-=> Quoting Ed Vance to Nancy Backus on 05-04-19  10:11 <=-

 EV>> I was 16 when the F.C.C. licensed Me as KN4ZIQ.
 EV>> The ZIQ part means - Zero Intelligence Quotient ( 0.0 I.Q. ) .
 NB>> Was that your choice, or was it the usual assignment for novices...?

 EV> The F.C.C. issued licenses in alphabetically order back in the late
 EV> 1950's. I knew a Ham who was issued the suffix YXY to his call sign, so
 EV> I was fairly sure the call sign I would get would start with a Z, I was
 EV> hopeing for ZAP but when it came time for the F.C.C. to get to My
 EV> paperwork ZIQ was next in line to be issued to someone in the Fourth
 EV> Call Area so they gave that one to Me.

Ah, ok... it's like the auto license plates here... When I got my
current car, I knew I'd be getting new plates, the series was just
getting into starting with B, so I'd hoped for BAC... what I got was
BYC... 

 EV> On my Hallicrafter S38E receiver I would listen to local Hams talking
 EV> and some of them had made up interesting Phonetics for their call sign
 EV> letters, so I tried and tried and tried to figure out some words for
 EV> mine. 
 EV> One night as I was laying in bed, about six months after I got the
 EV> license ZERO INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT came to my mind and I stuck with
 EV> that until I moved to Indiana which is in the Ninth Call Area, so I
 EV> sent a Form to the F.C.C. to Modify my license for that area.

Cute...  ;)   So your choice as to what the phonetics would be, but the
luck of the draw for getting them in the first place.... 

 EV> I was issued WA9WSB, Washers, Screws and Bolts is what I choose to use
 EV> for phonetics even thought some of my friends wanted Me to use:
 EV> We Sell Beer, but that one wasn't to my liking.

I'm with you on that...   Never even liked the taste of beer,
myself... not an issue with alcohol, just the hops in the beer as it
turned out....

 EV> In the 1970's I applied for another change of call sign and got W9ODR,
 EV> which immediately My Ham Friends called Old Dirty Rat and I liked that
 EV> one so I use it.

I'll have to remember that one... ;)  I often play the same game with
license plates as I see them... we've come up with some rather creative
ones over the years...  I decided that my BYC stands for Baby Your Car...

 EV>> Stay Tuned, Same Time, Same Frequency.
 EV>> (I remember the old phrase was Same Time, Same Channel - but I never
 EV>> had a Citizens Band Radio License, so I use the word Frequency instead
 EV>> of Channel.)
 NB>> And bbsing isn't quite the same either, not being time-dependent for
 NB>> connection... ;)  But it's the same echo, anyway.... ;)

 EV> I can grab a QWK Packet from Mike Powell's Capital City BBS almost any
 EV> time of Day or Night, except for two time slots when the BBS is getting
 EV> new mail. 
 EV> Mike has helped Me learn how to get a QWK Packet using FTP instead of
 EV> TELNET. 

And I can do the same from any of the bbses I call, except I still do it
by telnet... :)

 EV> I made a BAT File that calls a FTP Script to do the work of checking
 EV> for Mail and I'm only Signed On for less than a minute and then Signed
 EV> Off and start Reading, Lurking, Giggling, Replying whatever... to what
 EV> I see in the packet. 

Nice to see you replying more than lurking lately, btw...  :)  I don't
mind being signed on to the bbs for a bit longer time... I check out the
day's traffic, play my turn in Scrabble (and some places, a couple other
games), one place I can check the weather forecast.. and I also do my
mail run, up and downloading... :)

 NB>> ... ME sane?  I don't think so!!  ;*)
 EV> When it comes to being sane I'm NOT with the IN CROWD.

I've got a tagline that says the opposite... ;)  (Omits the NOT)

 EV> Did You or the Wizard ever use a Commodore 64 or 128 PC?

That might have been what my sister's husband had at one time... I'd go
over to borrow their computer to do my minutes on their word processor
before we had our own PC.... My sister talked me into it...  Dunno what
all the Wizard used at work (or back in college in the computer
center)... definitely mainframes, but possibly also some other as well...

ttyl      neb

... Format: (v.) to erase irrevocably and unintentionally.

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