Yep.

But I am a guy who grew up thinking the word gay meant happy. Now I relate
gay to abomination... go figure.

JS

"Caveat Lector" wrote in message
...

What the heck! Like I was told earler, it's the "Golden Rule". I
just forgot about that, and tried to make sense of HAM.

If you mean the origin of the word "Ham' the best guess is from the ARRL
"Ham: a poor operator. A 'plug.'"

That's the definition of the word given in G. M. Dodge's The Telegraph
Instructor even before radio. The definition has never changed in wire
telegraphy. The first wireless operators were landline telegraphers who
left
their offices to go to sea or to man the coastal stations. They brought
with
them their language and much of the tradition of their older profession.

In those early days, spark was king and every station occupied the same
wavelength--or, more accurately perhaps, every station occupied the whole
spectrum with its broad spark signal. Government stations, ships, coastal
stations and the increasingly numerous amateur operators all competed for
time and signal supremacy in each other's receivers. Many of the amateur
stations were very powerful. Two amateurs, working across town, could
effectively jam all the other operators in the area. When this happened,
frustrated commercial operators would call the ship whose weaker signals
had
been blotted out by the amateurs and say "SRI OM THOSE #&$!@ HAMS ARE
JAMMING YOU."

Amateurs, possibly unfamiliar with the real meaning of the term, picked it
up and applied it to themselves in true "Yankee Doodle" fashion and wore
it
with pride. As the years advanced, the original meaning has completely
disappeared.



73 From CL