Dave Heil wrote:
wrote:

Michael Coslo wrote:
wrote
Michael Coslo wrote:

Maybe PBS could do a special? Imagine if Ken Burns did a
documentary on amateur radio...

That could only be good. I've found the stuff done in the past by
Dave
Bell and Roy Neal to be lacking. A good historical narrative
leading to
the present and showing active hams doing what they do would be
nice,
especially if they leave out anyone wearing a tee-shirt or
ballcap except perhaps in a Field Day scene.

Joe Walsh and Patty Loveless....

Perhaps. Also, the "Amateur Radio in the 21st Century"
paper equated
passing the code test with winning the Tour de France
or painting the Mona Lisa,

Wow! now I feel really great about passing!!! ;^)

I never got more of a buzz from passing a morse exam than I did
when
passing a tough chemistry exam. Ah, but passing the entire
exam for
obtaining a license opened a window to the world.

Same here!

Didja read that paper, and my rebuttal?

No.

"Amateur Radio In the 21st Century" can be viewed here

http://gahleos.obarr.net/messages/0002.html

A detailed rebuttal in three parts:

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...licy/msg/1f293
55163c4ed4e?dmode=source

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...licy/msg/a0bb6
7064e87e3d8?dmode=source

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/...licy/msg/0fceb
52701a89334?dmode=source


Funny you should mention that. the first time I took element 1...
and

flunked... I was not pleased, but Figured I'd do it again, the
person

who was the most upset was the VE. I felt worse for him than
myself.

Lessee...I was 14 and flunked 13 wpm the first go because the
examiner
couldn't read my longhand. What the sadistic IHM nuns called
"Palmer
Method",
for some reason.

You really wrote out the morse exam in longhand?

Yep. That's all they taught in parochial school back then.
You'd get whacked across the knunckles with a hardwood ruler
for printing.

So I went home and taught myself to block print and copy
Morse in big
square capital letters (a skill not taught in the parochial
schools of
the day) and came back some weeks later, when I passed easily.

I started copying morse in block caps and it was an easy
transition.
I'd done most of my schoolwork in upper and lower case
printing 'cuz the
teachers had a rough time reading my left-handed scrawl.

I stopped using longhand for anything when I got out of high school.

Didja know the USA is now *importing* LNG from the Middle East and
other places?

We've been importing natural gas for decades.

But not by ship!

Ever hear of the "Big Inch" pipeline?

Oyez.

When I was a kid, there was a large part of South Philly devoted to the
gas works, where coal was heated to make producer gas and stored in
huge expandable tanks. The conversion to natural gas eliminated all
that.

Didn't AARP lose membership for supporting Shrub's
prescription plan?

They lost me before that. They sent me that crummy "My Generation"
magazine about 50+ folks in denial over aging *and* AARP tried to
represent me on issues where I took strong exception to their views.
After three years of membership, I couldn't find a benefit to
belonging.

I just got membership literature from them...can't see any reason to
join for the same reasons...

73 de Jim, N2EY