(Continued from previous message)

  While Roy was "on vacation" for the time off, he came back after a few
seconds of silence with "I had a feeling someone would find out about
that sooner or later". :) Sadly, Bill had a massive heart attack days
later, and became a Silent Key.

2) On a packet net (where all the stations are typing at their
keyboards), the stations were talking about my new callsign (WX1DER).
One ham, Ed, KI0HQ, noted he wanted "K0ED"...but lamented that
"another
ham in California had it". He added that "I'm married, and E.D. is not
an issue".

  A brief side note...the packet BBS (which has RF and telnet access),
and the net itself are run by a sweet elderly couple out of Branson,
Missouri...K.O. (N0KFQ, the Sysop), and his wife, Billie, KB0WSA (Net
Control). I got to meet them a few years ago, when I went up there for
the OzarkCon QRP weekend. If you like QRP (operating at 5 watts or
less), that's a weekend you need to go to.

  Anyway, back to the net. Billie passed it to Roger, KB0SON, an elderly
ham in Minnesota. He thought E.D. stood for "electronic doofus". Now, I
can relate to that, as electronics was NEVER my forte'. Well, Roger got
done with his spiel, and it came around to K.O. -- who typed "I'm
curious to see how Ed is going to explain E.D. to Roger".

  When it got back to Ed, he typed "Billie, do you know Morse Code??".
She typed "Yes, and I know a lot of other things as well". I thought I
was going to die laughing!! :) (For the record, he typed what E.D. stood
for in Morse Code).

  While some may consider that "a bit racy", I've heard of far more
raunchy stuff on portions of 75 meters. I would refer to the "E.D.
incident" as "tame by comparison", to what I've seen in the FCC
Enforcement reports. And, I've heard some women who had such filthy
mouths that they'd make a sailor blush!! :P

EV>As is I don't know where I'd find the time.

  Well, all of us have 1440 minutes of time in a day, and we make time
for what we want to do with it...and I'm as guilty as the next person on
that. Unfortunately, health concerns have made a greater impingement on
that schedule of late.

EV>Is a Air Card used with a Mac Computer?

  Actually, this is a Verizon Mi-Fi card with a Compaq Laptop, with
Windows Vista Home Basic on it, that I bought at a hamfest at Monroe,
Louisiana a few years ago. The guy selling it noted that "it used to
belong to his granddaughter, but she didn't want it any more"...I guess
she got one she liked better.

  Anyway, he was asking $150 for it, and I said I only had $100 to
spare. He must've wanted to get rid of it (and/or needed the money), so
he sold it to me for $100 cash!! Hams are some of the most cheapskate
(err, frugal) individuals you'll find...especially for all of the
wheeling and dealing at hamfest flea markets. :)

EV>Or if they decided to revoke license of folks like me who haven't keyed
EV>a Mike or touched a Telegraph Key or used their PC on RTTY since their
EV>last License renewal.

  It used to be that you had to log everything, and have a certain
amount of time with a CW keyer, or other mode, to keep your license. The
only time logs are used now, are for stations who want to...and for the
contesters...that part of the hobby never appealed to me. But, there's
something in the hobby for everybody.

  I understand that there are 2 big RTTY contests each year, and I did
do some PSK31 while on CQ100. That (along with HamSphere) are "virtual
ionospheres for ham radio", where NO RF OCCURS...but both have a yearly
fee (around $40, last time I checked). But, what it does, is that it
lets you practice as if it WAS actual RF...and working with various
programs. So, if and when one COULD set up an RF station, and get on the
air, you would look and sound like a real pro, like you had been doing
such for years.

  If renewal meant retesting, ham radio would've died out long ago.

Daryl, WX1DER

(Continued to next message)
---
 þ OLX 1.53 þ Chocolate lovers 12 step plan: < 12 steps from chocolate.
                                                                           
                                                                           
                                                         
--- Virtual Advanced Ver 2 for DOS