[HCARC] Wild Neighborhood Rumors About Ham Radio Operators

[galeheise at windstream.net]

To All-

  This is a somewhat humorous story from my old neighborhood in Northern Kentucky where I had the following antennas in the back yard strung up in trees:

1.  A top and bottom loaded vertical for 160m.
2.  A 10, 15 & 20 meter 2 element quad.
3.  A 2 element 10 meter X-Quad (Expanded Quad).
4.  A full wavelength vertically oriented 80 meter loop.
5.  Two phased cross polarized 2 meter antennas for tracking satellites.
6.  An inverted L antenna for 160 meters.  I had to put in ground wires, about 90 as I recall, for this antenna.  I kept them on my own property and down the back of the property to a street in a green belt.

  Our daughter is purchasing a house two doors down from this previous QTH and knows the neighbor who now lives in the home adjacent to the old QTH.

  I received the following email from my daughter tonight after her conversation with the next door neighbor.

Dad,

Funny story- We were at the festival tonight and we were talking to the next-door neighbors – she's the one that used to babysit for the Hirts. They told us they were trying to get firewood out of the woods one night and got stuck in a bunch of wires! They said that the neighbor across the street told them that the neighborhood rumor was that dad was a Russian spy! LOL😘

  My XYL sent a note back to our daughter asking, why were they collecting firewood in the Spy’s backyard.

Take care,

Gale
KM4DR