[rescue] ham gear

[Doug McLaren]

On Fri, Nov 11, 2005 at 09:23:42AM -0500, Steve Sandau wrote:

| For some reason, I have finally become interested in ham radio. I 
| thought I remembered seeing some list traffic on this subject, too.

Probably.  There's quite a few hams on the list, as you've seen ...

| Is this on-topic enough since I'll hopefully be looking to rescue some 
| ham gear soon?

There's a pretty fundamental difference between old computer equipment
and old ham equipment -- old ham equipment rarely needs rescuing.

Yes, used equipment is cheaper, but don't expect to find ham equipment
for 5% of the cost of new equipment just because it's 20 (or 30, 40,
50, etc.) years old :)

Avoid Ebay if you can -- you'll pay a premium.  Instead, check out the
local swap meets and swap nets and such.

| I've started reading to pass the technician class exam; sounds like I 
| ought to be able to without too much pain.

The technician test is very easy.  Skim over a study guide (even an
out of date one), take a practice test at
http://www.qrz.com/p/testing.pl, lather, rinse, repeat until you can
consistently get over 80%.  Then go take the test for real, and enjoy
your spiffy new callsign.  Should not take long.

Works on the other tests too.  The morse code test is harder (at least
it was for me) but like Geoff, Code Quick worked for me where other
things didn't.  Or just wait -- the morse code requirement will
probably be gone within a year or two.  (The FCC is already
considering it, but they're slow.)

-- 
Doug McLaren, dougmc at frenzy.com, AD5RH
If A equal success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with
X being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut --Albert Einstein