HF

I went to the RARA Meeting last Friday and enjoyed the presentation by Ev Tupis on PropNet.  I've been thinking about asking him to reprise his talk for our club.  Since that would not likely be for a couple of months, here is the link to their website, where you can probably learn a lot just by visiting.
www.propnet.org

I vaguely remember Heathkit previewing this in a catalog not too long before they quit the kit and ham business, but I didn't know any actually were sold.
 
cgi.ebay.com/HEATHKIT-SS-9000-TRANSCEIVER-POWER-SUPPLY-WARC-BANDS_W0QQitemZ280433865834QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0

My install of the FT-857 is complete. All went fairly well. I opted to use the separation kit and mount the transceiver under the drivers seat and mount the control panel on the dash. There was a small cubby hole next to the cigarette lighter, so I was able to trim a small piece of a 2x4 that I screwed to the back of the opening, and then mounted to display panel bracket to the front side. The cable comes in through the hole that held the cigarette lighter.

I haven't been on HF in well over a year.  I knew that the bands have been bad, so when I got my FT-857, I hooked it up to my Hustler vertical to try it out.  The conditions didn't sound great, but I was able to work Russia and several European stations on 20 and 40m without much difficulty.
A pleasant surprise was how much better 40 meters is at night below 7.200MHz with most broadcasters gone from that segment.  It used to be a wasteland at night.  Not anymore, with quite a bit of DX on the band.

OK, the last new radio I bought was in 1997.  So I figured I was due.  I have a Yaesu FT-857 ordered from Ham Radio Outlet.  I expect to mostly operate from my vehicle, so I'll be looking at how best to make that happen.  I'll need to decide if I should remove my Kenwood TM-733 and use the FT-857 for 2m and 440.  I don't see why not at this point, but I guess I'll need to play with the radio a bit first.
At some point I'll probably get a screwdriver antenna, but initially I might get a couple of hamsticks.

Since my station is QRT right now, has anyone listened to 40 meters since Mar. 29th?  There should have been a reduction in international broadcasters between 7110 and 7200 kHz.  Has anyone noticed a difference?

K2OID, W2NED, and myself (K2AS) met the other day and discussed the status of the club. Safe to say, activity has been limited to Field Day and some Foxhunts. We talked about many things, including the lack of use of our club station. Ned came up with the idea of operating the club station remotely. I've being doing some legwork to see what we would need to do to gain internet access and some other things. In the meantime, take a look at this video which does a nice job explaining how it would work.

With club meetings at a every-other-month interval, and a majority of club members retired or not located in the Webster area, I was wondering if anyone would be interested in holding an informal net on the months we have no meeting?
There are a couple of reasons why I think it a good idea:

As many of you know, I am a great enthusiastist of the Elecraft company and their products. I bought the K2 when it was announced and have enhanced over the years as the various add-ons became available. It has been a great experience.
Now they have released a new Transceiver - K3, which is available both as a modular kit and fully assembled. The K3 is a high performance DSP based radio. The specs compete with the very high end rigs, but start at less than $1400.
Check it out at http://www.elecraft.com/
...W2NED