Friday, August 17, 2012

Sometimes Life Throws You A Curve…. And It’s A Good Curve!!!

I have written this blog post several times and have deleted all of them. I’m not sure how to write a thank you post to somebody I can’t talk about here. Time for some back story. I sold my Icom 746Pro to pay down some debt and to help insure we could RV for another year. We were/are also scaling back but my decision to sell the radio was a bad one, I was gung ho to sell “stuff”, any stuff.

During emergencies these types of radios can often be the only source of communication available. In my haste to scale back I sold off a valuable asset, an asset very hard to re-acquire without substantial investment. There are HAMS out there that make claims that Amateur Radio can be done cheaply, I humbly disagree, unless you have LOTS of free time to seek out bargains.

Anyway, fast forward to the past few weeks. I had a discussion with Ronda about saving up for a new or used radio because 1. I miss it A LOT and 2. if something should happen it could come in very useful. She agreed 100% and said she tried to tell me not to sell the Icom, she was right, as usual and I have regretted that decision to this day.

Here is the Icom 746Pro I sold, an all mode radio that really did handle almost all frequencies including 2 meters plus it was portable and could plug right into the 12 volt system in the RV. Disappointed smile What was I thinking?? The other unfortunate thing about it is the cost to replace it with something new from Icom is $3,600.00!!! Needless to say that is way out of my league right now and for quite some time to come.

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I wanted to get another radio but I also wanted it to be the equal or better of the Icom 746Pro. Not an easy task for very little budget and I could not find a decent used 746Pro anywhere so that was ruled out. I happened upon several rigs on Craigslist and eBay, most of which were too expensive as well, including the one pictured below, a Yaesu FT-1000MP Mark-V, I logged that as “I wish!”. Priced at nearly $2,000!! I kept several rigs on the burner that were more affordable but kept going back to this one, what to do, what to do. I discussed it with Ronda and her response was buy it, we’ll work it out. I couldn’t do it, there is no way I could spend that in one big chunk, I didn’t feel it was fair to her.

I can’t go into too many details but somebody purchased the radio for me as a gift. It came out of left field and I’m still in shock and it’s been almost 3 days! I still can’t express in words what this means to me.

It’s an incredible radio out of the reach of most people, new or used. It came to my home last night, I can’t wait to have my first QSO in the new to me rig! Sometimes life throws you a curve that puts a smile on your face. I’m going to set up the RV for mobile use, not sure how yet but will investigate it and post about it soon.

Here it is all boxed up.

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The rig all set up, probably not how it’s going to look after this weekend but it will do for now! I have a remote control cable coming so I can control the rig from my PC. That’s it for now, tomorrow I head out to the RV to mow the lawn and bring the rig in to get the emergency flashers fixed again.

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Today I bought a vintage GE 40 channel 2-way emergency/info CB radio in a case for 2 bucks at a garage sale and thought I would throw it in the RV. Guess it doesn't compare to yours :) Since I really don't remember the CB lingo I'll probably have to listen to the song Convoy by C. W. McCall to brush up. Have fun with the radio and see ya down the road.

Bruce (& Val)

TexCyn said...

Wow! How lucky for you! Sometimes we do make those mistakes & it's so much like mourning! I'm glad your's turned out to be good after all.

Erik's RV Blog said...

CB and Amateur Radio are relatives but neither agree on much. CB'ers have their lingo and HAMS have theirs. The HAMS can be kind of snobby because they have to be licensed to be on the air. I like all bands myself but got my license so I could enjoy more frequencies.

I really want a nice CB but haven't found the right one yet. My Dad had a great base station 30 years ago I wish I could find.

This rig handles most bands that Amateurs use including Tech which is the license I have. I'm hoping to upgrade to General or Extra when I can find the time.

Hope to see you both soon!

Erik's RV Blog said...

TexCyn - I got very lucky indeed! Sometimes we're the windshield and sometimes we're the bug!

Diana said...

What a wonderful surprise Erik. I can imagine your excitement at such a generous gift!
When my husband was in his younger years, he was a ham radio enthusiast.
He does have a C.B. in his truck of coarse but keeps it shut off most of the time anymore. He says people are just too nasty today. He only uses it when a company doesn't use cell phone communication when delivering his product. Most of them don't use C.B.'s anymore.
I am excited and happy for you!
Love Di ♥

Sue and Doug said...

what a nice surprise from a special friend!!

Big Matt said...

Don't have a HAM here, don't use my current CB radio set enough to warrant spending the money on the licensing and equipment, just yet :).

Right now, I have a 5' Wilson antenna (replaced the 4' Firestik II) and a Cobra 29 Classic LTD-WX in the cab mounted to the ceiling.

It gets used the most during long drives as I use the weather radio to keep awake, and on USFS 1-laner dirt roads to figure out when something's coming towards me so I can get into a pull out.

Anonymous said...

Hey Bub, I got my CB up and running in my rig, so at least in the future.... I can speak to others while on the road. :)

Steinar