AdmiralCochrane

Sorry to hear about the poison oak. First time I got it was from running a motorcycle off the pavement and ended up under the bike in a ditch full of poison ivy. I had to clear a LOT of poison ivy last weekend and ended up with a piece inside the work gloves I was wearing. 67 years old and it still only gave me a single small blister were I had a repeated hard contact. Doesn't mean I won't break out into a bad rash the next time.

I found out I could get rebuilt Aouye soldering stations cheap.

Separate pricing for dots. I ain't stupid.

I sell punctuation cheap. Contact me for pricing.

Be warned, where to get the best pizza seems to bring out hams on 2m repeaters. Congrats. Got for General ASAP, it is no harder to do than Tech and there is overlap in the question pool, you could already accidentally pass it on a lucky day.

I carried Noalox on my HVAC service van for decades.

I used my 220 radio twice today

WMPT is cranking a meg these days. If I recall correctly, they had a temporary experimental licensed increase to 2 for a few months. My father bought a beam/yagi so far back I don't remember not having it. Probably on advice from my godfather who was a navy radio tech in the very early 1960's.

Don't tell the EME guys that. Well, maybe they fit "very unusual circumstances" LOL

"With ease" is a stretch as well. I remember reading these in real time.

I believe I have a set here, but haven't used them in a couple of years

As I understand it, that is to the physical visible horizon, but RF propagation usually follows the curvature of the Earth some fraction beyond the visible horizon.

I believe the original question was in regards to HT operation. 50w 2m SSB is way off from HT operation. Yes, I have hit a repeater on Long Island from southern Bowie when 2m ducting was present.

I have never made a 65cm, 70cm, 1.25m or 2m simplex contact more than 13 miles. All of my 5-13 mile contacts were with 50 watts.

My wife tolerates my radios and ham activity because her favorite uncle was a ham. Computer stuff and tools, any tools, on the other hand, are her favorite things in the world including stuff we aren't allowed to talk about here. I spend money on that stuff and she is happy.

That's one of my everyday radios.

BINGO

Regular. Learn to ignore it or use the forum function.

I agree, not even close to needing intervention. 50 years ago I had a CB and Radio Shack scanner in my car.

I learned to solder stuff from 0 gage battery cables down to 24 gage bell wire, but SMT stuff puts me in awe. I have removed some surface mount components, but never replaced or installed anything. I guess I need to watch some videos. I did tour a facility that made their own circuit boards and saw some components smaller than a flake of ground pepper. That stuff is sorcery

Some just like to type and hit enter even when it is irrelevant to the conversation. It may be due something they need to have fulfilled. I do agree, the ignore function works to eliminate material that shouldn't be present to begin with.

Ducting most commonly occurs associated with strong temperature inversions, either the strong night to day change around dawn or along storm fronts. I recall a few years ago consistently hearing a contact in Philadelphia PA for several spring mornings thorough central MD. Other times as storm fronts approached MD, hearing repeaters on Long Island discussing traffic on the LIE. If the long range signals persist mid day in stretches of calm weather, linking would be the main suspect.

How many people carry a copy of their ham or GMRS license with them in their car? You may be the ONLY one.

Haters gonna hate. The same guys hate other hams that use or don't use digital modes etc etc. As I've said before, the majority of active members in our local club are just into 2 way radios and don't care which license, band or transmission mode you are into.

I have another story about my original 87. I was doing an install on a 65 ft yacht belonging to a thoracic surgeon. Doc was on the boat while I was doing the work and saw my meter and picked it up and looked at it. He asked me where on the quality hierarchy the Fluke digital meters were. I told him they were top of the line, state of the art. Politely putting it down he cussed. I asked him why and he told me about his college roommate calling him up and asking him if he wanted to invest in his family business that was about to expand and go digital. He said "No thanks John. Those Simpson 260 analogs we used in physics class years ago will continue to be the industry standard for decades and decades to come." ... his roomy was John Fluke Jr.