Michael Coslo wrote:
wrote:
. . . then there was the legendary traffic handler Mae Burke W3CUL who
was a neighborhood housewife . .
I can't imagine any person becoming a Ham because they simply want to
"chat with someone around the world".
Whew, that brings up a tale Michael . . I know at least one ham who has
done just that for decades.
About the time WW2 ended I got into building crystal sets then I moved
into cobbling together simple tube-type receivers based on articles in
Pop Science and Pop Mechanics. The DXing bug had already bitten based
on my fascination with finding far off stations in the high end of the
AM BC band with the BC radios my folks had. The die was cast: I was
into radio big time but I was basically clueless about ham radio until
I eventually started SWLing and found scads of hams yakking on 75 & 40
AM.
I was also a Cub Scout around that point in time. One night there was a
civil defense drill which I discovered would include ham radio
communications and the Cub pack. That opportunity really rang my chimes
and I wormed my way into becoming a messenger boy for one of the
mobiles.
The ham and I motored around town passing traffic back and forth
amongst the hams and the simulated "disaster sites", etc. That was my
first exposure to hands-on ham radio. The ham was Gene Reynolds W3EAN
who went out of his way to answer my unending stream of questions that
night. I probably drove him nuts but I think he enjoyed it. There was
no turning back after that night, I was gonna become a ham.
A number of years later I ran into Gene again amongst the DXing and
contesting crowd around here. In addition to being a DXer Gene was also
a fundamentalist "radio missionary" who used his station to "take the
word" particularly to Russians by "chatting with someone around the
world" as you put it. Thousands of times! Check his bio in QRZ.com, I
think you'll enjoy it.
In the first place most of my DX contacts are pretty terse, and don't
fulfill any "chatting needs". Not that I have chatting needs!
It's also considered impolite to tie up dx stations with chats unless
they initiate them.
There certainly are women in Ham radio, and although a minority, they
are probably no more of a minority than women's representation in other
technical fields. This would mean that any problem is shared with those
other technical fields, and not a Ham radio specific problem.
Exactly. Let's hope this "Smith" clown has the same short attention
span others of his ilk have demonstrated in the past and wanders off
the list. He's even posting his mindless drivel in the Mech Eng and
dot.antennas NGs for gawd's sake. .
- Mike KB3EIA -
w3rv
(PS) Yo Micollis: Duty beckons. One of Gene's OLD and I mean *old*
dxing buddies is Nate W3CNP, the guy you sat with when he ran a few Qs
on 20CW at the last of our Clayton Park FD "experiences". Check his
particulars in QRZ.com. I ran into him a few weeks ago at K3PAQ's
memorial service, he's fine. Nate's ticket is floating in the grace
period. I got EAN set up to renew, now it's *your* turn, launch Nate on
his way. We need all the far-end geezers we can get properly licensed
to keep the average age up in the hobby.