Going to the Candy Store!

Sorry I haven't posted here, but I've been busy with work and a few other things. I did manage to get rid of a vehicle that has actually served me well in a time of need, and that was my 1990 Pontiac Bonneville. This car needed a new paint job, new brakes, and some other things...but it got me around town when I needed to go somewhere. 200,000 miles and the thing was still going.

Well, I sold the car last night to a gentleman who lived out on the west side of Temple for $1000. He brought someone with him, who said that it was actually a good deal. I gladly handed him the keys, the title, registration, and the car itself. In return he handed me 10 nice $100 bills and wished me good night. I think I'll actually miss that car a little, but it's a part of a personal history I would rather forget.

So what happens with the cash? I'm going to Austin on Saturday morning to purchase the dual-band mobile gear that my XYL said I could buy! It's likely I will spend about $600 of it, but it will be worth it...since I plan to do some storm spotting again and will need the gear on trips in the future. It's not HF (what I would prefer overall) but this will do nicely in a local/regional situation.

Most of the decisions have been made as to what radio to buy and the antenna mount (if it works like I want it to). I still need to decide what antenna to get, but I'll make that decision when the other stuff falls into place.

Now, I'm still waiting for the tax rebate check to get here so I can maybe make one more major purchase, and that is likely the RigBlaster Pro or Plus for digital mode operation. I have the radio, and I have the computer. I just need a set of speakers and the RigBlaster...and then I'll be set! If this all comes together, I could have a really cool and compact ham station in a closet when it's all said and done...and I won't need to buy much more until Mary and I move into a house sometime in 2009. Once that happens, I hope to have antennas available for 50, 144 and 440 MHz, hopefully some 222 MHz gear, and enough space to throw up some good loop antennas for HF. It's a long-range plan, but if I can pull this off it will be very satisfying for me to be able to do almost whatever I want to do in Amateur Radio from home. It's also possible that I could have a great mobile station from 3.5 to 440 Mhz, too. It will be worth the effort to save my change and up my PayPal account so I can do this, and I have a year to do it in so I can't play around.

Wish me luck on all of this!

WR1TX