Something For Nothing

I help all those that I can. Build antennas, even given things away. I do it because I want to..NOT because I'm a ham, helping the comunity or trying to win points with the neighbors. Alot of guys I help are on SS, elderly or disabled. They want a hobby and if I can help I will. I don't give a squirrels butt why they are on SS or not working or...thats none of my business. What burns me is the attitude of some they can rip off people at hamfests, ebay and go to widows houses and it's ok, they justify it "for the community" and all that BS. and they can sit at their puters and down people who have less than them. Take a look at Ebay with the call signs with ham gear and then write them. "I have'nt plugged it in." Show me a ham who does'nt check out his gear. He's not even curious. Thats just as much stealing as pretending to be disabled. Hiposcrisy and it burns me. They don't want to help someone in need, thats their business, some of us do and thats mine.

 

You for got "uphill(both ways), barefoot."

Noel W8TVI

 

Great point and well said. I am "making do" with
my 18 yrs old 430 s and having a ball.
Wen
K7RME

 

I usually don't submit anything to this forum, but I strongly agree with your post. There is a ham in my area that will literally ask for the shirt that you are presently wearing. He calls it "putting his game on" and says it is a great alternative to GETTING A JOB. Gee, do you need that spare tuner??? He routinely goes to all of the local old timers and just keeps asking until they give into him, so thier heads will stop hurting. He smoked the finals in his old rig,(by sending stacks of air brushed bimbos on SSTV) and concocted an unbelievable lawsuit against the local L.P. gas provider saying they damaged a feedline that was buried in the ground. The gas company was there to remove his tank for non payment of the gas bill. He literally kept calling the gas company, and their insurance company until they bought him a Yaesu FT 847! This is also the same ham that kicked and screamed that he was deaf, but only to a 700hz tone, so was granted a waiver for the 5w.p.m. cw exam. Seems we are so busy being politically correct that we are being "gamed" by con men. I have a decent staion, but I worked for every inch of wire and every diode. It gets way worse than begging and whining, at least in my local area, we now have "hams" screaming "my riggie is broken" amd the big bad gas company did it, so I need a top of the line rig for my "pain and suffering". This particular ham whined so much, that the local small town talk is "OOH, those goofy welfare cb'ers don't answer the phone." Disgusted with incompetence in Michigan...KA8FFM

 

What he said!

vinny kr2f

 

I used to be and still am relatively poor (staff engineers only earn a decent living), so I buy my radio equipment second-hand, fix broken gear, and make things from scratch. Any ham can afford a decent shack - sometimes it takes years. Heck, guys in third-world countries build their own CW rigs from scratch! However, to answer Bud's explicit blame on the Democratic Party (I'm surprised he didn't blame Bill Clinton) and implicit praise for Republicans...
<DIV>


Oh, puhLEEEZ! What about the Republican Party, whose mantra is, "If you're down on your luck, if you're needy, if you're poor, it's YOUR fault!" The Republicans are giving corporate welfare to "deserving" (i.e., campaign contributing, lobbying) big businesses in the form of tax breaks and subsidies, and cutting Medicare benefits to "undeserving" senior citizens like my mother-in-law, who worked, paid taxes, and raised six kids without their deadbeat dad who abandoned them. Republican "workfare" programs amount to slavery, forcing recipients of public assistance to drop out of school (where they receive training to ultimately become productive, EMPLOYED citizens) and work for less than minimum wage. I used to be on public assistance in 1991 while earning a degree in engineering - if we had workfare back then, instead of being an engineer today, I'd have had to drop out of college and settle for a menial job, a worker bee serving the privileged.
<DIV>


Remember the Republicans' infamous "Contract with America"? There was sweeping (and admittedly needed) welfare reform. But what did they (Republicans and Democrats) do about campaign finance reform and term limits? NOTHING!
<DIV>


Listen, Republicans and Democrats are BOTH responsible for maintaining the cycle of dependency: the former by removing social safety nets to boost the supply of cheap labor, the latter with indiscriminate entitlements in exchange for votes. As a member of organized labor, I usually side with the Democrats, but as a wise, old, English professor once told me in college, "What's the difference between the Democrats and the Republicans? Nothing - they're all hypocrites. They all lie, cheat and steal."</DIV></DIV></DIV>

 

If you guys would come to your senses you would realize most of the used equip. is way over priced .

 

Yeah, I kinda agree with this one...the one that got me was the guy, and I don't know if it was here on QRZ or where I read it, but the guy actually wanted to trade his gear for higher quality equipment, and he expected the fool who was willing to make such a trade to send his gear to him FIRST so he could inspect it BEFORE he would agree to the deal. He said he'd been "burned too many times". What a moron. You know, you can't legislate intelligence, but the scary thing is that the ignorance seems to be growing in our Society. If you work in public, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It makes me wonder how the human race has managed to evolve, based on the number of morons out there, and in fact, if you think about it, this may be proof that Evolution is a fraud and the hand of God is upon us because if there are that many stupid people out there, there is just no way we could have gotten to where we are as a species. We should be extinct! There was a similiar ad on another website where the lady who knew nothing about Ham Radio at all was asking for someone to donate a rig for a kid who had no money. All well and good, but she gave herself away when she commented about how it was important that the kid needed such and such an antenna because of the location of his apartment in relationship to the surrounding buildings, and she stated it in such a way that only a Ham would know why this was important, and the only thing she didn't do was just come out and ask someone for a K2. The sad thing is that these people think we don't see right through their claptrap. Heck, I would give an honest person a rig, but I wouldn't give one of these folks the sweat off my, oh...I can't say that here. I think you get the idea.

 

"As a used rig, it [the 430] costs more than some new rigs."



Let's see..the eBay price of a 430 runs about $350-$500 dollars. I really don't think you will find a new 100 watt HF rig with those features for that kind of money these days. If you can, I'll take three!



Overall, I think the prices of used equipment is very reasonable...an 18 year old rig in good shape is worth the money. It will probably run for the next 5 years with no problems. Figure a used rig at $400 versus a new for $1200?? With roughly the same features? It's a no brainer!!



As far as repairs go, the older radios are much more easy to repair..and common faults are well-documented (look at the PLL trouble on the TS440--everyone knows how to fix that!)



I think the greatest mistake made by newcomers is buying all new equipment--I wish I hadn't (especially the 2M radios). I really think the manufacturers target the ads to the newcomer..ever notice how they always have really cool pics in the ads but no substance??



Steve, KE4MOB

 

I know how you feel Mike. So if you will give me an Icom PW-1 Amp to match my 4 year old IC-756 I will promise to never whine here!
73, W6BBS
Frank(WiseAcre)Reynolds

 

For the love of god (that is, if you love god at least; those of you who don't are obviously Democrats), give it a rest! This is a hobby. Well, at least for us Democrats it is. We enjoy it almost as much as we enjoy whining, begging, skipping church and basking in our own immorality as we light another joint to celebrate our destruction of society's remaining honesty and decency.

You think the guy posting the ad wants too much radio for free? You feel like all you hear on this site and the bands is whining about this and that? Well do all of us a favor and take your own advice- stop whining about it!

Bitching on this website about how all everyone else does is bitch does nothing but create more bitching. I have a better solution: a) when you hear one of those inferiors whining on the radio, it's a perfect time to check that both your off-switch and VFO still work, and b) if the inferiors take their whining to the web, well, no one is forcing you to read anything. Don't have a VFO or an off-switch? Don't whine to me about it! It's a free country, even with a Democratic Senate.

Stop wasting your time droning on about this malarchy and (gasp) get on the air or something. Live and let live. Make your own fun. "Whiners" aren't worth raising anyone's blood pressure over; just do in this hobby what makes you happy and follow the rules. Radio is no fun when everyone gets so grumpy.

I make note that ALL of the above partisan remarks were sarcasm and bid you all good day. Smile.

 

I agree with the original posters comments for the most part, but one thing I have realized (sarcastically) that Ham radio gear "never" depreciates. In fact from what I have seen, it becomes allegedly more valuable that the price of what the gear went for new!!!!!

Gee..... I think I will put my $200 HT up for at least $450!


Have some of these people ever heard the word DEPRECIATION?? Everything decpreciates at least a little each year.

 

Hey, I'm perputally broke too. Got a free rig for me?

Set priorities and follow through.

 

I was first licensed when I was 12, and I am now 14. Before the test, for my birthday, I had gotten a brand-new Yaesu VX-5R. When my callsign did eventually appear on the database, I used that Yaesu HT several times a week while outside. A while later, whiletalking to my elmer, I was given a 1/4 2m antenna. I hurried home and crudely constructed a ground plane for it and placed it on the roof (at about 8 feet) and ran the cable inside to my room; this was my first base station. Later, the antenna was used as my mobile 2m antenna until a tree decided it just had to ruin that antenna. 3/4 into that year, a couple of hams got together with me to build my copper cactus J-pole antenna, which I still use happily with more than exellent results to this day. About 2 months or so before this, the local ham club president called me up and told me that a local ham had donated some equipment, and wondered if I had a use for it. I told him yes, and the next day he stopped by with an 8 amp power supply, a Kenwood TR-7400A, and a Hllicrafters SW radio. To this day that TR-7400A radio gets me the best audio quality and the front end is bullet proof. The only problem is: it has no PL tones, which doesn't matter because the most popular repeater is a no tone and covers most of South Texas anyway. All of this equipment I still use, exept I gave the 8 amp power supply which I gave to my friend who is 2 years younger than me and is studying for his tech license, and the hallicrafters SW, which is in the living room being used as an AM broadcast band reciever. I make do with this equipment, although my station has grown allitle I can't afford to add anymore expensive radios besides what I have at this moment, nor can I afford anymore/bigger outdoor antennas (space limitations). The current status of my ham radio station can be found my looking my callsign up here on QRZ.com, if anyone is curious, or wants to schedule a 6m or 2m sked. I am always trying to get my freinds into ham radio, but so far of all my friends 1 is studying for his ticket, probobly because I gave him an old TR-7400A that I had bought as my first mobile radio.
Just wanted to share this stroy with ya'll...P.S. I dont complain and thank god we dont have any whiners here in South Texas

TNX & 73's,
Fabian C.
KD5JDG

 

Hello Mike,
Normally, I would not make a reply, but when one sees so much of that stuff on the QRZ and other places, it soon gets to one.

I would like to suggest to the guy to study his manuals, if he has one, build his own transmitter like we did back in the 50's & 60's. Use a 6AG7 for an Osc. an 807 for a final, a used TV chassis with a 600 volt transformer with many tapes for the filiment voltages, build his own coils, use a crystal frequenct of 3.750, then take a Campbell soup can to shield the 807 final, use a long wire for an antenna, tune it up and have a ball on 35 watts of power on CW. Oh, did I say something that no one knows about???? Thats a continous wave signal used for "Code", The Morse Code, ask an old timer about Code, he can tell you about how hard it was to get up to that stumbling block of 8 Words Per Minute, after he got over that he was clear sailing on up to 13 WPM, but he kept going on until he could master that 13 WPM, then he really enjoyed the thing which was called, "HAM RADIO"! And he didn't pay a lot of US Dollars such as is happening in these days for one to get his, "EXTRA CLASS" license, after all, if he is going to pay for his license, why settle for a Tech or General, a few more bucks and he can have the Extra. Go whole HOG, its only money. How Wash. 73's to those who earned their License by studying for it. Jimmie k7jad