[Hallicrafters] Join HHI 40 Meter Saturday Net

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Join us on Saturday December 30th for the 40 meter HHI Net. If you can shove 
a 143 Kilo vintage Halli RX around, then you are certainly capable of 
helping us push the solar debris field out of the way so the D layer of the 
Ionosphere can provide us with some useable propagation. So you bulked up, 
beef eaters, be there tomorrow! If you can't bring some gas to pass, that 
is, in the form of a gassy tube to share, then bring a shoulder to help 
hustle the snowless MI clouds into Canada! This is the push/pull concept for 
those new to the world of electronics and things that still go glow in the 
dark without the prerequisite of swallowing several Radium painted old kids 
toys originally obtained by sending two Mr. Pugnut Bar wrappers and four 
Silver quarters to the bearer of those toys we all sent for. I do not know 
of a single soul that went early to Heaven from waring the multi-faceted 
'secret' decoder ring crystal around their neck on a brilliant REAL Silver 
plated chain, opening fire on pesky Prarie Dogs with Puck RogQRZ galactic 
ray guns or staring into the super powerful 2X tiny - hide in your bluejeans 
watch pocket telescope to monitor the neighbor's swimming pool for alien 
girls! The fascinating variety of mechanical metal or magical trinkets 
hawked in the comic books most of us bought, and some of us probably 
swiped!, from the corner grocery or drug store, then ordered the wonders our 
imaginations grossly inflated like pregnant Miss Piggy parade balloons, did 
not kill many of us! For if those prophets of gloom, doom and funerals where 
the body glowed an unearthly bluish green through the holes in the "air 
tight, water proof and worm free" coffins, after the lid was closed and 
sealed with duct tape, had been right, then the SSA would not be broke, 
again, just as we Baby Boomers start to draw out retirement funds!

In all fairness, I should clarify one point. The reason the Social Security 
trustfund is broke, or destined to be by the year 20XX, is that Congress 
keeps sucking funds out to fake a balanced budget, never repaying the 
balance, just the interest, and then faulting whomever is the President for 
fiscal Cow pie economics! When the Teamsters and other Union groups stole 
their members retirement funds, they went to Sing Song Along Prison, but 
when Congress skims the cream off and milks the Cow to death, they not only 
escape punishment, they get salary increases, health benefits that not even 
the sometimes lucid Dr. Zeus could imagine on a belly full of green eggs and 
spam and also after retirement, paid specialists to care for the artificial 
turf putting green off the Master bedroom! Now just what kind of gardening 
goru with a green thumb does it take to care for plastic grass? Sounds more 
like an ideal job for a NASCAR tire repair expert who can find and stop an 
air leak in250 milliseconds! Hmmm. Too bad we as citizens can not get some 
of those tire search and rescue experts to plug the sources of those 
mysterious leaks that keep showing up on the front page of the Washington 
Fence Post. (chuckle)

Join us at 12:30 PM EST, (1730 UTC), for the warm up - tune up portion, then 
hang with us for the Pre-Net from 12:45 PM EST, (1745 UTC) and then the Net 
proper at 1:00 PM EST, (1800 UTC). We do not currently have a designated 
NCS, so if you would like the Saturday job every week, or every other week, 
drop me a note.

The frequency is 7.280 MHZ lsb +/- for key clicks, mike splatter and the 
strange sound of D layer surface sizzle syndrome. Have any of you gotten an 
ear on this stuff? Wow! Sounds somewhat like eggs being fried in a cast iron 
skillet greased with real lard + an AM Standard Broadcast radio tuned to 
dead air with sporadic bursts of stuttering static + what some Hams with 
marine animal training tell us is a Whale in distress venting Oxygen 
depleated air through its blow hole or Hydrogen Sulfide enriched air through 
its tail fin emergency bloat port! Seriously, it is perhaps related to the 
recent solar flares, but if so, a totally different type of noise that Hams 
familiar with many solar cycles do not recall hearing before. It also seems 
to be related to unusual aurora activity.

Let me thank each of you for your faithfullness to this list and also let 
you know that I, and many others who only nod their thanks in silence, 
appreciate all of the fantastic technical assistance, wonderful help for 
those on quests for parts, terrific tidbits of wisdom from decades of 
applied knowledge through experience yielding priceless wisdom and a host of 
'off topic' contributions that many benefited from. This list survives, and 
grows, because of the hundreds of dedicated radio hobbyists who enjoy making 
vintage radios speak again, teach those who are younger and eager to learn 
why vacuum tubes in many ways STILL rule and enjoy sharing their skills and 
techniques with all who are willing to listen and learn.

Thanks for being there. Thanks for helping to keep the vintage glow from 
radios golden era glowing yet. Thanks for caring and sharing. As this year 
comes to its end and a new one approaches, keep the faith, keep them lit and 
enjoy this wonderful hobby!

If you have a photo, an article you have written, some special QSL cards 
with a story to be told, historical material about radios or anything else 
you believe others would enjoy seeing or reading, please send them to the 
HHI web site Web Master at:

webmaster at w9wze.net

Anything appearing on the HHI web site is protected by the web sites 
copyright, but remains owned by you!

We hope to hear you tomorrow! A very happy new year to one and all!

Duane Fischer, W8DBF
dfischer at usol.com
HHI: Halligan's Hallicrafters International
http://www.w9wze.net
HHRP: Historic Halligan Radio Project
http://hhrp.w9wze.net