One thing about ham radio that many people may enjoy after they get into the hobby is the great stories that you hear because of your ham radio activities.  Without a HF capable license these stories are more limited to local people and their events.  Once you get a HF capable license you can hear stories from anyone anywhere in the world.  Now, with EchoLink and IRLP I guess the distinction between the two license is not black and white.  And even without a HF license you can always just listen to any frequency.  But my presumption was that the “best” stories were on HF.  For example, how many people that worked as engineers on the space program are you likely to hear on a repeater in Green Bay or Appleton Wisconsin?  Not many…

This weekend I attended the northeastern Wisconsin “YoYo Net” annual picnic and met some of the locals that check into the net.  It makes a nice Saturday afternoon, but how many great ham radio stories would you hear at such a local event?  Not many I thought.  WRONG!

I met a newer local ham that had a decided southern accent.  And what a story he had to tell.  He explained how he got into ham radio – I forget exactly how many years ago – let’s just say “back in the day…”.  Great story – here it is:

This gent was sitting in church one Sunday listening to the sermon and was picking at some sort of wort or other skin issue he had on his finger.  He explained that the person sitting next to him told him to stop picking at it and that he would cure his skin problem after the service.  The story goes that this stranger explained that he was a ham radio operator.  He advised my new friend to place his finger near, but not on, his car’s ham radio antenna.  “After it gets warm, move it away from the antenna…”.  So after the stranger started the car – he did.  And he said you could see the arc and that it did in fact burn the wart or whatever off his finger.  Says he still has the scar.  And THAT is why he got interested in ham radio…

Good story???  Wait – it gets better…  Seems this stranger in church was one of the original “spooks”.  Seems he was French-Canadian and served in WWII as a paratrooper and was “employed” by the OSS – the fore-runner of the CIA.  He was a spy!

So there’s the story.  Best stories on HF only?  I stand corrected!

Stay radio active!

Jon E. Kreski, AB9NN

http://www.HamRadioResources.com

http://www.Twitter.com/AB9NN

What could possibly be better than a day off of work, ham radio and a pasty?  For those of you that are not former Yoopers (from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) a pasty is a sort of meat pie sort of like a chicken pot pie without the gravy and metal tin to cook it in.  They originated from Cornish miners that warmed them on their shovels over fires for lunch at the iron mines.

But back to ham radio.  Saturday brought a test activation of the Outagamie County, WI A.R.E.S. http://www.wi-aresraces.org/ .  For this activation we met at a local fire station which was the simulated emergency command center.  There we received our briefing and assignments.  The simulation specifics are not important.  My assigned task was to establish ham radio net communications at a large local hospital.  I had never been in that hospital before and was a relative newbie in town, so it was an interesting event.

Road construction along the way slowed me down a bit.  I stopped into a local pasty shop along the way to get specific directions which turned out to be spot-on.  At the hospital, after realizing that the power supply had variable voltage I was able to establish good communications as required by the test activation.

The test activation allowed me to work with some nice professional people at the St. Elizabeth’s hospital in Appleton, WI.  But it also allowed me to meet the cook at the local pasty shop.  Seeing that she had done me a favor with providing good directions for free I felt that I owed her something.  So I “HAD” to go back and buy four pasties – one of which was devoured for lunch that day!

I felt good when I got done.  I learned something about my city, something about some ham radio equipment, something about a local hospital and I bought myself a reward (the pasty) for my efforts.  I hope that everyone that reads this will participate in some sort of activities that better their community and builds their skills.

Stay Radio Active!

Jon E. Kreski, AB9NN

http://www.HamRadioResources.com

http://www.Twitter.com/AB9NN

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