voice operation (FM only), I am forced to use a mode (FM voice) I am not now and have never been comfortable with (I operated almost exclusively CW when I lived in a Cleveland suburb, using voice only to occasionally check in to two traffic nets).

If there were anyone in my area who could help me get my HF station back on the air, I'd feel better too, but because no one around here wants to have much to do with me (a ham who lives just a couple blocks from me will not so much as speak to me, and I have no idea why), I guess my Icom IC-725 will stay in its box in a corner of my bedroom, unused, as it has since I moved here. The power supply (Astron RS-35) is still on a small desk in my bedroom, but I am afraid to plug it in for fear it might short out or the filter capacitors might explode from 18 years of disuse.


Life is just so darned unfair.........

[jr_tech]

Have you tried to contact the ham in the next block: Frank W8INH at 538 high st. ?

jr

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

Have you tried to contact the ham in the next block: Frank W8INH at 538 high st. ?

jr

No. I'm not even sure he's alive anymore, or even if he is still living at the address you mentioned.

Edit: I just looked up W8INH on HamCall.net (http://www.hamcall.net) and found the license has expired, so the person this call was licensed to has either left the hobby or else has become a Silent Key. I don't know when you looked up the callsign, but apparently the license expired fairly recently.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Jeffhs

No. I'm not even sure he's alive anymore, or even if he is still living at the address you mentioned.

Edit: I just looked up W8INH on HamCall.net (http://www.hamcall.net) and found the license has expired, so the person this call was licensed to has either left the hobby or else has become a Silent Key. I don't know when you looked up the callsign, but apparently the license expired fairly recently.

I looked it up on QRZ.com. yesterday.... sounds as if the database you used is more up to date... how about: KE8AT, Douglas ; KB8FKM, Mark ; N8JCV, Susan or WA8COG, Julius.... these should be within a few blocks of your residence, according to the grid square map on QRZ.com.

73,
jr

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by jr_tech

I looked it up on QRZ.com. yesterday.... sounds as if the database you used is more up to date... how about: KE8AT, Douglas ; KB8FKM, Mark ; N8JCV, Susan or WA8COG, Julius.... these should be within a few blocks of your residence, according to the grid square map on QRZ.com.

73,
jr

KB8FKM, Mark, is the one who will not speak to me so I don't bother with him any longer. N8JCV, Sue, is his wife, and she may not want to have anything to do with me either. I never heard of the other two hams you mention.

Oh well. I guess I'm stuck with Echolink, and being able to use only one 2m repeater, from now on; it's better than nothing, I suppose. Outdoor television antennas are allowed in my building (several tenants here have satellite dishes), but I'm not sure about amateur radio antennas. My first landlord told me the story of a man who tried to erect a CB antenna on the building; the TVI was such a problem the man was evicted. This landlord has since passed away. However, I don't know if or whether the man who now owns the building would allow me to erect any kind of outdoor amateur antenna; I will have to ask him about it.