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Showing posts from August, 2012

Lee De Forest Birthday August 26, 1873

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Lee De Forest was born on this day August 26, 1873.  De Forest was an electrical engineer and inventor of the Audion tube with three electrodes instead of two in 1907.  The tube became known as the De Forest valve or triode.  His innovation made electronic amplification and switching possible.  The Audion Tube was a huge commercial success



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FCC View of CC&R Preemption - Score One For HOA's

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In a report released August 20, 2012, the FCC has recommended taking no action regarding expanding preemption rules to cover to private land use restrictions contained in covenants, conditions, and restrictions (CC&Rs) in home ownership deeds and condominium bylaws regarding amateur radio antennas.

Amateur radio operators across the country are finding it increasingly difficult to pursue their interest in amateur radio due to these restrictive covenants.  As the saying goes, sometimes it has to get worse before it can be made better.  For this round, score one for the HOA's and zero for amateur radio....

Excerpt from the report:

Recommendations
Private land use restrictions. Some commenters recommend that CC&Rs be preempted if they prohibit antennas that are within certain limits.  Others suggest that private land use restrictions on amateur antennas should be permitted only for safety considerations, and not for aesthetic reasons.

As noted above, however, other commenters b…
Location: Washington, DC, USA
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Kenwood TH-22AT

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We picked up a pair of Kenwood TH-22AT 2m handi-talkies at a yard sale for a good price.  The pair came with drop-in charger and spare battery pack.  Very durable feeling to the radio.


Kenwood put a lot of great features into this radio for its vintage.  Having been a TH-F6A owner for several years, the TH-22AT seems surprisingly rather familiar.  The TH-F6A includes 40 memories which is a must on a VHF HT.  The programming is bit clunky though manageable.  It only took a minute to figure out the 10 steps to enter a repeater into memory.  Here are the actual steps we took to program a repeater (145.25 Mhz) with a tone frequency of 131.8 into memory number 33.

1) Press VFO
2) Enter the frequency by turning the dial until the screen displayed 145.25
3) Press T/CT
4) Press and hold F for more than 1 second
5) Press T/CT
6) Select the tone frequency by turning the dial until the screen displays 131.8
7) Press T/CT
8) Press and hold F for more than 1 second
9) Select the memory number (1 t…
Location: Hillsborough Township, NJ, USA
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