The memory battery, behind the white circle, was dead. I replaced it, so now the radio can return to the shelf in the bedroom closet for another 25 years.
Problem is, I’m not a Chatty Cathy(TM?) on the radio. I really don’t have much to say. “I’m heading to work now”. “I’m at work now”. “Kind of cloudy”.
I love the technology, but I hate how everything is turn-key now. Just rack up the credit card charges, plug in the matching pieces, and yap away. Being an introvert, the only way I’d babble over the airwaves is if it was on something I cobbled together myself. I’ll even settle for a kit – I’m not that uppity.
I admit, yapping on the FT-2400 would give me a lot of street cred, just by virtue of the age of the thing, but I’m not ready to drill a hole in the roof of Weston (the car) for an ego trip.
Get something new?
I’m really turned off by the proprietary radio schemes out there now. Star-bellied Sneetches and all. Icom camp, or Yaesu? or Kenwood?
Something like 1/2 of the newly licensed radio amateurs never go on the air, according to the ARRL. Small wonder.
Oddly, I keep current on my local club membership. Never been to a meeting. They don’t seem to mind.
So, a 40M radio is in my future. QRP, of course. I mean, I like sailboats and canoes.
I’ve ordered a QRP Labs QCX mono band. It has built-in calibration gizmos, so no scope or other doodads needed – just the usual power supply, antenna, and key, or computer. Should be here early next year. http://qrp-labs.com/qcx
So now I have a few months to figure out an antenna and such. Probably stick with JT65, or 9, or whatever. I’m an introvert, after all.
If I ever do get a new 2M radio, it’ll be something I can use for satellites. A Kenwood 2M/440. – Okay, what’s up with that? Why do we use the wavelength for one band, and the frequency for the next? Because it’s easier to say than 2M/70CM? or 144/440? Or easier to say, and also a barrier to entry for new people?
Eh, maybe I’ll just stick to the canoe.
This work by Jeffrey Kirsch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International
Well, that’s a lot of stuff! So, I agree, I don’t really care to tune in for the, “How’s this mic sound…” show anymore. Talk is cheap, I prefer to beep. I do enjoy some more advanced digital communication when it’s called for. Packet is neat if you can find a live node. SSTV and DSSTV is ok but really only when the space station is sending down pics to collect. Space it fun enough now and then and APRS is ok when you want to be tracked. My favorite QRPp was the Tuna Tin 2, after than the Micronaught and the Michigan Mighty Might. I do cheat a bit these days and use a TenTec rebel but that little kit monobander you ordered looks pretty rad. Lots of luck still running a balum center and a dipole cut to the band. Home station has the mighty fine junk 40m Zepp. I had an Alinco with the same battery problem once upon a time and it sits in the closet. I always said I’d use it for the heard of a battery powered digipeater some day for a secret ninja mission… 2m is such a waste land, it’s like stepping to the other side of the shallow puddle that is 80m . Even 30m it’s the gentleman’s band it once was and so I don’t spend much time on the air anymore.
Do you have a pic of the front panel back showing the jumper installed near the mike jack? Did the battery and the LED lights upgrade and the damn jumper broke off one end.
Hopefully you can assist.