[HCARC] Another Spy Story

[JGuida GR]

I have a spy story as well.

For a new job, in 1986 I moved to Rocky Hill, CT - kinda down the road from
Hartford and Newington. I had gotten the ham radio bug just a little earlier
from Ruthie's father - N5HSQ who lived in Arkansas.

We were living in Room 262 of Howard Johnson's in Rocky Hill. We actually
lived there for around nine months because I couldn't afford an apartment,
and my new company was picking up the hotel tab plus per diem.

Ruthie found the ARRL, and bought me Tune In The World (w/CW cassette) and
the FCC Amateur Radio Handbook.

While I was studying for my Novice license, I would sit in my car to listen
to the CW cassette. But since I didn't own a cassette player besides what
was in the car, I couldn't study the code in our room. So I borrowed an IBM
PC from work and loaded a Morse Code program, and some text and word and
letter groups. I would turn this on when I went to bed (Ruthie was very
understanding) and let it play all night. I figured I could learn while I
was asleep!

One afternoon when I came home from work, I saw my next (room) door neighbor
standing in his doorway with a drink in his hand. He asked me if I wanted to
visit with him and have one or two as well. No surprise that I accepted.

While we were visiting, he asked me what I did for a living and I told him
where I worked and that I was in the IT department. Somewhere in the
conversation I told him that I was studying for my amateur radio license. 

He said "Well that's a relief! I kept hearing that code coming out of your
room all night long, and thought maybe you were a spy or something!"

He turned out to be a pretty good Happy Hour friend, but I found that the
Happy Hour part of our relationship interfered with learning CW!