[Elecraft] Very off topic, but...

[Vic Rosenthal]

Today I bought a book for my grandson about ham radio.  It's called "Radio
Rescue" by Lynne Barasch.  It's a true story about a boy becoming a ham in the
1920's learning Morse code, etc.  It's a book for little kids, 4-8 years old.

Why I'm mentioning it is that it totally captures the magic that brought me into
radio almost 50 years ago.  I even made my XYL read it, on the grounds that it
would help her understand why I'm nuts.  If you have a little kid or grandkid, I
highly recommend it (no, I'm NOT related to the author).

Of course in those days transmitters were all scratchbuilt.  Today we have
Elecraft (and others) to take the anxiety out of building equipment, but a lot
of the magic is left in.  I know it's an unrealistic and unpopular view, but I
wish it were a condition of the license that a ham had to construct his or her
own equipment.

You can bet that my grandson will have some kind of kit to build as soon as he
can hold a soldering iron!

Vic K2VCO