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    what scanner should ilook for??????

    The short answer is no. You can occasionally find unblocked scanners from Canada or Europe, sometimes on eBay. Likewise, you might find pre-ban scanners that are unblocked, like the Icom IC-R7000, or some of the Radio Shack Scanners from the '80s, such as the Pro-2004 and the Pro-2006, which...
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    what scanner should ilook for??????

    Scanners Radio Shack and Uniden offer two scanners that will recieve almost all digital and analog trunked frequencies, as well as conventional (non-trunked signals), the Pro 2096 and the BCT 996. People debate endlessly which is better. I have both, and each has its own pros and cons; IMHO...
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    MATCHING IMPEDANCE

    FWIW, it installed the PDC30 Para Dynamics CB Antenna Matcher I noted in my last post. I had some reservations because it cost $20, and looked cheaply made. I began with an SWR of 1.7:1, and, after much delecate adjustment and fiddling around, I got the SWR down to 1.4:1, as measured with...
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    MATCHING IMPEDANCE

    I'm sure Hamin'X has worked the formula right, but I suspect that your SWR will actually be more than 1.6:1. I think this because I had a 10 Ohm mis-match, and the SWR was ~1.6-1.7:1. So, I'm pretty sure that a 25 Ohm mis-match will lead to something worse. How to fix it? How would you fix it...
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    CB's in cars?

    You'll have to compromise between what works best and what looks best. I have a Jeep Grand Cherokee, and I was willing to cut a hole in it to have a ball mount, but that may not be an option you're comfortable with. For my part anyway, CB is a form of QRP: you're limited to 4 watts, and the...
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    Slinky Antennas

    No No No! Forget about those slinkys, plastic and otherwise. Instead, take your ARRL Handbook, and rip out all those pages dealing with RF exposure limits and so forth, then simply attach the antenna feed line to your bed springs and pump in as much power as you possibly can.
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    Spontaneous Increase in Feed Line Impedance

    Thanks bit-pit. I didn't have the right connector to hook the MFJ-259 to a dummy load, so I ran a 10' feed line to an MFJ Loop Antenna, and tried again. As with your experiment, the freq readout only varied 2-3 KHz, while the impedence did not change at all over several minutes. I did notice...
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    Spontaneous Increase in Feed Line Impedance

    .... good idea! I'll try it & see what happens.
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    Spontaneous Increase in Feed Line Impedance

    I was testing a new Wilson Silver Load antenna connected to 16' of Belden coax with an MFJ 259 Antenna Analyzer when I noticed something strange. The impedance would start out at 50 ohms, and slowly, over five minutes or so, creep up to 60 ohms. I disconnected the meter, let everything sit for...
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    End of an Era

    Cyclops & Beetle: my hat's off to you guys. While it seemed like an accomplishment at the time, I've discovered that you can't really make any prcatical use of 5 WPM, or even 10 WPM for that matter. The slow-code freqs help a little, but the moving hand writes, and having written, moves on and...
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    End of an Era

    You're right. Although, I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about it. But fair is fair: I only needed 5 WPM to get my Extra Class ticket, whereas those who got their Advanced Class licenses before me needed 20 WPM (I think), so they must have felt the same way when that requirement was...
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    Antenna Feed Line Length

    Death, Taxes, and Coax Woes In an ideal system, the length of the coax antenna feedline should not make any difference to either the antenna’s SWR or its efficiency, see ARRL Handbook, 2006 Edition, Sec 21.1. However, as others have pointed, out its length is often critical real-world mobile...
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    Pirate stations getting hit

    I would agree with your intuition. Apparently, there's quite a bit more going on here than you might suspect at first. Joni K. Craig is the executive director of The Foundation for Change, which styles itself as a grassroots activist organization in San Diego. On their website...
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    Antenna Feed Line Length

    That's a very nifty dipole calculator. Thanks!
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    857d, 897d, 817nd, 706mk2g or ft100d

    897D, 817 & the IC-7000 I own the 897D and the IC-7000, as well as the Yaesu 817. All are wonderful radios that I am glad to have. I can’t comment on the relative receive quality of my TX except to say that no one has ever mentioned to me that one sounded better than the other. I use the stock...
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    Antenna Feed Line Length

    I’m interested in anyone’s practical experience regarding the proper length for antenna feed lines in a mobile CB installation. The goal is, of course, to achieve the lowest SWR and highest antenna efficiency. I’ve read quite a bit of contradictory advice on the subject which seems to fall into...
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    Technician pool

    Test Prep I second KingCobra's point that preparing for the test is at least as important as knowing the material. You may know a subject well, and yet still not test well on that subject if you're nervous, if you misread or misunderstand a question, or if some of the questions are ambiguous --...
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    Technician pool

    Test Prep Hamexam.com offers the program Five X Five, which includes the entire question pool for each of the amateur exams, as well as test material for some commercial licenses. You can practice taking tests drawn from the entire question pool in varying degrees of difficulty. I tried...
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    How many hams on the Worldwide Radio Forum?

    Call Signs Hello everyone. I'm a new member here, an Extra Class amateur from Alexandria, Virginia.