[TowerTalk] Anniversary

[Barrie Smith]

Gotch:  56 years.

Barrie, W7ALW


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don Havlicek" <n8de at thepoint.net>
To: <ersmar at comcast.net>
Cc: "Reicher, James" <JReicher at hrblock.com>; <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 4:42 PM
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Anniversary


> You guys are all kids. ... heck, I was licensed before most of you were
> born!  Celebrated 51 years .... of Ham Radio ... this year!
> Now to put up, this Spring, the 6 towers lying in the yard ... and the 6
> verticals, too.
> Anyone wanna help a geezer?
> Don
> N8DE
> Edmore, MI
>
> ersmar at comcast.net wrote:
>> Jim:
>>
>>      I don't think of it as I'm old.  I think of it as there are a lot 
>> more younger people around than there used to be.  Thanks.
>>
>>
>> 73 de
>> Gene Smar  AD3F
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>>Dang!  You're OLD!!! :)
>>>
>>>
>>>73 de N8AU, Jim in Raymore, MO
>>>
>>>Message: 3
>>>Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2005 13:07:27 -0500
>>>From: <ersmar at comcast.net>
>>>Subject: [TowerTalk] Anniversary
>>>To: <topband at contesting.com>, <towertalk at contesting.com>, "PVRC"
>>> <pvrc at mailman.qth.net>
>>>Message-ID: <005c01c5e558$71860b20$0200a8c0 at downstairs>
>>>Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>>>
>>>Gents:
>>>
>>>     I just looked at the calendar and remembered that it was forty (!)
>>>years ago today that I passed my Novice Morse code test!  My Elmer,
>>>Harry
>>>Schaefer (callsign forgotten by me, sorry) of Coaldale, PA had just
>>>given me
>>>my test at 5 WPM send and receive.  He then showed me his station -
>>>Hallicrafters receiver sitting on a large wooden desk in his attic and
>>>Globe
>>>King 500 Watt floor rack-mounted AM and CW transmitter feeding a tuner
>>>and a
>>>dipole just outside his window (in the days before RF exposure rules!)
>>>
>>>     He tuned across a couple of QRQ stations in the low end of 80M.  Of
>>>course, I couldn't copy them and asked what they were saying.  Harry
>>>cocked
>>>his head for a while, listening intently AND COPYING IN HIS HEAD (My
>>>hero!)
>>>He said one Ham in Massachusetts asked another Ham in New York state
>>>when
>>>the power came back on in New York.  The NY Ham said his town hadn't
>>>been
>>>affected by the power failure.  The next morning I read in the paper
>>>about
>>>the Great Northeast Blackout of 1965.  (
>>>http://blackout.gmu.edu/events/tl1965.html .)
>>>
>>>     Since then we Hams, and the rest of American society, have
>>>witnessed
>>>momentous changes in electrotechnology.  In commercial radio
>>>broadcasting,
>>>FM supplanted AM as the delivery method preferred by more in the
>>>listening
>>>audience.  The Carterphone decision of the FCC in 1968 opened the way
>>>for
>>>interconnected devices such as phone-patches (remember when they were
>>>illegal?) and, ultimately, alternative carriers such as MCI, to connect
>>>to
>>>AT&T's telephone network.  We no longer hear, "The following program is
>>>brought to you in living color on NBC."  Fiber-optic cables are now as
>>>ubiquitous as copper wires.  Television sets went from using external
>>>converters for tuning UHF channels to mandatory built-in tuners that
>>>covered
>>>up to channel 83 to tuners that covered only up to channel 69 (the
>>>missing
>>>14 channels had been assigned to something called "cellular telephone"
>>>service.)  And my kids are texting each other on their own wireless
>>>telephone devices.  (Remember when Ham autopatching was all the rage on
>>>VHF-FM?)  And computers in the home?  Only on The Jetsons.
>>>
>>>     Thanks for letting me wax nostalgic a bit today (not that you had
>>>much
>>>of a choice, I suppose.)  I'm sure we all have similar stories, but for
>>>me
>>>it's been an extremely enjoyable trip down this path of Ham Radio.
>>>
>>>     Now if I could just work KL7 on Topband!
>>>
>>>73 de
>>>Gene Smar  AD3F
>>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>>
>> See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless 
>> Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with 
>> any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> TowerTalk mailing list
>> TowerTalk at contesting.com
>> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless 
> Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with 
> any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
>