Subj : What a day To : Sean Dennis From : Ray Quinn Date : Sat Mar 19 2022 14:07:07 Hello Sean! 18 Mar 22 20:27, you wrote to me: SD> I am hoping to get an ICOM IC-7610 with Social Security backpay and SD> set it up here if the RFI isn't too bad...but I have a feeling I will That looks like a good radio. A bit out of my current price range. RFI isn't too bad here, but it would be difficult to put up a tower with overhead power lines coming across from the back corner to about 2/3 across the back of the house. There is a 30' tower up near the corner of the house for the radio club's microwave link to the repeater site. There is another place near the "shack" that is optimal for the tower I have to put up, but it needs to be buried about 5' underground and I have a septic tank about 5' from the edge of the house. I'm thinking it may damage the tank if I placed the tower there. When this house was built in 1959-60, it was not within the city. Up until about 7-10 years, it was a county island. We've lived here since July 2016. I could put it up at either end of the house, but won't be protected behind a fence. For HF antennas, I have a couple end fed half wave antennas and a DX Commander. The latter is one I usually take camping. We will be at a local State park mid-late April for my mother's birthday and will likely set it up there. I have a couple extra EFHW antennas for other portable uses. For radios, I have a variety of Icom, Yaesu, Motorola, GE, Kenwood, and others. The oldest one, I believe, was originally purchased by someone in 1988. I do prefer the newer software defined radios. SD> tuck the 7610 away and do more mountain topping. My parents would SD> allow me to set it up at their place in Limestone but their very bad SD> DSL line wouldn't handle the Internet load of a remote setup. I did a POTA (Parks on the Air) activation last summer from our repeater site in Kings Canyon NP. It is also a location where one could do a SOTA (Summits on the Air) activation. I could have done both while there, but needed to get down the mountain. While the site is only 37 miles as the crow flies, it takes 1.5+ hours to drive. I will likely try to activate the aforementioned State park in April. I do feel blessed to have what I do have, but there is always something bigger and better. Sorry to ramble on and appear to be bragging. It wasn't my intention. I've been collecting since 1997. (This message took over 45 minutes to compose...) 73 de W6RAY Ray Quinn Visalia, CA DM06ii --- GoldED+/W64-MSVC 1.1.5-b20180707 * Origin: Ham Radio operators do it with frequency! (618:300/18.23) .