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What a Wonderful Surprise!

n4gix

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unitedstates
As some of you may have read, this was my second year as a volunteer at the Dayton Hamvention as a courtesy shuttle golf cart driver. Aside from a couple of hours on Friday morning "shopping and gawking", I spent the rest of Friday, and all of Saturday and Sunday happily shuttling folks around.

I got an email two days ago that a package had been sent via FedEx that would require a signature. I wondered what it might be since I hadn't ordered anything...
confused.gif
Well, it was delivered this afternoon and you could have knocked me over with a feather!
icon_surprised.gif


Apparently I won one of the prize drawings and didn't know that I had. When I signed for the package I noted briefly that the box had JVCKenwood on it...

...it turned out to be a brand spanking new TH-D74 handheld! It is a tri-band radio with D-Star, GPS and APRS. When I checked Amazon.com I learned that the least expensive offered was listed at $585 USD.

Holy Smoke! That's almost precisely what the weekend cost me.
biggrin.gif
 

=rk=

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Well with the D-Star and a valid ham radio license, he can talk to shuttle drivers around the globe, GPS will tell him where he is on that globe and APRS will tell him if he should expect to need his umbrella.
 

n4gix

Resource contributor
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LOL! Rick, I should think my user name here takes care of the first requirement. I've had my General class license for forty-two years now. I am already firmly entrenched in DMR, which honestly far surpasses D-Star in terms of sheer number of repeaters world-wide. Currently there are over 3,400 DMR repeaters world-wide.

For that matter, the number of people who are currently using jumboSPOT miniature repeaters and a mobile 4G/LTE internet connection are growing like weeds. Last I looked there were over 7,000 such individuals. Heck, I even own two of them; one for the car and one for the ham shack. I've got a base DMR radio in the shack, but it's handy to have an HT I can carry around and still access the network.

As for APRS, what that actually does is tell other people where I am currently located. For the weather, I'd simply tune in one of the National Weather Service channels.

I'm debating whether I want to keep this really nice HT or sell it outright, and use the money for what I wish I'd won instead, an Icom 7300 HF base radio. :rotfl:
 

=rk=

Resource contributor
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Honestly it is all Greek to me. My dad (K6AYC) was always yelling clearly and probably very disappointed that his son did not take interest in the numerous old rigs stored around the basement. If he'd been anything like I was when my own son reached that same age to reject building and tinkering computers, he'd probably had some really sweet equipment for me to discover. I am 57 and my father was a ham when he was a boy during the war. I really wish I could have given him the experience of repairing just one of those old radios together. I suppose it's not too late, pretty sure he's going to outlive me.
 

n4gix

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unitedstates
Well, his license is good until 2023-11-16, so hopefully he'll live past the license expiration date!

Your story reminds me of the time when I was 14 that my late father decided it was time I learned to drive. Since we were vacationing on the Caspian Sea that summer, he thought using the beach would be perfect. We were staying in a leased villa and had lots of empty beach.

Our family car was a 1965 Chevrolet BelAire with straight six and column shift. I had to think fast to pretend that I didn't know how to drive a stick already. You see, my best friend and I had been renting a VW taxi for the past two years nearly every weekend and learning how to drive. In Tehran, Iran during the late sixties we could 'rent a taxi with owner/driver' for about $14/day plus a full tank of gas when done. Once the owner was satisfied we knew how to handle his mighty VW Beetle, he would just take a nap in the back seat. :cool:

I didn't want to disappoint my dad who I suspected was going to get joy from teaching his son, being such a milestone event! After about an hour, he apparently had become a bit suspicious that I had 'learned the clutch and shifting' so easily! He asked me how it was that I was so smooth so quickly.

Fortunately, I was quick on my thinking so I simply grinned and said "I learned from watching you Dad! Haven't you ever noticed me sitting in the parked car for hours on end practicing clutching and shifting?" Whew! :rotfl:
 
Messages
228
Country
australia
As some of you may have read, this was my second year as a volunteer at the Dayton Hamvention as a courtesy shuttle golf cart driver. Aside from a couple of hours on Friday morning "shopping and gawking", I spent the rest of Friday, and all of Saturday and Sunday happily shuttling folks around.

I got an email two days ago that a package had been sent via FedEx that would require a signature. I wondered what it might be since I hadn't ordered anything...
confused.gif
Well, it was delivered this afternoon and you could have knocked me over with a feather!
icon_surprised.gif


Apparently I won one of the prize drawings and didn't know that I had. When I signed for the package I noted briefly that the box had JVCKenwood on it...

...it turned out to be a brand spanking new TH-D74 handheld! It is a tri-band radio with D-Star, GPS and APRS. When I checked Amazon.com I learned that the least expensive offered was listed at $585 USD.

Holy Smoke! That's almost precisely what the weekend cost me.
biggrin.gif
Well for all that you do for us here, I would say it were well deserved
 
Messages
203
Country
ca-britishcolumbia
I say well earned!!!

A friend has sent me pictures from the flea market.....oh my my.....so many lovely old receivers.....drool. :)

CK
 

n4gix

Resource contributor
Messages
11,674
Country
unitedstates
Thanks guys. I have thought about it and I honestly have no real need for this radio. I already own seven hand-held radios, three of which are dual-band DMR (Digital Mobile Radio), and there are only two D-Star (another digital mode) repeaters in Chicago, neither of which are within range from my location, so that's pretty well useless. I only go to Chicago when I can't avoid doing so, such as not-frequent trips to the VA Hospital and a bi-monthly meeting of another radio club of which I'm a member.

Now I could put it up for sale and probably get 90% of it's retail price, but paypal and ebay fees would eat quite a bit of that sales price, leaving me with maybe as much as 80%... :eek:

On the other hand, if I donate the new radio to my local ham radio club as a Grand Prize in a raffle, the proceeds from the raffle would add possibly quite a bit to the club's treasury. :scratchch

It's not like it'll cost me anything since I got it for free... Decisions, decisions!
 
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