[HCARC] Another Spy Story

[galeheise at windstream.net]

John-

  I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only alleged spy in the Ham Radio Kingdom.

  Thanks for sharing your story with me.

  As Kerry knows, I’ll be taking my Granddaughter to the airport in SA tomorrow after a great 2 week visit.

Take care,

73s
Gale
KM4DR

From: JGuida GR 
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 2:10 PM
To: 'Kerry Sandstrom' ; galeheise at windstream.net ; 'HCARC Reflector' 
Subject: Another Spy Story

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!