Ham Spirit

By way of background, a post came to the Kenwood TS-2000 list asking how to 
increase power on the 2000 because he couldn't afford to get a separate 
amplifier.  People told him, of course, that even if he got thirty watts more 
out of the 100 watts it gets normally, you could damage the finals or get a 
lot of intermod.

This Dean wrote back and said he just picked up a small amp from an estate 
sale and he would give it to this guy for the cost of shipping.

Many of us wrote back on the list about how nice it was that'd he do that, and 
how we all thought ham radio spirit was dead.  Here below is Dean's 
explanation:


Joe;

Some 50 years ago, there was a young kid not even a teenager yet, that each 
Saturday evening he had an invitation from a licensed ham operator that was
in his 70's to come over to his home. That young kid would always make sure he 
got all his chores done that his parents had given him that day, so that
he could be at his friend's promptly at 7pm. He would stare at all the big 
knobs, meters, controls, microphones, and large metal boxes just wondering if
it was possible to talk to the astronauts that were launching on rockets to 
fly out in space. After all, a man called President Kennedy said that they
were going to walk on the moon before 1970.

Then, the time came that he had been waiting for each week, he got to hold the 
microphone and talk to people on the other side of the world that were already
in tomorrow. After each contact, he would go outside and look at the pieces of 
wire and the big antenna that could spin around thinking to himself, he
had just used that and his voice somehow was coming off that thing. Then he 
would run back inside because he did not want to miss another chance to talk
as he had only 1 hour in which to have his dreams come true.

Well, that little boy came home from school one day to find out that his 
friend has passed on. He was crushed as he had developed a friendship with 
that
man that he said to himself, he would never forget him and that he would never 
let the gift he had been given, go unnoticed. That same day that he found
out he his friend had passed away, he was given a note that also came from his 
friend. He opened the note and when he read it he began to cry because his
friend had given him a gift; one that would never be as big as his friendship 
but nevertheless it was a good gift, he had been given a microphone that
had no connector on it, some wire with instructions on how to build an 
antenna, and of course a radio just like the one he had talked on with his 
friend.
He had also been given a book to study from and the name of someone to call 
when he was ready to get a license to use the radio, the antenna, and of 
course
the microphone. He closed the note with a goodbye and postscript, it said 
"have fun talking to the space men".

That little kid was me and by 12, I had my first amateur radio license, not in 
this country but in another. Amateur radio has made a big impact on my life,
I only hope it has done the same to someone else.

Dean
KG6ZCD


Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit 
materiari?

Steve, K8SP
Lansing, Mi