operating out of band?  CB, oh dear dear.  Did i hear too much power, or was 
it just never     quite enough hi hi.
27.425, 435 and 445 lower side was where i used to talk to the ausies all 
the time from north western canada.
swing the beam a bit west of south and null out the idiots from the lower 48 
and lard thunderen G, the boys down under would come rolling in like a big 
surf.
and i only ever ran 12 watts...
but here we are, all respectable ham operators now, we can't remmoniss about 
the old days when we had a bit more lee way and didn't care as much about 
regulations...not to mention a bit more fun...the absolute lack of 
intelligence from the lower 48 operaters was nothing short of pure amusement 
and entertainment on a daily basis...kind of like an adult version of the 
simpsons or southpark on crack.
the challenge was breaking a pile up of music, noise makers and cursing and 
swearing, rather then 100 nearly as stupid ham operators spitting out their 
calls wanting to talk to some dx contact for 2 seconds to put it in a log to 
claim they talked to so and so in here or there.
For amateur radio, the rag chewwing is fun, the experimentation with 
equipment and antennas is fun, and the occasional rare dx contact without a 
pile up can be interesting...but the rest is just dribble and no better then 
the cb stuff when the dx is rolling good.
I have made hundreds of very good clean personable contacts on 11 metres in 
the past with people in some pretty rare places.
Yeh it's not specifically up to par with regulations, but neither is driving 
70 in a 65 zone, or parking in a no parking zone, or adjusting ones taxes 
just a little bit to get a break, or not declaring cash payments for work 
done...those aren't ok either, but lots of good law abiding people do that 
and it doesn't make them losers.
Ham radio has more then it's fare share of IO's (idiot operators) too, and 
not all of them have come up from the "cb" ranks with their bad manners.
It's all radio and it's all fun if you don't mind the attitudes....which 
personally i have no problem with because it's not serious but 
entertainment.
It's like going to see a commedian, your not going to sit there and analyze 
each word and say how terrible he is for saying what he's saying.  Your 
going to laugh at what's funny and boo him if he sucks...

73
Colin, V A6BKX

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shaun Oliver" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 4:47 PM
Subject: Re: Most Memorable Experiences


>
> that's how I started pretty much, a friend told me how to use one
> shortwave radio as a BFO for another, so I did.
> I got into cb for a while, did all the naughty things like work out of
> band etc, ran amateur radio equipment on 27 mhz, all the naughty stuff.
> then this year after procrastinating for the better part of 20 years, I
> finally went and got my license.
>
> Shaun,
> vk2fese,
>
>
> "Cry 'havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war"
>
>
> web sites:
> http://www.myspace.com/blindmanshaunoliver
> http://blindman.homelinux.org/~blindman/
> skype: brailledude
>
>
> On 24/12/2008 10:02 AM, we were able to ascertain that Bill Deatherage
> pondered upon these thoughts, and proclaimed thus.:
>> Hello,
>> That brought back memories.  I first learned about short wave radio from 
>> a
>> student at The Kentucky School for the Blind.  I was there in the late
>> 1960's and early 1970's.  After talking to my parents about it my mother
>> bought me one of those radios that had a m and f m and short wave on it.
>> That is where I first heard about ham radio.  They had some classes for
>> Novice license when I was living in louisville that was for KSB students 
>> and
>> people who lived there could participate in the class.  I went to a few
>> classes but never stuck with it.  What sparked my interest at that time 
>> the
>> director of the Rehab center where i was a student who's name is Fred
>> Gissoni talked to me about amateur radio and the licenses and what you 
>> had
>> to do to get your license.  He is blind and is a general class opperator.
>> well, later in my life i got a radio with the same bands but this radio 
>> had
>> local police and air frequency bands on it.  part of this covered the 146
>> meg band so I started listening to hams on 2 meters.  and I finally 
>> studied
>> long enough to get my technission class license.  At that time the only
>> difference between technission and general was the code so I finally got 
>> my
>> code spead up to 13 words a minut and now I am a general.
>> but like you it all started with listening to short wave.
>> Bill Deatherage
>>
>> __________ NOD32 3714 (20081223) Information __________
>>
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>> http://www.eset.com
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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> 12/22/2008 11:23 AM
>
>