From: on Wed, 07 Feb 2007 11:57:12 -0500

On 7 Feb 2007 03:41:20 -0800, wrote:

Sad Story:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070206/...ut_arrested;_y...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070207/...ut_arrested;_y...

http://www.qrz.com/ib-bin/ikonboard....T&f=3&t=145568

very dsad all over the news and nothing to due with policy

True, Mark, very true, but it illustrates how some radio
hobbyists have gone over the edge into having amateur
radio RULE THEIR LIVES AND THOUGHTS. :-)

"Lifestylers." A colloquial term for those who have the
notion, the fantasy, the delusion, that amateur radio is
the basis for everything, that everything revolves around
their hobby...and whatever They think.

These lifestylers seem to relish the attention the press
pay to scandalous events. The WANT to be identified with
scandal and resultant noteriety...provided there is the
least little mention of THEIR hobby, even if indirectly so.

It's difficult to understand why anyone wants to think
this particular story is suddenly "news," a day late
(and a dollar short). Anyone who has bothered to listen
to radio-TV-cable broadcasts, gets a daily newspaper,
will have known about it yesterday. It was a featured
item of notorious scandal and one person's emotional
upset.

But, the news networks paid scant attention to these
astronauts' required tasks and didn't mention that they
were "radio amateurs." [i.e., federally-licensed radio
amateurs] All the radio amateurs at QRZ had to make a
big deal out of that. In Captain Novak's case, she is
an Annapolis graduate, served as a military test pilot
(1,500 flying hours), a working mother of three
offspring. It is news that a female makes it to a
Captaincy in the USN, itself a rare thing. Add to that
all of the other things and it builds to a picture of
someone who has accomplished MUCH in the first half of
their life. But, look at what the "amateur community"
wants to featu A "HAM" Astronaut! "HAM" takes
precedence in the description of this person. AS IF
amateur radio was the driving force of her
accomplishments...AND later downfall.

"HAM astronaut," high emphasis on the "HAM." An emotional
descriptor used only by the HAM Lifestylers. Itself, such
selective description is an emotional fault of the life-
stylers not too different than what Captain Novak has
undergone in her rather bizarre "love affair" and attempted
kidnapping-battery of another woman. These emotionally-
driven individuals have escaped reality into some other
dark place in their heads. They've lost their objective
realization to the greater internal comfort of their
fantasies, misapplying what really matters with what they
personally desire...then attempt to judge others by their
own internal emotional 'standards.'

Amateur radio is a fun hobby, but it is ONLY a hobby in
the real world. That is NOT what the self-defined
paragons of the particular hobby of amateur radio define
it as...Novak was a "HAM" astronaut. Instead of being
influenced as a child of a real event (Armstrong-Aldrin
first steps on the moon), their inference is that "it was
due to an 'interest' in ham radio!" Not so. Passing a
25-question Technician license test is just one of MANY
and varied "tests" some astronauts are required to do.
Those other "HAM" astronauts are all required to perform
a role of Public Relations, to keep the public (taxpayers)
informed of NASA activities, keep the public interested
in NASA. That's not to discount the value of PR, that is
very real and it is a good service of government to the
people. But, it is a gross misuse of the inference that
amateur radio was such a significant impetus to cause
them to be such great achievers.

I am waiting for the first actor to have an amateur radio
license. Will the ARRL dub them a "HAM Actor?" :-)
I say if such happened, AMPAS would have some unkind words
for the League...and some wide-ranging PR contacts of its
own that the ARRL could never top... :-)