[Elecraft] Reaching across the chronological divide

[Joseph Shuman]

As for me...

I am an oddball tinkerer.  I brew beer, make guitars, string beads, raise goats and make leather bound books, as well as fire up my radio from time to time.  I was prepared to get my novice license in the early 1970’s.  My parents said no.  It was always in the back of my mind.  I licensed a couple of years ago, got a KX2 and then started experimenting with anything that could be called an antenna, that is to say anything that conducts a current (from a lawn chair, to an umbrella, to hundreds of feet of abandon in-place power lines).  Damn the theory, full speed ahead; all I needed was a match from the magical auto tuner.  

As a hobby, this one allows for tremendous diversity in what your interest in radio is with the same goal: tossing out a CQ and seeing who you get.  Whether you build from scratch, buy off the shelf, rag chew, CQ or go digital, the goal is the same.  Make a contact, meet someone you never have before, and enjoy it while you can.  Who cares if one operator is an electronics dolt while another is a PhD EE?  It is about contact, and Human contact in any form is precious.

I simply like the challenge of making contacts with antennas, in the opinion of the more learned, “that won’t work.”  I have been told to “Read the antenna book” because my experiments are “illogical.”  I guess I have to delete the contact I made using a chicken wire antenna?  Let’s all remember that Maxwell, Marconi, Hertz, Popov, Bose, Hughes and Fr. Roberto Landell de Moura did not have the internet or the Antenna Book.  They had each other.

Just my foul smelling overly verbose opinion on the matter.

Keeping Watch-
shu

Joe Shuman, NZ8P