[Milsurplus] Electric Radio - February 2006

[Bruce Lane]

Good eve,

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 22-Feb-06 at 07:11 David Stinson wrote:

>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: "Mike Morrow" <kk5f at earthlink.net>
>>...  For years I kept a receiver tuned to 500 kc at my bedside to listen
>to
>at night.  >That, and the HF maritime Morse bands, were far more
>entertaining than anything >found on the ham bands.  It's sad that there's
>no one listening to 500 kc anymore as >the minute hand of the radio room
>clock sweeps the 15 to 18 and 45 to 48 silent >periods.

	<snippety>

>Save for Skywarn, 2-meters is a vast, grey wasteland that
>reminds me of "Night of the Living Dead," where resurrected CBers,
>stripped of the colorful personalities they had on Channel 19,
>wander zombie-like and continually croak about J-pole antennas.
>Like the zombies in the movie- if you mention anything technical
>or new, they attack and try to eat your brains.

	I'm sorry you feel that way. Nothing could be further from the truth where the 2m band in my area (Puget Sound region, Seattle, etc.) is concerned. Oh, there are a few "zombie-like" folk, as you so colorfully describe them, but the majority of folks I've heard are intelligent and articulate. I've also heard (and gotten involved with) a number of technical discussions of various degrees of sophistication on the local repeaters.

	What I'm saying is that it's dangerous to assume that conditions are the same in all parts of the country (or the planet) just because your area's conditions may not be up to snuff. Hamateur radio is like a mirror -- You get back exactly what you put into it.

>The CW bands are dead, save contests or DX-peditions,
>which are about as interesting as stale bread.
>Unless you're into chinese propaganda or "Jesus radio,"
>it's pretty slim pickin's these days.....

	I've not listened enough in recent times to venture an intelligent opinion on this, so I'll take your word for the CW portion at the moment. I reserve the right to disagree with the other portion until I've had time to do some listening of my own.

	Keep the peace(es).



-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"