[CW] My book review and article about Kon Tiki

[D.J.J. Ring, Jr.]

Oversize messages have to await moderator action, so be patient. I
eventually get to them but if I forget, message me directly.

73
DR
N1EA

On Tue, Dec 12, 2023 at 10:27 AM James Hull <kk4eou at gmail.com> wrote:

> DR’s email with the PDF including an article about the KON-TIKI reminded
> me that I had a copy of The Ra Expeditions by Thor Heyerdahl (published in
> 1971) sitting on my bookshelf.  Attached is a photo of Illustration #97
> “Norman and the author at the receiver”.  While this recounts radio
> equipment aboard the Ra it may be instructive to those wishing to dig into
> the cause for the RF burns to the radio operators aboard the KON-TIKI.
>
> But more aligned with this community (specifically, Morse Code / CW) is
> this passage found on page #181:
>
> “Half an hour after midnight I was shaken awake by Carlo, who was leaning
> over me, holding a kerosene lantern.  With wide, anxious eyes he whispered
> that there were lights all along the horizon on the port bow.  We were
> being driven sidelong by a strong northwester, straight toward them.  I had
> gone to bed fully dressed and had only to tie on my life line before
> crawling out on deck.  A bitingly cold wind of moderate strength, and an
> overcast sky.  Through the pitch-black night I saw all the lights spread
> out along the horizon.  As Carlo said, they lay ahead of us in our line of
> drift.  Four were very large and another faint.  It had to be the Moroccan
> coast.  Carlo was up at the swaying masthead.  We seemed to be approaching
> fast.  The other three fit men turned out.  Now we would have to try to row
> our reed bundles to save ourselves from a tragic fate on the rocks.
>
> Then Carlo and I thought we glimpsed a green light.  Another, and a red
> one too.  It was not land!  A scattered fleet of big fishing smacks was
> sailing straight toward us!  Blue with cold, the crew crawled back to bed.
> Soon afterward three big, rolling vessels rumbled close past our bows.  A
> fourth lay broadside to us after stopping its engine so that Ra was heading
> straight for the pitching ship’s side.  I shone my flashlight on cabin wall
> and papyrus rolls and blinked “Ra OK, Ra OK.”  The big sea-fishing boat
> started up again and glided away, so slowly that we barely avoided a
> collision.  It sent some incomprehensible flashes from the masthead and
> gradually disappeared in the darkness.”
>
>
>
> Sent from my Glade Air Freshener
>
>
>
> > On Dec 11, 2023, at 11:25 PM, D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <n1ea at arrl.net> wrote:
> >
> > 
> >  You might find this interesting.
> >
> > 73
> >
> > DR
> > <CQ Oct 2023-n1ea.pdf>
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