Subj : Kits To : PETER COGGON From : Richard Webb Date : Tue May 08 2007 01:50 pm PETER COGGON wrote in a message to RICHARD WEBB: PC> Unfortunately, with little cash in those days, and now as PC> medically retired, and other issues, I never got to see the 303, nor PC> the new toys of today. the 303 was a decent unit, sounded good. I don't think there were many differences between it and the 301. IT had the 15 mhz bc band, at least the one I owned for awhile had that one. Got my 303/401 setup on a combination of a trade and for consideration of money owed me. In fact, about that time I got rid of an old HEath hr-10 which kept coming back to me over the years. I gave that radio to a friend and a few years later when I had gotten completely out of anything radio a friend of mine gave it to me to listen to refresh myself on the code. I noticed a couple of characteristics of it, asked where he got it. I got a rat shack general coverage receiver then and gave it to somebody else. I think it bounced in and out of my hands one other time too. NOt that I was ever impressed with the hr-10 even as an entry level receiver. No AGC and the most unstable vfo I've ever seen. RW> I had the 303 with the 401. I liked the 303. dIdn't quite compete RW> with my old Hamarlund receiver, but few do. Also had a lot of fun with RW> a hw-100 and hw-12 transceivers back in the day. PC> Aaah the Hammarlunds ...saw and tried a dew of them, and found PC> them to be in some cases better then the new stuff. The HW-12 was PC> the main stay of many rigs for the white caners I helped out. I resemble that last. That's where I first saw one was at the school for the blind in IOwa. THey had a COllins m-2 as well, thanks to their proximity to the COllins plant in Cedar rapids Iowa. I think a young lady there owned the hw-12 and had it on the operating bench for awhile when the COllins returned to C.r. for repairs. RW> Until my house fire after Katrina I was using an old heathkit phone RW> patch too, interfacing it with an Icom 740. RW> PC> I see you have had your share of home disasters. Me too, but not PC> as much as you, as we dodged a twister, or a few of them, but we had PC> a house fire caused by a Zenith TV bursting into flames. Seems the PC> "bomb goes in before the name goes on" , so no more Zeniths for our PC> family < 2 bombs later>. The two were related. My xyl and I weren't allowed to return home when we left the hospital after Katrina, we operated radios all week keeping the hospital in food water and diesel fuel as well as helped arrange a couple patient evacuations. the air force flew us to SAn Antonio and the authorities wouldn't let us back in until we had equipment and paperwork together as emergency communicators. SInce I didn't have any working vhf/uhf gear except an old motorolla uhf handheld we were awaiting two new rigs for those freqs at the local ham radio dealers. they were supposed to come in that next MOnday and we'd have the paperwork faxed to us then at the motel. wELl while waiting we were contacted and told that when they turned on the power grid to our neighborhood our damaged house went up in flames, but the old Rottweiler chained to the front porch survived. the good folks at K-comm in SAn ANtone were trying to get KEnwood moving as quickly as possible to get those two dual-band portables to us quickly so we could get home, but other factors conspired against us. I got the Icom back, it had been taken into the hospital as a backup as the 746 pro they had there had just gone to the shop for warranty repair and just returned a few days before the storm. Along with it I kept my Heil mic and boom stand. These days primary rig is a KEnwood ts-440 and the companion phone patch, mc-50 desk mic and a beefy AStron supply I bought from the estate of a local ham. IN fact, the AStron powers everything that needs 13.8 vdc around here when not on battery power. 73 de nf5b Regards, Richard --- timEd 1.10.y2k+ * Origin: Radio REscue on fidonet (1:116/901) .