TopBand: Origin of Slim

[Alastair Beaton]

Hi all, 

Thanks for the myriad of mails on the origin of "Slim". 

As with Ham it seems difficult to trace the exact origin. 

The American Heritage Dictionary says "slim" is derived from Dutch 
(bad, sly) and Old Dutch (slimp, slim meaning bad, crooked). 
It's been suggested that the term was first used for a ham pirate in the 
'40s. It may mean that there is a SLIM chance of getting a QSL!

However, it seems really to have come into common useage in the late 
Sixties. An op calling himself Slim took to the bands from an 
imaginary volcanic outcrop between Canada, Greenland and Iceland in 
1968, signing 8X8AA. Hugh "Cass" Cassidy WA6AUD, then the editor of 
the West Coast DX Bulletin, started calling all pirates "slims" and 
this seems to have caught the popular imagination.

Check out the brilliant K2CD homepage, which has loads of WCDXB 
features and much more:
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/1641     

My thanks to Bob VE7BS, Dave W4JVN, Earl K6SE, Gary W0AW and Ghis 
ON5NT for providing all this information.

73
Al, GM4BAP

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