wrote:
From: Dave Heil on Nov 20, 9:25 am


wrote:
From: Dave Heil on Nov 18, 6:11 pm
wrote:
From: K4YZ on Nov 17, 7:15 pm
wrote:
Dave Heil wrote:


You're the oldest fart here, Len and you aren't involved in amateur
radio. Like I said, you have a fetish.

You mean LICENSED amateur radio...as in having an HF transceiver
and "working DX on HF with CW." :-)

Amateur radio might be operating weak signal UHF SSB with a multi-mode,
multi-band rig. It might be operating 2m FM through a local repeater.
It might be ragchewing on 40m CW. One constant is that you aren't involved.


I made no excuses and you weren't involved in my work any more than you
are involved in amateur radio.

"Not involved with your [Department of State] work?" Not in
the 1980s.

Not in the 1980's, not in the 1990's and not in 2000. You weren't
involved in any fashion.

I was involved in the 1950s. "State" had their
own TTY nodes in the ACAN-STARCOM-DCS worldwide in the 1950s
and 1960s.

Dark ages, Leonard. You were never employed by the U.S. Department of
State, just as you were never in amateur radio.

Would you like to know the node letters found on
all messages that were relayed by the Army? I have a nice
list. There's also one at the USAER website which covers
Army in Europe history extensively.

I'm not particularly interested. Why do you live in the past?

"State" never used an RCA Corporation RACES (Random Access
Card Extract System) archival memory storage machine?

It was not used for long. It wasn't seen as practical. Back to my
employment: You were never involved.

On
the contrary, "State" had two of them in Washingdon DC as
prime electronic back-up. Back in the late 1960s. I know
because I worked at the RCA division that made them and I
got in on some of their final testing.

How does that make you involved in my employment?

Department of State
used those to keep track of a months' worth of messages
into/out of DC. You told me they were of no consequence. :-)

They weren't. Their demise was quick. They were supplanted by state of
the art (for the time) Teletype Model 40 gear. That equipement was used
long past its obsolescence. It was phased out in the late 1980's and
early 1990's. How were you involved in my job?

I'm not involved in the operation of LICENSED amateur radio
on-the-air.

Precisely. ZIC/ZID.

I can and have helped other amateurs fix/align
their radio equipment.

Bully for you. No license is required as long as you don't put it on
the air.

However, you want to dismiss a great
big hobby area involving not just radio but all of electronics
in the United States. Unpaid work. In a hobby. That's
were I am.

I'm not dismissing a great big hobby area involving all of electronics.
I'm stating quite accurately that you aren't involved in amateur radio.

In other words, you're a non-factor in either.

Tsk, tsk, I'm closer to a Mersene number insofar as factors
are concerned! BSEG

from:
http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...ient=firefox-a

"No large Mersene number was proven to be prime".

You must be past your prime, Len. :-)


You've been recycling here too. You've certainly gotten mileage out of
your irrelevant military experiences of better than half a century ago.

1. The U.S. military gave up using morse code modes for
long-haul HF communications in 1948, longer than a
half century ago. Plain, simple fact. Bugs the hell
out of devout Believers in the Church of St. Hiram,
so I bring it up. :-)

I don't know why it'd bother radio amateurs. I'm sure that you meant
that the Army gave up the use of morse for long haul, point-to-point
bulk relayed message traffic. Otherwise your statement could be seem as
incorrect. Amateur radio isn't about the Army.


2. I've mentioned a considerable amount of civilian
programs I've worked on in the last 49 years.
Interestingly, there's more "sensitivity" on that
than on old military activities due to Trade
Secrets, Corporate Confidential, and general Non-
Disclosure demands. Unless I have press release
or other public information on that, I don't even
mention them.

That's lucky for us. Otherwise your already long and irrelevant posts
would just grow longer.

3. Before the advent of communications satellites,
wideband fiber optic cable, improved underwater
cable, the U.S. military depended primarily on HF
radio for their worldwide communications networks.
That HF network equipment operated by the very same
laws of physics which governed amateur radio then
and now. Technology transfer was directly applicable
between the military of that time and amateur radio
of that time. However, military radio then (and
still does) employ more modes and techniques than
are allowed by U.S.radio amateurs now.

That's nice, but not really relevant.


Did you know that both Tech classes together constitute almost
HALF of all U.S. amateur radio license grants? True!

Yep, when something is simple enough, many folks will opt for it rather
than attempting that which is more difficult. Many never go beyond the
easiest license despite the limited privileges it offers.

Such as long-time amateur radiotelegraphers who've never
ventured behind the front panels of their radios in order
to understand how they worked. :-)

Your clause doesn't address limited privileges. :-)

Yes, I am familiar
with those. Their "radio skill" never goes beyond their
key, their ears, or the "official" jargon they've picked
up from older days, those used by older "radio experts."

Do you know any radio telephonists who've never ventured beyond the
front panels of their equipment? Does their skill extend beyond their
microphones? Have they picked up any "official" jargon from older days?
Perhaps your rant was intended only as a slam against anyone who is both
a telegrapher and a radio amateur.



Vic Clark was a silent key before I entered the Foreign Service.

Not my fault. shrug

You told us that you exchanged letters with him.

I've met lots of notable people while in the Foreign Service--a U.S.
President, his wife, two Secretaries of State, a number of U.S.
Congressmen and Senators, former Finnish President Mauno Koivisto,
Forumula 1 driver Mika Salo and even trumpeter Clark Terry among others.
I got to see a number of other people of note--Secretary of State
George Schultz, Boris Yeltsin.

Wow! All because you worked for the Department of State?

That's absolutely correct.

Who wrote "I've met people like you, always bragging about..."

It wasn't a brag, Len. After all, you were the one who wrote about
notables coming to my embassy. Oh, that's right--you snipped that part.

What has all that name-dropping to do with amateur radio? :-)

That's what I thought when *you* brought it up.

Hmmm...I could do the same schtick with some show business
folks, some high up, some not well known, lots of behind
the scenes guild people, plus a couple of big corporation
founders, three federal representatives (Barry Goldwater's
son...

Barry Goldwater's son? Wow! I met the Duchess of Windsor's waiter in
Palm Beach when I was a kid. I saw Fred Astaire's dancing shoes at a
well known English manor house where Eisenhower planned the Normandy
Invasion. Imagine! Goldwater's son!

once on politics, the other on a visit to RCA EASD in
Van Nuys about the time his district was gerrymandered out
of my area). I was quite taken with meeting Stockard
Channing briefly during a party in the Hollywood Hills, she
is tinier in real life than in reel life and is charming
without needing a script. [Stockard was in "West Wing"
as a semi-regular, is now on another show about doctors]

I've not met any Heads of State. Few get involved in the
nittygritty of aerospace. Representative Goldwater did
but then he was bigger on flying and piloting than his
father. The late General Bernard Shriever, USAF Missle
Command (or whatever its final name was)...

I'm pretty sure that it wasn't "Missle Command". :-)

It [Newington] isn't even the center of the hamiverse.

Actually, in this country, it is the closest thing we've got.

Only in your perception.

Then again, you aren't likely to know. You aren't a ham and you aren't
an ARRL member.


What nightly footsteps are in evidence and why would they be yellow?

Inquire of REAL USMC veterans about "yellow footsteps."

Why?

You haven't been following the expose' of the self-renowned
Amateur Extra now dubbed Dudly the Imposter.

Oh, I know that you've found another insulting name for someone.


Sorry, lil Davie, but there was a "comment march" on Washington.
3,786 filings worth on WT Docket 05-235.

What, pray tell, is a "comment march".

On alliterations you seem illiterate.

Off hand, I'd say the guy who penned "comment march" seems lacking in
literary skills.

There was no human parade march on Washington in regards to
amateur radio.

I knew that.


There were (to date) 3,786 filings on WT
Docket 05-235, that Docket devoted to only one subject, the
elimination or retention of the morse code test in federal
amateur radio regulations.

So that'd be unlike any real march on Washington, where all were united
in a common goal. In the Civil Rights march, were more than half of the
marchers *against* civil rights for blacks?

It's been only four months
since the release of NPRM 05-143 (on July 19, 2005) but in
the 11 month official period of WT Docket 98-143 on
Restructuring, that garnered only about 2200 filings.

And? What percentage of radio amateurs filed? What percentage of the
general public filed?


The anti-code-test movement is gaining momentum.

Not to the tune of 3,786 filings on 05-235, it isn't.

See preceding.

I read the "preceding". It said, "Not to the tune of 3,786 filings on
05-235, it isn't".

You aren't wrapped very tight.

True, I am (at time of writing) sitting in shirtsleeves,
the office window open, temperature gauge at the corner
of the radio clock displaying 71.3 degrees F.
If you mean that remark as an insult, then it has fallen
flat before the message got here. Please do not litter.

I meant it as a statement of that which is evident, but I don't blame
you for wanting to snip that which illustrated my point.

Would you care to see your own special profile again?

Do whatever you like. The "profiles" generated by Miccolis
are not official, not accurate, are biased to an extreme
due to past differences in here and my not obliging him
with the respect and reverence he thinks is so richly
deserving.

While not official, that profile is based upon long experience in
reading your posted material. It appears to be quite accurate in that
you live up to it time and again.

"Profiles" work two ways, indeed in many ways. Yours
can, and has been done (in part) several times.

Was that the one you plagiarized from Jim's work?

I've been paid as a musician.

Union or scab? [wanna see my AFTRA card? :-) ]

Were you an actor portraying a musician? :-)

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

That isn't a musician's union at all. The AFofM is the musician's union.

Question reiterated: Were YOU ever in a musician's
guild, union, or craft?

What's it to you?


What's your point? Amateurs at anything, aren't paid. They do things
for the love of doing them.

Then why do YOU insist that all radio amateurs "love" the
specific things YOU "love?"

I do not.

Your motivation is at question there.

Your understanding of logic is at question here.


Does Palomar know about you? Does Schmidt help you?

I'll let you think some more about another question you
did not answer... :-)

What were you telling me about your not having to respond to questions? :-)

No, I don't think you need anything additional to brag about, Len.

Davie, baby, "it ain't braggin' if ya DONE it. I done it."

Then you don't have a "braq quotionent", Len. You have an "I DONE it
quotionent", except that when it comes to amateur radio, you ain't done it.

I have not obtained any amateur radio license, true...

Precisely!


...but
to attempt semi-insult at claiming I've never been IN
radio would be a disasterous fabrication for you on the
order of Dudly the Imposter level.

Then it is probably a good thing that I've never done any such thing.

Remember who used that Dizzy Dean misquote in here first?

The quote has been attributed to a number of people over the years.

The one who USED it first in here was James P. Miccolis,
license N2EY. ["Used," Davie, not 'attributed to']

"Attributed to", Leonard, not "used". The quote has been attributed to
Babe Ruth, Dizzy Dean and others.

Tsk, that misquote wound up blowing his words off...

Did it, Lennie?

I didn't write about anything particularly new, Len.

All readers here realize that...do not state the obvious.

I asked about the things you are unable to do.

For what reason? To attempt more denigrations?

There's no need for more ammunition there.

I had been attempting to levitate. Then I tried to invent anti-
gravity. No success. Something is holding me down...

Have you decided to use that line over and over until someone thinks it
is a) original to you or b) funny?

You poor, ignored blighter. You're still standing out in the cold and
looking in. I guess you showed us.

Sorry, you're thinking of Val Germann. He's been an unmodified
Tech for over three years. [my micro-fiber jacket isn't
tattered, you've got the wrong guy...]

You're wearing a jacket in 73 degree temperatures?

It couldn't have been Val, Leonard. He's a licensed ham. He is
permitted full voting membership in the old lodge.

In the NAAR, if he is a member there.

Do you mean the ARRL? Yes, if he is a member. Even if he isn't an ARRL
member, he's a member of the cozy lodge made up of all licensed radio
amateurs. The guy who passed his Tech last week is a member. The guy
who has been licensed since 1928 is a member. Kids of eight or nine
years of age are members. You are not a member.

The Commission doesn't
have "voting" or "membership" through license granting...it
just grants licenses and regulates all civil radio in the
United States. The NAAR (old name ARRL, but NAAR seems to be
the new name used by Imlay in Comments) membership is only
1 in 5 of all United States amateur radio licenses.

Can you name any single U.S. amateur radio organization with as much as
1/10th the membership of the ARRL? How about 1/5th?

Just how big is that "lodge hall" you tried to write about?

It is big enough to hold well over 600,000 members.

I was hangin' with some NBC West Coast Hq types at lunch. We
weren't talking about hamme raddddio.

No doubt. They probably weren't even discussing ham radio.

You DO have such difficulty with the written word, don't
you? Tsk, tsk. Work on comprehension rather that strict,
obedient literalism. This isn't an English Composition
high school class.

I realized that when I found that there isn't a competent instructor on
hand.

Ever hear of Phil Amidon? He retired from NBC West Coast
Headquarters years ago. He'd already started a small
business selling iron powder toroid cores and other little
kits on sale in many radio-electronics parts stores
nationwide. Bigger corporation bought his company.

Yep. They don't make anything. They re-package and sell products made
by another firm.

Irrelevant.

Only to your extreme literalism. Tsk, tsk. Relax, learn
to live with things. It will be better for you now that
you are over the middle aged hill.


As a matter of fact, Leonard, I've been watching HDTV for better than
the past two years. Get your enjoyment where you can. For watching TV,
you're an insider. For amateur radio, you're an outsider.

Yep, extreme literalism. "Back of the bus" kind of bigotry.

That's incorrect. The seating on the bus is open. You haven't boarded.

Were you born with that elitist attitude? Or was it
acquired in "the foreign service?" :-)

"Foreign Service". Were you in "the army"? :-)


Tell me, do you hang around VE exam sessions, questioning
those who enter the door whether they are "upgrading" or
are newbies? Do you act like a Dill sergeant with the
newbies? Chew them out, don't permit them to speak until
spoken to? I get the distinct feeling you do that. :-)

You aren't yet a newbie. :-)

By the way, I've actually been watching HDTV, the present
system in the regulations, since SIX years ago. Since a
demonstration by the "Grand Alliance" group on the west
coast. I've seen "HD" systems demonstrated much earlier,
but those were not picked up in the FCC regulations.

There would have been no point in my obtaining anything for HDTV
SIX years ago. I've been back in the U.S. for five years. Large
amounts of programming wasn't available nationally and regional and
local stations weren't transmitting it. While Dish Network offered
digital television, it did not offer HD at that time.

I worked a few Europeans and some South Americans last night on 160m CW,
Len. I did some testing of a 6m FM link to an area 70cm repeater last
evening with W8MSD and I squeezed in some HDTV viewing of college
football. You do as you can and I'll do as I choose.

Ohm my! I now get to actually CHOOSE FOR MYSELF?!?

Yes, within the limited options open to you.

Oh heavenly day, the "Godfather" has allowed me a choice!
I cannot refuse it! :-)

Your stuff died with Vaudeville.

Vaudeville isn't "dead," Godfather. It isn't healthy but
you can find it still going strong in the Catskills. Nu?

Vaudeville is deader than Burns and Allen.

Vaudeville is alive and well but musclebound in the World
Wrestling Federation.

Do you watch the World Wrestling Federation, Len? Who are some of the
song and dance men?

Morse code is alive but unwell...

See, this is what I mean when I say that you make frequent factual
errors. I invite you to tune your Icom receiver to the low ends of the
bands 160-10m this coming weekend.

... dwelling only in the musculeminds...

Musculeminds? What's a muscule? Is that like your miscue on "missle"?
Your noggin must be "musculebound".


...of stubborn, hidebound, self-righteous
old and middle-aged morsemen bound and determined to
force the code test down newcomer's throats until their
code keys are pried out of cold, dead fingers.

You aren't wrapped too tight.

Actually, Len, statistics say that I should be at least a couple of
decades from being done.

Let's say this: You sure as hell aren't rare or medium!

I was rare from Sierra Leone, but not as rare as from Guinea-Bissau.

But you sure aren't well done either. "Steak tartare." :-)

Reflect on the old saying, "there are lies, damn lies, and
statistics." All are connected as equals. :-)

I will be reading your SK notice in the ARRL/NAAR newsletter.

The actuarial tables say that you're likely to be wrong. The League
doesn't publish Silent Key notices in a newsletter. They're published
in QST. I'll likely not see any notice of your passing there.

I will think back on you then.

I guess you told me.

Dave K8MN