From: John Smith I on Sat, Dec 30 2006 9:43 am

wrote:
...
I recall Cecil succumbing to their jeers to join them on CW. Poor
******* so wanted to prove himself to them that he operated CW with a
thunderstorm overhead and lightning alqds. After such heroics, they
still don't like his ideas and ostracize him.
...

Len, Len, Len ...

There are many here whose time has come and gone. They have only their
retirement check, SSI, time and antique radio gear.

Seeing your following post explaining the mixup in attributes,
I'll toss a thing or two in here in response... :-)

The on-air get-together of morsemen was reported in here in
some detail and Cecil really did do his thunderstorm thing.
Considering Cecil's method of antenna matching...open-wire
feedline stubs switched in by knife switches...it is one
heckuva dangerous exercise to peak his wire antenna response!

I admire Cecil Moore for his free-thinking ability...plus
his nifty Harley-Davidson motorcycle (called a "hog" among
motor afficionados). :-) He moved back to Texas to take
care of his ailing parents, something I had in common with
him and don't wish that on anyone.

---

Not all of the correspondents in here are in retirement!
Most of the adamant morsemen seem to be, though, but
Jimmie Noserve "is not." Since only a select few of his
"inner circle" of (morsemen) friends seem to know what
he does and where so "N2EY" isn't yet retired...but he
sounds like he is in his 80s or 90s, though.

The Prussian pedant ("K8MN") has his government pension
checks and as a retiree of the federal government it would
probably not be from the SS. He only ACTS like he was in
the SS. :-)

You think anyone, but another one, can get along with any one of them?

I don't think a chronological contemporary can "get along"
with them unless they are part of the wish-fulfillment
tribe called morsemen. They are SET in their ways,
unable to adapt, yet all want to be "leaders" or, at the
very least, "respected" for their unfailing devotion to
old, old standards and practices in a radio hobby.

Most won't acknowledge that amateur radio IS a hobby...
those are off into their own wish-fulfillment dreams of
honor, glory, majesty, and "service to their country" by
having that particular hobby. Sheesh.

Now there's nothing at all wrong with having a fascinating
hobby. Amateur radio IS a fascinating hobby. It can be
fun, it can be a recreation. Some folk in here let it
dominate their life and THAT gets them off into some
fantasies of their own. Not a good thing. For them or
the ones they are around. Especially so if their whole
being in the hobby are dominated by a self-styled few
leaders up in the NE USA. The STRICT ordering of
jargon and protocol and 'We' do things 'differently'
(as in the standards of over a half century ago) gets a
bit annoying to technology liberals. Radio itself is
only 110 years old and is constantly changing. To be
stuck in the beginning middle of that technology lifespan
(never to change) seems an absurd ultra-conservative
fixation with old technology.

It's worse with the fixation towards on-off keyed CW.
Morse code was first used in 1844...BEFORE radio
existed as a communications medium. Why in hell a 162-
year-old mode "must" be a "qualifier" for an amateur
radio license is ludicrous. That "need" to preserve a
truly archaic mode HAS to be the result of intense
mental conditioning (commonly called brainwashing) by
the you-know-who organization (the main 'news' source
for USA amateur radio).

On the other hand, the strict adherence to standards and
protocol of olden times MAY be satisfactory for all those
who have difficulty with adaptation to newer technology.
That adherence can be a comfort, a psychological survival
factor perhaps, but it doesn't alleviate their inability
to adapt. Trying to get everyone else to conform to THEIR
beloved adherence to old standards and practices is very,
very wrong and also very selfish of them.

LA