HI SEan,   
      
   On Fri 2011-Aug-05 21:45, Sean Dennis (1:18/200) wrote to Richard Webb:   
      
    RW> little anemic in the power department.  I won't have   
    RW> anything under 50 watts for my primary 2 meter rig mobile   
    RW> these days.  tOo many repeaters are alligators, even many on big sky   
    RW> hooks.  Comes from not being split site, loss and whatnot thanks to   
      
   SD> I'm really not using it for its VHF capabilities but for its HF   
   SD> capabilities. Concerning 2 meters (there's but one 440 repeater   
   SD> around here and rarely used), a majority of the repeaters here are   
   SD> linked and on mountain tops so it's pretty easy to hit a repeater.    
   SD> I can work Bristol, TN/VA, about 30 miles NNE of here, on 1 watt   
   SD> simplex and on 5 watts via a repeater, I can work stations within a   
   SD> 75 mile range rather easily.   
      
   YEp, I know that machine in Bristol, nice machine.  There's   
   also a great machine you can hit when you lose it on the   
   interstate going north out of there on 146.895, big   
   footprint thanks to being a mountaintop repeater.  I enjoyed that machine when   
   we had to make a run up to Virginia beach   
   on business a few years ago, all the way through RIchmond   
   iirc.  tHe guy who maintains it has a sense of humor too,   
   the "commercials" with its identifications were leg slapping funny.  I don't   
   know if you can hit that one from your   
   location or not, but when you lose the 146.82 in Bristol   
   going north up the interstate you can hit it.  I've still   
   got it programmed in my mobile rig in case we get up through there again.   
      
   I'd like to have something like na 897 for the same things   
   you would, I've got 100 watt hf transceivers, a couple   
   anyway, three if I ever get the receiver up on the ts-440s   
   again, which I miss terribly, has syntehsized speech which   
   is very handy for this old blind man instead of sniffing the display, and 100   
   memory channels, where my other two are   
   quite limited in the memory channel department.   
   SOmething like that rig would be way cool though for   
   portable stuff.   
      
   SD> I'd mainly do that for ARES support if need be since the 897 can do   
   SD> packet natively and digital modes very easily.  Then again, deciding   
   SD> to call CQ from an unusual spot sounds like fun too.  I can go park   
   SD> over at the college and do a little DXing from there.    
      
   YEp, I sure hear enough of them on 14300 khz.  THey're   
   popular little rigs.   
      
   SD> I've talked with my wife about putting a FT-857 in each of my   
   SD> vehicles too but uh, well, that motion was overruled at this time.   
   SD> :P   
      
   DOn't have that problem, even if we don't have a radio   
   mounted in a vehicle there's mounting there and it's ready   
   to rock 'n roll.  Audio truck has a head up mount all ready   
   for the Yaesu, or the old Icom dual-bander I've got here to   
   go in there.  wOrse comes to worst just use a handheld and   
   one of those little mfj brick amplifiers that'll turn my 5   
   watts into 35.   
      
   Back on topic, you folks in northern latitudes might have   
   seen some aurora last night I see thanks to all the funky   
   magnetic activity and a coronal mass ejection which impacted earth about 1800   
   utc yesterday.   
   Spaceweather.com said it might impact gps satellite and the   
   like last night on an email I saw forwarded to me.   
      
   Regards,   
              Richard   
   ---   
    * Origin:  (1:116/901)