Since this is a special birthday year I thought I would buy myself something nice ham radio related. Now I am retired and on a fixed income so there is no Elecraft K4 in the picture for me. I have a great Icom 7610 and I very much enjoy CW contesting. I have been toying with the idea of operating single operator 2 vfo or SO2V as it is called. The Icom 7610 allows me to operate its VFO A and B on the same band or on separate bands. This is very handy for contesting and I have tried it and became frustrated as you only have one VFO knob on the 7610 and if you forget to select VFO B and spin the dial you lose your VFO A spot. The idea with SO2V is that VFO A is your run VFO and VFO B is your search and pounce VFO. What I needed was a separate VFO physical knob that operated VFO B. 

Icom has the RC-28 and it always seemed a bit pricey to me but heck it's my big 65th so I took the plunge and purchased it. All Canadian dealers had the RC-28 on back order and the U.S. dealer had the Canadian dollar (and a few other reasons) and the shipping cost was just too much to spend. I did read on some of the IO Groups I follow of operators purchasing them on eBay from sellers in Japan. I looked into it and they were in stock also with shipping, and tax and the cost of the RC-28 it was basically the same cost as the Canadian dealers who were out of stock.
I ordered it and in less than a week it was at my door, brand new in a sealed Icom box. Happy Birthday to me! In my next post, I will be revealing my adventure connecting it to the Icom 7610!
 

In this episode, we join Martin Butler M1MRB, Chris Howard (M0TCH), Martin Rothwell (M0SGL), Frank Howell (K4FMH), Bill Barnes (WC3B) and Leslie Butterfields (G0CIB) to discuss the latest Amateur / Ham Radio news. Colin Butler (M6BOY) rounds up the news in brief and the episode's feature is Using a Noise Bridge.

We would like to thank Mike Rosenberg N9YB along with our monthly and annual subscription donors for keeping the podcast advert free. To donate, please visit - http://www.icqpodcast.com/donate

• Combined Technologies Help Astronomers Fight RFI
• Get Ready for Rapid Deployment Amateur Radio
• Broadcast Students Get Schooled in Amateur Radio
• Microsoft is retiring Skype
• QRP Silent Antenna Tuning Unit with Built-in Noise Bridge
• British Science Week – will you be taking part in an amateur radio activity?
• ARDC to Host Community Meeting
• Satellite SO-124 FM Repeater Now Active

Ham College episode 122 is now available for download.

Technician Exam Questions Part 9
T2C – Public service: emergency operations, applicability of FCC rules, RACES and ARES, net and traffic procedures, operating restrictions during emergencies, use of phonetics in message handling

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Hello and welcome to Episode 573 of Linux in the Ham Shack. In this episode, the hosts talk with Sebastian Delmont, KI2D, about his Ham2K Portable Logger (PoLo) project. Topics include the code, applicable platforms, installation, configuration and use of the application. Also discussed are future upgrades, easter eggs, often missed features and much more. Thanks for listening and have a great week.

73 de The LHS Crew