Subj : Side Effects Of This
To   : Daryl Stout
From : August Abolins
Date : Sun Feb 07 2021 11:28:00

Hello Daryl Stout!

** On Saturday 06.02.21 - 01:50, Daryl Stout wrote to Mike Powell:

 DS>   I had just gotten a new vanity callsign (my previous
 DS>   callsign, WX1DER, which I got the day after Arkansas got
 DS>   a foot of snow (Christmas, 2012)... but I changed to
 DS>   WX4QZ on my 59th birthday in 2019. Since ham radio
 DS>   licenses are only good for 10 years, my license will
 DS>   expire when I turn 69 -- and no snide remarks from the
 DS>   peanut gallery. <G>

:O  Based on all the health ailments you've been describing over  
the years, I thought you were much older than me.  I'm actually  
older than you by a few years.  :O

 DS> Bob and myself alternate as Net Controls each week...and I
 DS> am the weekly scribe for the net.

There's enough interest to warrant a weekly report?   
Interesting.

The closest I ever got to comms over radio was with some walkie  
talkies that supported custom crystals.  Once I learned how to  
open the radios and replace the crystals with other ones, I  
could essentially skip the more common freqs in order to have a  
more private channel between them. I was hoping that the  
solution could help my parents on the farm (one at home base,  
and the other one in the barn or in the field).  But I could  
never get my dad excited about keeping the radio with him at the  
ready.  My mom on the otherhand was all for it!

When I worked for Marconi, in Montreal, while they were still in  
the original iconic building, there was a ham club that operated  
radio of all kinds on the top floor. That sounded intriguing,  
but I seemed to be overworked or just wanted to go home after a  
long day - so I never bothered to join the club.

When I dabbled in CB radio (via the walkie talkies) I eventually  
realized that spontaneous chatter over the radio with whomever  
was out there (CQ CQ ..) wasn't for me.  One of our first phone  
lines to the house was a party line for many years - and  
although it was kinda funny to be able to pick up on someone's  
telephone convos on the phone, I didn't like the interruptions  
when I was legitimately using the phone myself.

So, except for the technology behind ham radio and all that, I  
don't see the excitement of just picking up unknown/random  
chatter out there.
--
  ../|ug

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