[ARC5] the age old battle of modify or sanctify...the Meaning of Words

[Mike Morrow]

I recently posted the following exchange:

>>The history of this WWII stuff is essentially a Ham Radio history...
>
>As true as: "The history of Cambodia is essentially a Khmer Rouge history."

That has been construed by some as expressing favoritism on one side or
the other in the eternal debate.  But all this juxtaposition of these two
statements implies is that, if the one statement could possibly be true, so
could the other no matter how bizarre.  In fact, neither statement can possibly
be true, physically or logically, unless time travel backward were possible.

The first statement literally implies that ham radio use AFTER the war
influenced the development and utilization of the equipment BEFORE and DURING
the war (which, after all, is part of the equipment's history now claimed to be
essentially "Ham Radio history").  That violates laws of physical causality
unless one believes that the designers and users of the equipment were
influenced by a vision of how to make the equipment servicable to post-war
hams.  That strikes me as improbable.

The implication also been made that it is ONLY because an equipment survives that
it even has a history.  That is false.  The atomic bombs used against Japan don't
exist today but they have more history than ANY equipment used by hams.  The 
existence of a HISTORY for an equipment has no dependence on the continued physical
existence of that equipment.

How many RAV liaison receiver sets still exist?  More simply, how many CBY-46107
9 to 13.5 MC RAV receivers exist?  I'd like to think that at least one of these
still exists somewhere, but I've never heard of any.  If there are none, that doesn't
detract from discussion and consideration of its development and use...its history.
Very likely the last CBY-46107 wound up as a code practice oscillator because it
didn't cover any ham bands.  :-)

So...I've taken no sides this time on this debate...but I do question whether the
language being used is really meant to convey that which it actually means. 

Mike / KK5F
Been "playing radio" for 50 years, licensed for 43 years.  Ham use of modified
military gear holds not a bit of interest.  (I just couldn't resist after all.)