[Fists] re bandplans

[ATanner283@aol.com]

Ken.....Last Saturday I was witness to an interesting occurrence.  There was=
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a PJ2/ on 40 meters at 7.006 or so. He was working a few with no big deal.=20
Someone posted the XR=D8 on 40  at 7.006 on the DX reflector. All of a sudde=
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this guy (the PJ2) has a HUGE pile up and he's workin' em one after the=20
other. Oh yeah, he's sending his ID, but apparently  the crowd can't copy hi=
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nice neat 20 WPM code, cuz they just keep on and on. I KNOW most of those=20
guys think they worked the XR=D8 and will NEVER know why they "weren't in th=
e=20
log". So much for 5WPM code requirements....................
   Yes there were always a couple of bad eggs in the crowd. But witness a DX=
=20
pile up now days. You NEVER heard the kind of racial, political, obscene=20
stuff in the 60's that's prevelant now. 75, though now cleaned up some, was=20
also a cess pool. Even today phone nets are jammed constantly. Don't remembe=
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that either. Don't remember anybody checking into nets by busting in the=20
middle yelling "contact" either. Don't seem to remember all the name calling=
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on the air if someone asked a question either. I remember the first ham club=
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meeting I attended. A large club and a lot of builders, DXers, and=20
contesters. I was 13. I no more than hit the door and someone snatched me up=
,=20
wanted introduced himself, took me around to a few more, invited me to sit=20
with his crowd. Later, he offered to have himself or one of the others pick=20
me up for the meeting (he said the real fun was the ride over...he was right=
)=20
and take me home. I was also invited to join them for some other "road trips=
"=20
to other meetings out of town. Try that today. Walk into a club you don't=20
know and see what happens. I remember my first field day. More food and fun=20
than I thought was possible. PLUS they had a rig with a VFO. Something I was=
=20
dyeing for since I was XTAL stuck. I also remember the great "ragchew" nets=20
that were around, and CW roundtables with up to eight ops participating. Now=
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it's hard to get an op to QSY cuz he just doesn't understand. Those are just=
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a few things I remember and miss also. 'course, a lot or most of them feller=
s=20
are gone now...........................Al/W8FAX  extra......Heavy