You should call me sometime. I'll help you get it installed, but you're on your own for getting validated. Also, there are elves working on getting you a working rig. 
--
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV - Erie, PA
Phone: (814) 860-3194 or 888-75-BUDDY



On Aug 20, 2012, at 5:10 PM, Gary Ketler <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I would do Echolink if I could find a guru to help me install it.  I haven't 
> had a working rig for years.
> 
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: COLLEEN ROTH
> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 1:31 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: diversity of ham radio as a hobby
> 
> Hi,
> I would probably be called an Appliance Operator. I don't build things, I 
> don't figure out antenna formulas, I don't do any soldering. I do not do 
> contesting, and I don't use Echolink. I do encourage NTS Traffic Handling, I 
> do participate in Emergency Communications including Skywarn, Amateur Radio 
> Drills and am also a Member of Navy Marine Corps Mars. I am a Net Control 
> for the OHIO Single Sideband Net, I am also Net Manager for our local Ares 
> Traffic and Training Net in Northwest Ohio.
> I know enough to know if I need to get someone to help when equipment is 
> functioning well.
> We each have our niche.
> Colleen Roth, N8TNV;
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Ronald E. Milliman <[log in to unmask]>
> To:  [log in to unmask]
> Date: Sunday, Aug 19, 2012 02:36:20 PM
> Subject: diversity of ham radio as a hobby
> 
>> 
>> 
>> One of the really great things about ham radio as a hobby is its 
>> diversity.
>> That is, there is something in it for everyone.  Over my 55 years in ham
>> radio, I have enjoyed at different times about every aspect of the hobby,
>> from Rag chewing on the 75 meter phone band, initially using a DX-40 on
>> A-M, to stepping up to SSB using a Central Labs 10A barefoot, to chasing 
>> DX
>> on all bands running QRP up to 1500 PEP with an Alpha linear, from HF to
>> VHF and operating field day and contests, Working All States and then,
>> earning the DXCC.  I have built several pieces of gear from scratch using
>> my own design to building kits from Heath Kit and Globe when they were
>> still in business marketing ham gear.  I especially enjoyed designing and
>> building all types of antennas.  It has been fun meeting people at 
>> hamfests
>> that you have QSO's with for a long time but never met in person.  I've
>> burned my fingers lots of times using the soldering gun while building
>> equipment, and you learn really fast that you can never have too much
>> saliva on your fingers when soldering connections.  I've had my share of
>> failures, burned up rigs, and antennas that I could never make resonate 
>> for
>> some reason.  Speaking of math, I've found it necessary to use lots of 
>> math
>> when designing gear, figuring out the right values of parts that were
>> needed for specific tasks, and I have often used the Pythagorean Theorem 
>> to
>> compute how high my tower or the center of my antenna needed to be.  So, 
>> my
>> point is that there is something in it for everyone, and over time, you
>> will probably do like I have done and find different aspects of the hobby
>> appealing to you at different times of your life.
>> 
>> My newest adventure is to figure out how to use Echolink and play around
>> with it.  Why?  Simply because it is just another aspect of the hobby to
>> check out.  No, it isn't ham radio in the traditional sense, but then,
>> using repeaters was very controversial when hams first started using them
>> too believe it or not.  When SideBand first showed up on the ham bands in
>> the form of double sideband, it was so controversial that it put the hobby
>> into a war, literally, a war between the comAM'ers and the sidebanders.
>> Double sideband didn't last very long because developers quickly figured
>> out how to filter out and suppress the unwanted sideband, either the upper
>> sideband or the lower sideband, depending on which band you were on. 
>> There
>> has always been some sort of controversy; perhaps the most recent is the
>> debate over dropping the code requirements and in some ham's views,
>> dummying down the ham exams.  I'll have to admit to you that it was much
>> more challenging for me to take the General license exam back in 1958 when
>> I had to draw out all of the diagrams and schematics.  Since I couldn't 
>> see
>> well enough to draw them myself, it was even more challenging to try to
>> describe them to someone and have them draw them well enough so the FCC
>> Examiner could understand it.  To be perfectly honest with you, the Extra
>> Class exam that I took at the end of the 1990's was actually easier in 
>> many
>> respects than the General Class exam I took in 1958.
>> 
>> I'm sharing all of this with you to encourage all of us to respect all the
>> different aspects of ham radio and the hams that enjoy all of these 
>> various
>> parts of the hobby.  I've heard some hams called "appliance operators," 
>> and
>> admittedly, I've used the term at times in the past, but some people just
>> don't have the interest in being ham techno-geeks like some of the rest of
>> us might be.  So, there is a place for all of us.
>> 
>> Ron, AC4HM
>> 
>> 
>>