RonaldNC
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Re: Surge Brakes on Tow Dolly with Exhaust Brake on MH
I use an Acme EZE Tow Dolly with the surge brakes. The surge brakes will activate when you slow for any reason, whether it's the service brakes, exhaust brake or down-shifting. It doesn't give me any problems with the mountains around my home in the Smoky Mountains. However, when you are planning on going down a long descent, you can insert the supplied key to lock out the surge brakes. It's not a huge concern, even if you don't lock them out. The brakes are well ventilated, so they cool well. Also, the brake pads are extremely easy to replace if you wear them out.473Views0likes0CommentsRe: Any satellite guru's out here? Dish-Wally-Pathway X2
richheck wrote: RonaldNC wrote: I may be way off base, but my X2 says it can only be used with Solo receivers (211, 411, etc.). Have they changed it to be compatible with Wally receivers? Ron Yes Rod, the Wally is compatible with both the X2 and King Tailgaters. I have used mine with both Interesting... what is the advantage of the Wally over the VIP211Z? Ron538Views0likes0CommentsRe: Monaco Roadmaster Chassis
I went the same route. I owned two gas motorhomes and decided to upgrade to a diesel pusher. I bought a new 2009 Monaco Cayman. As mentioned by others, there are problems with the stock trailing arms. It is imperative that you have upgraded to the improved Roadmaster trailing arms or (preferably) the Source Engineering upgrades. I went with Source Engineering and also installed their Ride Enhancement Kit. I'm a full-timer and have over 36,000 miles on mine. My ride is now very good... much better than my previous gasser's ride. For comparison, I drove my buddie's 2006 40 foot Allegro Bus and while the Allegro better on the bumps... not by a lot. Mine actually makes less noise when it hits a big rut! My RV no longer has any porpoising and handles bumps/ruts well. The big difference I noticed versus the Allegro Bus was how it handles in the wind. I think that may have more to do with it's steering box and chassis. Don't get me wrong, a four bagger will never be as good as a eight bagger... but I didn't want to shell out the additional dollars for it. I'm sure that a lot of folks with eight baggers would like to have a ten bagger... or a Prevost... but don't have one for the same reason. Good luck with whatever you decide!721Views0likes0CommentsRe: Ham Radio Questions
Art Davis wrote: I see that Yaesu has just announced the FT-65R which apparently supercedes the FT-60. Looks like the screen might be easier to read by an aging dude with failing eyesight. Also I noticed that hamradio.com seems to have good prices. Has anyone bought from them? Saw a Youtube video, wherein the guy says he likes the icom because it uses AA batteries---and he might have a point in that you can carry spares. Guess the alternative would be to buy a spare rechargeable battery pack, no? Don---which Kenwood did you have in mind? Wow! I hadn't noticed the release of the FT-65R. It looks pretty cool and worth the extra $15. I actually don't have much trouble programming my Yaesu... you just hit the menu key and you can scroll through the options with the dial. However, no matter what radio you purchase, I highly recommend the RT Systems software. It extracts all the repeater information for the area you're in (from the ARRL Repeater database) and automatically downloads it into your radio memory bank. It's really great when you're moving locations every few days! Also, the included rechargeable battery lasts a long time. The last time I charged it up was several weeks ago. Good luck with whatever you buy!543Views0likes0CommentsRe: Ham Radio Questions
Art Davis wrote: Thanks for the response, Ron. Good info. Have you had a chance to make comparisons between your Yaesu and the (significantly cheaper) iCom and Baofeng transceivers? P.S. The Yaesu now goes for $172 on Amazon. Is there a better source? Art, Actually, I skipped the part where I first purchased a TYT handheld... which is also a Chinese brand (about $110). While it worked fine, it was really hard to figure out how to program it. The manual was clearly a Chinese to English translation and hard to understand. You could purchase the Baofeng, along with the RT System program to make programming it easier, and it would save you a few bucks. I bought my Yaesu at Ham Radio Outlet here in San Diego for $154. The equivalent Icom IC-T70A sells for $200. If you want a mono band HT (2 meter), you would save a few bucks on both manufacturer's products... but I think it is worth the small price difference to get dual band. Ron544Views0likes0CommentsRe: Ham Radio Questions
Art Davis wrote: Just a last note: Went to the Yuma hamfest today, took the technician test and passed! Yabbadabbadoo, as Fred Flintstone would say. Now to figure out what's going on! (Gotta' confess that I tried to get cocky and took the general exam---missed by one question! Now to unravel the issue of how to grandfather the tech license up to my previous class.) Lots of nice folks associated with the examining team and the Yuma ham club, by the way! BTW: Is anyone in the Yuma area? I'd appreciate some advice on how to access the local repeaters and what kind of handheld transceiver to get to access them. I will play around with the vhf/uhf bands before pursuing the hf emergency issue. When I hit the road as a full-timer, I decided to give VHF/UHF a try. I purchased a Yaesu FT-60R, which is a dual-band handheld 144/440 MHz radio for about $150 brand new. Then I purchased the ARRL repeater book and started traveling. I've always been able to find a signal wherever I travelled. I later bought the RTS system for my handheld, which simplified the process of adding memory channels. I'm still working on getting a low-band radio/antenna for the motorhome. I didn't want to bring my old Yaesu FT101 along. Looking at, perhaps, the Icom IC7300... but still haven't decided on a good mobile/portable antenna. Welcome back to the club!543Views0likes0CommentsRe: KVH TracVision QPSK to 8PSK Dish Network (How to re-program)
PapaSmurf1 wrote: Dish Network uses 3 different satellites (110, 119, & 129) for all of their channels (if on Western Arc). If you are only connecting to 119, you are only getting a portion of the channels you subscribe to. Programming your KVH dish antenna to 110 and 119 will include more of the channels in your programming package but not all of them. You may not receive the entire lineup in your package because the manual programming above does not give you a connection to the 129 satellite. (I found the 129 satellite has the majority of the HD programming, the same station is often on 119 satellite in SD). My older KVH Tracvision R5 does not have the ability to lock onto 129 because it uses QPSK to find and lock onto the signal, the 129 satellite uses 8PSK encoding. (8PSK is more efficient and can get more programming into the bandwidth available). Here are a list of channels on the 110 satellite: http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/Dish-USA-110W.html Hope this makes sense! Thank you. However, I thought that 110 also used 8PSK? When I talked to KVH, they indicated that 119 was the only remaining orbital to use QPSK and gave me the coding to program my satellite dish to only seek that one. They also indicated that 119 would likely change sometime in the near future. Because of all of this, I bought a Winegard X2 Pathway portable dish. I couldn't stomach spending over $1,000 for another roof mounted dish that will likely be obsolete in a couple of years. However, if I can get 110 to work... I will reprogram it per your suggestion... it will make a good backup. Thanks, Ron329Views0likes0Comments
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