I have been a ham since October of 1969 and I do dabble
in building stuff and I have blown up my share of perfectly good
components. I have been more or less monitoring the discussions
that precipitated this thread and I have argued about whether to
post or not but here I am and I mean to bring no harm so please understand
that I come with peaceful intent.

	I got in to amateur radio because I am curious about how
stuff works, electronics being just one thing among many. I
learned at a very young age that very few things just work when
one is experimenting and to use a polite form of a good
expression, stuff happens. When things do work well, that's
gravy, but usually, you have to learn something you didn't know
or burn your fingers a few times before things do start working
right.

	Appliance operating is what goes on in the commercial
two-way radio services and what is really hoped to happen in CB.
You go to the store, buy it all, take it home and hook it up
according to the instructions and you've got radio.

	Amateur radio is training in both technology and
procedures so we can help when things go wrong, either from
human stupidity or natural disaster. We're supposed to be
creative and make things work that your average man or woman on
the street can't make work. Not because we are superhuman
geniuses, but because we were diligent and tried to learn what
we could. 

	We had a fellow around here a few years ago who was also
blind and who got in to amateur radio from the CB ranks where a
lot of really good hams came from, but he just thought it was an
upgraded version of CB. I asked him how he was doing in algebra
before he took his first exam and talked a little about Ohm's
Law, etc. He protested, "I didn't know you had to be an
electrician to do all this stuff."

	I was kind of speechless which, if you knew me, is a
rare case, but I told him that this is what it is all about,
that and learning how stuff works. Talking around the world and
socializing is another good part of it, but it's all about
technology.

	None of us knows everything about this great hobby, but
I remember as a small kid thinking that if I became a ham, I'd
know everything.

	Somebody moved the goal posts several times while I grew
up and I don't guess I'll ever know it all, but knowledge tells
you how to feed an antenna so you don't blow up thousands of
Dollars worth of good equipment and curiosity should help you
learn enough not to make the same mistake twice, well, maybe
2.5 times.

	My point is that if it all worked perfectly every time,
there would be nothing to learn and we would all be right in
there with the appliance operators, thinking that the whole
world was against us and we had all the bad luck.

	Bad luck does happen and people die because of it but
we can make a large portion of the luck we have be good and I guess I
have rambled long enough.

Martin WB5AGZ