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Re: [RFI] nightmare neighbors

To: "Tom Cox" <tomcox@iquest.net>, <rfi@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [RFI] nightmare neighbors
From: "Ford Peterson" <ford@cmgate.com>
Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 12:31:56 -0500
List-post: <mailto:rfi@contesting.com>
I am reminded of a fella that worked Downtown Minneapolis many years ago.  I 
would see him during lunch from time-to-time.  He would proudly wear a 
'special' hat designed to prevent radio waves from attacking his brain.  

The 'hat' was a cardboard box.  The entire box was sheathed with tin foil.  The 
flaps of the box were extended outward (covered with foil of course) to form a 
brim of his special hat.  There were special louvers on the sides of the box, 
also covered in foil.  These special louvres were designed to allow any sneaky 
but unwanted radio waves to get out of his brain, in the event some stray 
photons managed to get past the tin foil.

For years I would see this guy walking to work, walking to lunch, leaving 
work--always wearing the same 'special' hat.  A fashion statement maybe?

I also had a neighbor once that demanded I remove a 2M Ringo Ranger from the 
roof of the house.  He was a retired fire chief.  He insisted: "Tornadoes are 
common around these parts.  And Tornadoes HATE antennas!  If a tornado 'sees' 
your antenna, it is going to head straight for it.  And it is going to take 
your house and mine in the process."  No kidding.  That is about an exact 
quote.  I argued with him for 15 minutes and finally gave up in disbelief that 
ANYBODY could be THAT stupid!  I had to agree with him that Tornadoes do seem 
to HATE antennas.  I later moved the antenna so HE couldn't see it any more and 
all was well in the neighborhood once again.

I witnessed one other little episode that simply must be shared.  I was helping 
a friend tune his 2M 10 element beam.  It was temporarily mounted to a 6' mast 
on his deck.  We were happily spinning it around, tuning & tweaking, when his 
neighbor came home from grocery shopping.

This women pulls into the driveway, gets out of her car and starts to gather 
grocery bags into her arms.  When she stood up, she looked over to where we 
work working on the antenna.  My friend just happened to be spinning the 
antenna at the time.  As the beam came around to point at the women, she dove 
to the ground behind the car with bags in arms as if there were incoming mortar 
rounds.  Then we saw her peaking through the windows at us.  When my friend 
move the antenna away, she DASHED to the house.

All true stories!

Ford-N0FP
ford@cmgate.com



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