Thanks for sharing this.
We can all help someone learn how to be a good Amateur Operator. It just takes some time and effort.
Colleen Roth, N8TNV;


----- Original Message -----
From: That Behler <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: 2009/05/21 15:01:26
Subject: Re: Ham Radio Spirit

>
>
>     Thanks for sharing this, Steve.
> 
> It does the heart good!
> 
> 73 from Tom Behler:  KB8TYJ
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Steve" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 10:48 AM
> Subject: Ham Radio Spirit
> 
> 
> 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