here in Fessenden, ND, a gentleman came from a nearby town to help me 
out 3 times so far, and twice for antenna work. Actually, now that I 
think about it, 4 times.
ND0B, is his call.

"North Dakota 0 Bill," that is.

At 09:04 PM 12/14/2011, you wrote:
>Wow, I feel really lucky.  The Hams in Boulder are really helpful and nice.
>Gerry
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 6:17 PM
>Subject: Re: Sighted Hams In Sacramento Not Really Helpful
>
>
> > Eric,
> >
> > I've found the hobby, over the last 47 years of being a ham, to have
> > become
> > much as you described.  I'm in Denver.  Three years ago, I literally had 5
> > different hams offer to help me with towers and antennas when I got on the
> > air with my Icom 7000 and not one of them, although I contacted them via
> > email after their offers of help, or talked with them on 2 meters, never
> > showed up and never made any appointments to come over.  I have a ham
> > friend
> > in a wheelchair with a short tower and a quad who needs minimal
> > assistance,
> > is a member of more than one ham club in Denver, and he calls me to try
> > and
> > scare up some limited help because he faces the same problem.  I can't
> > climb
> > any longer since my spinal surgery three years ago but my 29 year old son
> > and his cousin help do tower climbing and assembling of antennas.  When I
> > was 14 years old and living in Omaha, Nebraska, hams bent over backwards
> > to
> > help out and I never had a problem getting help.  We have over 700,000
> > hams
> > in this country now and getting help is worse than I've ever seen it.  As
> > a
> > kid, we only had 150,000 American hams and help was abundant.
> >
> > Phil.
> > K0NX
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Eric Clegg" <[log in to unmask]>
> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
> > Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 4:46 PM
> > Subject: Sighted Hams In Sacramento Not Really Helpful
> >
> >
> >> Hello listers,
> >>
> >> Here is my rant for the year.
> >>
> >> I find sighted ham radio operators here in the Sacramento area totally
> >> unhelpful.
> >>
> >> I have four portable antennas that I'd like help assembling. The smaller
> >> and
> >> larger Alexloop magnetic loop antennas. The Buddistick antenna and the
> >> Ventenna, HFP antenna.
> >>
> >> I'd love to get a Kenwood TMV-71A but I have no sighted help hooking up
> >> the
> >> power supply to the rig. I have a 50% chance of hooking it up backwards
> >> and
> >> blowing up the rig as I did with an Astron 2 meter rig many years ago.
> >>
> >> The same goes for my Icom IC703 Plus. When I was on a trip recently to
> >> Harrisburg, PA the stupid people from the TSA at the airport closed my
> >> power
> >> cord that goes to the Astron power supply in the suitcase cutting
> >> completely
> >> one side of the fused power cord. I bought a new cord from Universal
> >> Radio
> >> but the same as above in the Kenwood applies. No sighted help to hook the
> >> cord to the Astron power supply.
> >>
> >> Since the Pacigficon convention my Yaesu FT817ND has gone nuts.
> >>
> >> It will not take some frequencies that I send it with the Radio Mate
> >> keypad.
> >>
> >> I don't know if the radio needs a complete reset or there is some sort of
> >> fault in the keypad itself.
> >>
> >> I'd also like some help ssetting up the menus on the Icom IC703 Plus. For
> >> instance I can't speed up the speech board or set it to a higher volume.
> >>
> >> I'm tempted to try the millennium qsyer on the Yaesu but am reluctant to
> >> do
> >> so because I might not be able to set it up to operate with the IC703
> >> Plus
> >> again .
> >>
> >> So I have all this qrp junk that's barely operable.
> >>
> >> The only rig I have with some hope is a Kenwood TS480SAT. I have two high
> >> power shortened dipoles for 20 meters on my balcony which have high swr.
> >>
> >> Again no help with anyone with an antenna analyzer.
> >>
> >> I have yet to make a contact with this rig on any band.
> >>
> >> In summary, I'm disappointed in general with the Sacramento ham
> >> community.
> >> It would probably gtake an hour of someone's time to come over and fix my
> >> problems adjust radio menus and get me properly on the air.
> >>
> >> The ARRL is nothing but a stupid self-serving non-helpful organization.
> >> Why
> >> did I join as a life member?
> >>
> >> I hope this is not the case for all parts of the country for general ham
> >> radio helpfulness.
> >>
> >> If it is, our hobby is truly in trouble.
> >>
> >> I would welcome suggestions.
> >>
> >> Merry Crhistmas from a browned off ham radio operator.
> >>
> >> 73,
> >>
> >> Eric
> >>
> >> KU3I
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>