Subj : Re: Amateur Radio
To   : Grasshopper
From : Daryl Stout
Date : Thu Jun 25 2020 07:40 pm

John,

 Gr> Yes, I use to be in 4 land.  My original call-sign was KE4DFG.  I lived
 Gr> in Memphis, TN at the time. I believe I also got my license in 1991
 Gr> also! I was initially a no-code Technician. Later changed it to a
 Gr> regular Technician license. When trying to upgrade to general class, it
 Gr> appeared that the code portion for Technician wasn't recorded properly
 Gr> and had to take it again.  Well, at that time I was practicing for 13
 Gr> wpm, so 5 wpm was a piece of cake. :)

  I did try a 5 WPM CW exam before the FCC got rid of it, and failed it.
Had I filled in the blanks, I might have passed it...but, it's a moot
point now.

  One local ham (who became a Silent Key long ago from a heart attack),
and his wife (she was licensed as well, and has since remarried), were
great friends. I asked him what his secret was to learning CW, and he
said "I learned all the dirty words first" (hi hi). I laughed, and said,
"Well, you can't say them on the air, but if it helps, more power to you".

  One night, a club out of Dallas, was doing a CW course on the local
repeater (I copied them off of Echolink), and the first letters they
taught formed the S expletive (hi hi). I thought "I'll be damned!!".
But, when you looked at the dot and dash pattern, it made perfect sense.

  However, the funniest story I heard (I might have shared this before,
but don't remember) about CW went like this.

  Four guys were at a restaurant table in Annapolis, Maryland...telling
each other dirty jokes in CW. This drop dead, gorgeous, curvaceous,
female walked over to them, and sternly admonished them...saying "You
boys need to watch your language. I teach CW at the Naval Academy
across the street", and walked out!! They were as red as tomatoes...
and that's a true story!! (hi hi).

  Yet now, folks are learning CW because they WANT to, and NOT because
they HAVE to...and they're discovering that CW is fun!!

Daryl, WX4QZ

.... Ham Radio Messages And Replies Will Be Sent In Morse Code.
--- MultiMail/Win32 v0.50
 þ Synchronet þ The Thunderbolt BBS - tbolt.synchro.net

.