Another Word for Nerd

I now have a matched pair of 500G Hitachi SATA disks (in stripped Sun Unipack enclosures) as my external disk and Time Machine backup disk, to avoid a repeat of a couple weeks ago.

As for radio stuff, a week after I bought the FRG-100 from a friend, another friend said “Hey, I have a Kenwood TS-430S here that you can have for cost of shipping.” DOH! Anyway, $80 in shipping fees later, I now have this setup for when I pass my General upgrade exam:

Left to right: AT-250 automatic antenna tuner, TS-430S transceiver, PS-430 power supply.

I’ll eventually have to send it off for minor repair of a known problem and a tuneup, but that will only cost me $200. For a grand total of around $300, this is a VERY NICE rig that still runs around $600 with the extra components on eBay.

Now I have to figure out how I’m going to get a decent antenna up in the limited space I have available.

I finally gave up on eBay and purchased a Yaesu FRG-100 from a friend on a payment plan.

I’m in the market for a used solid-state HF (shortwave) receiver, a proper “tabletop” model, but unfortunately Houston doesn’t seem to have much of a local amateur radio “scene” that I can find.

The last time I hooked up my 2-meter transceiver, I heard ONE active repeater in the area, and that was after about half an hour of searching. As for any kind of local “swap meet” or forsale/wanted list, none seem to exist. There are some clubs down around NASA, but that’s a way from here. There’s Houston Amateur Radio Supply, but they’re a half-hour drive away and don’t have anything used for under $300.

I’ve tried eBay, but keep getting outbid by a dollar or two at the last minute for the last three auctions that I have bid on. One for an Icom 720A, one for an Icom R-70, and one for a Radio Shack DX-300.

Anybody reading this have (or know of) a solid-state HF/shortwave receiver sitting in someone’s closet that needs a new home? I have a budget of $150.

(I’m trying to rebuild my “ham shack” in the process of upgrading to a General-class amateur radio license from my current Technician-class)