New Christmas Present

[electricflyer]

I bought my new Christmas present. It arrived last Friday, Dec 9, 2016. I got a Yaesu FTDX-1200. I was waiting for the price to drop and apparently Yaesu has dropped the price a little and Gigaparts went from $1259.95 to $1169.95 in the last week. There are a couple other dealers that are 10-20 bucks cheaper but Gigaparts takes PayPal and anything over $99 gives you 6 months/no payment/no interest and of the major retailers Gigaparts and DXEngineering are a couple of the few that take PayPal. So, since Gigaparts is about 120 miles from me they got the business. I could have gone to their store but sales tax in Huntsville Al is 10%. Yaesu has a $200 rebate good until Dec 31st so that made my damages to be $969.95. I could have bought from HRO but because they have a store in Georgia I would have had to pay sales tax and I don't know what it is in Fulton County but probably about 8% so another 93.52 saved.

A couple of the hams in my club have a FTDX 1200 and they love it. One also has a FT950 and was at HRO with a friend and was playing around with the display radios and wanted to sell one of them but didn't know which was the best. One of the salesmen fired them both up for him and just swapped both on and there was a very noticeable difference in the reception so my friend decided to keep the FTDX 1200 and put the other one up for sale.

I haven't been able to set it up yet as I use power pole connectors and had to order some so it will be after the 1st of the year before I get operational (leaving on a 3 week trip next week). I also have to put my dipole back up because I took it down to have a dead pine tree removed. When I get it going I'll give a non-professional report on how I like it. I've got a FT-450 right now and it is a very nice radio with a super receiver but I wanted a few more bells and whistles so this is it.

Just a note, a few months back we had a guy test for Extra. We asked him if he had a radio (there a quite a few extras that don't have radios) and what he had. He said he had a FT 5000, we asked him if he drove his bemmer to the session. I like the ham radio hobby but not that much.

I just looked at the Gigaparts web site and they are now out of stock for the FTDX 1200. I may have got one of the last ones. There is the link. https://www.gigaparts.com/yaesu-ft-dx1200-2.html

Marv
KT4W

[ke0me]

Merry Christmas!
Hope you enjoy your new radio.

[wa8yxm]

Thqta kind of cash I'm saving for a repair ob on the Motor home.. But I did get me a present too....
One of the things I have wanted for some time is a Frequency meter.. in fact I have a specific need for one as I have a radio where I think the frequency controls are messed up (Specific wire no less) and well a Frequency meter beats the dials off my TS-2000 for this kind of testing.

I also subscribe to teh ARRL weekly letter... it had an add Radio City has a meter good from something closer to Audio than I'll ever need to 1,000 MHz (1 Gig) and .. Well, that' s more bandwidth than I need... 30 dollars and a few cents change (less than 31 total) includes shipping and handling.... It's on the way.

Also got a new MFJ Atomic watch, old one got lost when a spring pin went by by, Old one was LCD digital.. new one is Analog dial but digital operation, both have one feature I like.....Highly accurate (Set by WWV) Looks nice, leather band. Very nice watch.

[electricflyer]

I had a MFJ "atomic watch" at one time. Got it at the Huntsville hamfest. But it quit working a long time ago, I replaced the battery but can't remember what the problem one, in any case it hit the trash pile. That one was pretty pricy by my purchasing power. Most of my watches are in the 2-3 dollar range from Ebay. DW has over 2 dozen watches that I annually have to replace the batteries in. I would say about 95% of the women's watches use an AG4 battery. I buy them on Ebay, a hundred at a time for about $8. Men's watches normally use a bigger battery, and it is a commonly used one that I can't remember the number for. Old age I guess. I have a lot of batteries for various little gadgets. I also watch Ingles for a sale on Rayovac AAA, AA and C/D batteries that they have on sale about once every 8 weeks for $1 a package, usually just under $4 when not on sale.

[NN5I]

You know, Christmas presents don't always have to be new. I, for example, would be content to receive a 1937 Packard 12-cylinder formal limousine, or maybe a 1932 Duesenberg SSJ convertible. Or even a 300-point-scoring restored 1955 T-Bird.

[ke0me]

Well, I was thinking more donestic, like a 1963 Chevy Impala SS with 327 V8 and 4 speed on the floor

hihi

[ke0me]

Oops, last post was sent on iphone and didn't see spelling goof.

that should be "domestic".

[NN5I]

Well, the cars I mentioned (Packard, Duesenberg, T-Bird) are all domestic.

[ke0me]

Well rust my hubcaps.
For some reason I thought Duesenburg was a German car.

Guess my "youth" is showing.

I will always remember the T-bird with the sequential blinking turn signals , about 1957-1960 I think, but I could be off on that.

[NN5I]

Somehow I posted the same post twice. Wade, is there a way to delete this one and leave only the one next following, which is the one to keep?

[NN5I]

Well rust my hubcaps.
For some reason I thought Duesenburg was a German car.

Guess my "youth" is showing.

I will always remember the T-bird with the sequential blinking turn signals , about 1957-1960 I think, but I could be off on that.

Way off. Sequential turn signals were first introduced on Thunderbird in 1965.

Classic Thunderbirds, 1955-1957, didn't have turn signals at all. Even seat-belts weren't offered until 1956. In 1958, Thunderbird became a four- or five-place vehicle. This was a great tragedy. 1958 and later are Vintage Thunderbirds to distinguish them from the much cooler two-place 1955-1957 Classic Thunderbirds.

In 1994, James Kevin Bryan ran a red light in Dallas, destroying my beautiful yellow 1955 Thunderbird. He tried to claim it was my fault. Fortunately (1) there was a witness, and (2) the swine had excellent insurance. USAA paid me his policy limit, about 10% more than the probable value of the T-Bird at the time. Here's a pic of my li'l Tweety (all cars need names) taken in my driveway and modified (by me) with a nice background.

After USAA paid, WI5G and I went to the huge Pate car swap-meet in Arlington TX, or maybe it was Grand Prairie, I with a pocketful of cash, and I nearly bought a very nice 1937 Packard formal limousine. Sometimes I kick myself for not buying it, but it was only an eight-cylinder Packard and I wanted a twelve. He asked $18,000 which was considerably less than the cash in my pocket at the time. Today that wouldn't buy a wreck.

[ke0me]

Told you I could be way off ��
I'm more knowledgeable on Chevy's from the 50's and 60's than other brands.

My family had a pea green 59 Chevy Bel-air with 6 cyl engine and 2 speed power glide

It could not accelerate well and had an absolute top speed of 88 mph (don't ask how I know)

My first car was a 63 Impala, alas it was only a 283 v8 with a 3 speed manual and not an SS, but it was mine.