[SOC] Bill Windle QSO Party

[Fred Jensen]

Ian C. Purdie wrote:
> 
> Back a long time ago some of the clowns among us realised we could
> never, ever join their ranks. Unkind folks would even talk about "their
> uppity closed shop" and mumble all sorts of unkind comments [even in
> writing!], then again our good friend Bob Patten is a member so they
> can't be all that bad.
> 
> Anyhoo, as one consequence, we scoured among all the dregs of the
> International AR community, the absolute bottom of the barrel types AND;
> 
> Here we are as SOC

Some time but less than a million years ago, around the time that gold 
was discovered in California, which is sometimes known as "The Dimly Lit 
State," there was an influx of people of all stripes and characters. 
Many dug their hearts out in the river gravels to find the yellow metal 
said to be there.  Few actually did find it.  A number of others figured 
out that there was more money to be made selling things to those who 
were digging their hearts out than actually doing the digging.  After 
all, wasn't the answer to the question, "What is the meaning of life?", 
really "To make as much money as you could?".  They came to be called 
"Merchants," and they continue to this day.

Unlike the Diggers, the Merchants prospered, built nice homes [OK, very 
nice homes], and associated with each other, while the Diggers lived in 
tents ... or maybe not.  In time the Merchants formed Lodges, 
Organizations, and Clubs, which, to everyone's surprise ... were 
populated only by Merchants and "Others With Means," often including 
"Politicians."

Undaunted, the non-merchants [that would be the Diggers, all of whom 
were obviously without "means," just look at where they lived, for 
Pete's sake] decided to form their own society, or Lodge if you wish. 
They decided to borrow from the Latin for their name, knowing that the 
Merchants and those with "means" probably wouldn't understand it or 
care.  They borrowed very liberally -- "E Clampus Vitus."  They adopted 
a very democratic and human-spirited motto:  "Everyone is entitled to an 
office of equal indignity."

ECV persists here in the California Gold Country to this day.  They wear 
red shirts, not that I can tell since I'm colorblind, however they 
usually have a beer in their hand, a beard, and they often speak loudly 
enough for a nearly deaf guy like me to hear them.  Some of my very best 
friends either are or were members of ECV -- those that aren't now 
probably just grew up and got old.

Unknown to them, they may have been the roots of SOC, after the 
telegraph but before wireless.

But, there's more!  Travel around this "Strangely Governed State," and 
you will see stone monuments marking a host of historic occasions, 
happenings, places where someone lived, gave birth, worked, died, or 
maybe didn't do very much at all except be there.  Some were famous, 
some infamous, some not remembered at all ... except for the ECV-placed 
monument.

The so-called "Terminator State" numbers its official historic 
monuments, and I know that there are at least 799 of them because that 
one isn't far from me.  There may be more, and likely so, although I've 
never seen one in four digits.  I don't know how many ECV historic 
monuments have been placed, or replaced, or repaired, but I see them all 
the time.

SOC may have roots none of us know about.  I can make record copy on a 
mill or computer keyboard on W1AW @ 35WPM.  CW was burned into my brain 
as a 16 yr old.  I know a guy who could copy 50WPM and write it down 
afterward.  I can't copy 60WPM or even really hear it.  I am not FOC 
material, and I know it.  With any luck, the rest of my incompetence in 
life will keep me in SOC, which is for me the ECV of ham radio.

73,

Fred K6DGW
- Northern California Contest Club
- CU in the 2007 CQP Oct 6-7
- www.cqp.org