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The third episode of the third season of this AMC series about a
fictionalized account of the birth and evolution of the personal
computer industry was on this week. The title refers to a machine code
instruction (often represented in assembly language as "HCF") to stop
CPU operation and go into an unrecoverable state, requiring restart. It
featured some ham radio operated by the tempermental genius engineer,
Gordon Clark, who led the technical team to build one of the first IBM
PC clones in the first season, and who starts out the episode in his
hallway closet (!!!) calling CQ on HF (shortwave).

The depiction was reasonably accurate, but had some rough edges:

- The callsign, KC4L, is not currently assigned. Usually when ham
radio is depicted in popular entertainment, the callsign is
fictitious (not in a standard sequence, like the TV show "Last Man
Standing" where it was X-suffixed, KA0XTT, like an experimental
station) or a tribute to a writer or famous ham, like W9GFO in the
movie "Contact." The call is in a sequence appropriate for an Extra
licensed in the 80's, but the district number doesn't match up with
Texas (5) where he lived in the previous seasons or California (6)
where he now lives in the third.

- When his son asks him what he is doing, he says he is using a radio
he built himself, though clearly it is an off-the-shelf 70's-era
Yaesu and not, say, a Heathkit.

- As noted above, he's operating out of his hallway closet. Never seen
a ham do that. Maybe a basement, garage (Gordon had a big one in
Texas where he homebrewed computers), or even a car or motorhome, but
never a closet. Maybe his new house in California doesn't have a
garage workshop like back in Texas, or he's afraid that his wife
Donna wouldn't approve? Also, how do you route an antenna out of a
closet? Hole through the wall or ceiling to the attic, probably, but
what kind of antenna is he supposed to have?

- He has a nice, obsessive-nerd, explanation to his son for the origin
of CQ ("Comes from the French word se'curite', which means safety or
security. You can hear it when you say 'secu, secu'"). However,
some of the rest of his terminology and operating etiquette is a bit
off. He complains about not being able to get an answer back due to
a bad "connection" vs. link, or path, or propagation. He also uses
one of the FCC 7 forbidden words (probably ranked #2) over the air,
and indiscretely talks about the challenges in his relationship with
his wife with the other station he finally reaches (perhaps
imaginary, used as a plot device to suggest his gradual departure
from reality, possibly as a symptom of his lead solder poisoning
diagnosed in season 2).

Curious to see how this develops in future episodes, if at all, on AMC
every Tuesday night at 9 PM/8 PM Central.

(73, Paul, K3FU)

- --
Paul W. Schleck

http://www.novia.net/~pschleck/
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