Ham

that's my callsign.

kind of. Except this one is for a lot higher power, and a lower frequency. Bigger core, more windings, better action on the HF bands.

You put butter on its back. Now a cat always falls on its feet.. but a buttered cat MUST fall on its back..

I should have captioned it Schroedinger's Cat..

probably an upgrade from the old 150+ mhz band to the new 800 mhz trunking system. Good luck trying to figure out which channel to hit when some long haired, bearded ex-wayfer defiles your "property"..

the locals and especially state police are migrating to an 800 mhz trunking system for communications. I understand the "bugs" aren't all exactly worked out.. including those where the users just can't figure out how to use it..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contesting

Yeah, linder knows (or knew) code.. he shows up in the old ham call databases.. only got a novice license I think. But you had to pass a five word per minute test back then. I passed the twenty word per minute test for the Extra license, when they still tested for the code.

The radios on the right:

Alinco DX-70TH All mode HF radio on top, Heathkit HW-2036 2M FM radio below it, MFJ-941E Antenna Tuner on the bottom. Not seen behind them.. an old ICOM IC-2AT 2 meter HT (walkie talkie) power supply and Kamtronics KPC-3 TNC (radio modem).

Morse Code key in front of them is a J-38 (old WWII military surplus, they made millions of them..)

Two computers are underneath the desk. I have a switch unit that if I tap scroll lock twice, it switches between the two. Both are Pentium IV's. The serial port from the microsoft machine is hooked up to the Alinco. I let it key the transmitter (morse code) during contests.

I think the capacitor came out of an old high power AM transmitter. 360 pf per section. I loosened the bolt and inverted one of the rotor sections, making a differential capacitor (turn knob, one section increases value, the other decreases). The frame of course will be "hot". But at 5 watts, I'm not worried..

It's too funny..

Yep, that's a REAL reindeer there..