[Amps] Amps Digest, Vol 152, Issue 9

[Steve Wright]

On 12/08/15 04:00,

Manfred Mornhinweg <manfred at ludens.cl>

wrote:
> At this point the strongest of the strange spurs were about 65 to 70dB below the 
> main tones, close to the dynamic range limit of my spectrum analysis setup, so I 
> won't worry any more about them!

You've saved the planet, Manfred!  We're indebted to you once again -
teaching us a new thing, and now planet saving!  Just wow!  8-D  We luv ya!


>  I do sometimes engage in 
> long-winded rag chewing, if any interesting matter comes up, and I happen to 
> find someone interesting to talk with. But that's preciously rare these days! 

Be that man!  8-D   That is what I do - ask a technical question, ask
about the amp, contribute an amazing thing etc.  I use a very unusual
antenna on 40m - a skeleton slot, supposedly 10.01dBi gain and it
certainly feels like it - when people ACTUALLY hear what antenna I'm
running (often don't) there is always a question about it.  The locals
also want to know why the hell their meter is off the end of the damn
scale - it pisses so many people off its awesome!


> Most QSOs revolve around the weather, and what brand and model of radio the guy 
> bought. When it does get technical, it's at the level of which of his 25 mikes 
> sounds brighter, duller, more or less boxy, and so on. Those tests might be 
> interesting for mike collectors, but they tend to bore me to the point of 
> signing off.

DO THAT!!  Do it with a BIG smile in your voice, "73 buddy, bye bye,
keep having fun with that microphone ciao!"  Make sure that message gets
across, and move on to someone who can BRING a valuable thing to a
conversation.

Keep calling CQ and immediately 73 any mic, weather, blah blah
uninteresting people, and keep filtering for those who have something
INTERESTING to contribute.  Don't sit there and suck dick when there's
nothing in it.  Remember, they came to you, not you to them.  Keep it
interesting and keep it going, and watch people come to you.

> And DXing? That's the dullest thing I know in ham radio! Invariably most DXers 
> just want to exchange callsign, a fixed 5-9 report, maybe tell me the name and 
> location, and then it's "thanks for a new prefix, bye bye!" And after three such 
> contacts, at most, somebody puts me in a DX cluster, and the next thing that 
> happens is a pile-up of guys calling, crying, shouting, without even making sure 
> they can actually hear me. So I quietly slip away.

They cant HEAR you, you say?  This must be repaired at all costs!  8-D
Do you need to rewind that pole transformer?  8-D
Is it 2xGS-35b time?  8-D

DX for me is more like, "wow yours is so big!  hehe yeah mate yours is
huge too! wow, what you got there?  it's a biggun hehehe.. it's good fun
ay hehehe yeah.. oh well 73 keep pissing people off with that k-bai",
and you see them about all the time and they remember your ACTUAL 59+10
sigs AND YOUR NAME!  Just drop by when you see them and let them know
its still a WHOPPA!!

Enjoying HF for me has been much about having a little bit of attitude. 
Many did not like it, but don't think that I would have liked them, nor
them me, anyway, so it didn't matter.  There are some very cool people
on the HF bands, like Joan, Pedro, Luis, and even little F-call Alex
always in there doing it with flea power!

...And if you have not spoken to Kazu - you are totally missing out,
what a fun fella and what a WHOPPA station!!

Get on the air and BE your cool self!  Let it out!


Steve