https://hamhijinks.com/ham-quits-hobby-funny-phonetics/
By K5KVN, on the scene
NORFOLK, Va. – Mitch Eversdale blames it on “Three Lovely Ladies.” Those are the phonetics a ham in Michigan used when talking to a station with a callsign suffix of “TLL.” And it was the last straw for the long-time ham radio operator.
“It happens all the time and I’m sick of it. Just the other day, I was tuning around 40m and someone made ‘WB’ into ‘Wild Bill,’” said Eversdale.
A retired Navy radio operator, Eversdale admits he’s a “hardcore traditional man” when it comes to phonetics.
“Can you imagine saying something that ridiculous on a Navy frequency? I believe you’d get thrown into the drink if you did,” he says.
His ham radio friends, like Benny Roddenfall, have told him he needs to lighten up.
“I don’t know why he gets so worked up about it. Heck, he nearly punched me at the club meeting last week when I referred to QST Magazine as “Q Street,” says Roddenfall.
After overhearing the contact between the Michigan ham and the station ending in “TLL,” Eversdale says he’s through with being on-air.
“I’ll focus my attention on a hobby that takes things more seriously, like embroidery. There’s a hobby that can’t get things wrong.”
SBARC “Radioaficionados,"
As some of you may know, SBARC has a sister ham club in Havana, Cuba that was featured in an article that I authored in QST nearly three years ago (see attached photo of Cotorro hams wearing SBARC hats as well as a pdf of the QST article).
Many of the Radioaficionados de Cotorro are HF digital contesters. My friend Joel CO2YQ has an impressive collection of DXCC, WAS and other prestigious awards (see CO2YQ's QRZ page). Without regular broadband internet access, however, these hams often have the only outside links to the world in their neighborhoods. That can make digital log keeping and awards processes difficult. Sourcing repair parts is often nearly impossible!
Joel’s present hardware challenge is with his Icom IC-706. He recently obtained this radio used but the screen has a fairly common failure issue (described in Spanish below). This radio is out of production so parts are not available from Icom. I am hoping to find a replacement IC-706 screen for this for him. I know they are rare but if you or anyone you know has one that wouldn’t mind a trip across the Florida Straits, let me know, please!
LCM
Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM
Director at Large | Co-Chair, Telecommunications Services Committee
Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation
www.levi.maaia.com
+1.805.604.5384
From: Joel Izquierdo Valdes <co2yq(a)frcuba.cu>
Reply: Joel Izquierdo Valdes <co2yq(a)frcuba.cu>
Date: August 14, 2018 at 03:52:42
To: Levi C. Maaia, K6LCM <k6lcm(a)maaia.com>
Subject: RE: Your Logbook of the World Certificate expires soon
Levi,
Gracias mi hermano por todas las molestias que yo te ocasiono.
Alejandro está bien, trabajando que es importante. Está haciendo viaje para visitarnos, esperando el mejor momento para hacerlo.
Tu niña debe estar grandísima ahorita se te hace una mujer, disfrútala el mayor tiempo que puedas que el tiempo pasa rápido.
Te comento que un amigo de la radio aquí en Cuba, le costaba mucho trabajo operar el radio ICOM 706 MKII G, él tiene 78 años, me propuso cambiarlo por el Yaesu 747.
Acepte, mi amigo muy contento porque ese si lo entiende y yo también contento porque adquirí 2 bandas nuevas, 6mts y 70 cm.
El radio (IC 706) trabaja muy bien ya tengo hecho 30 estados para el WAS en 6 mts, solo tiene el display defectuoso en su parte inferior. El frente es desmontable.
Le estuve preguntando a varios colegas, pero dicen que ese frente no está a la venta pues ya no se fabrican.
Gracias por todo
Saludos a toda la familia.
Joel
[This is a copy of the HTML formatted email-blast that went out with
pictures earlier this morning; so it is redundant if you are on that list,
except that I added some acknowledgements that I'd missed - and this one is
text only. It is preferred if Field-Day specific responses are sent to the
Field Day list, rather than this list - see bottom of email for
instructions on how to subscribe to the Field Day list.]
I would like to thank all those who attended Field Day this year. The
turn-out was fantastic.
Elings Park was a bit cold and we never did see the sun, but perhaps that
was better than hot and dusty (isn't it amazing how it went from cold and
overcast two weeks ago to 107 degrees last week)?
We had two stations running (plus the Get-on-the-Air, or GOTA, station). We
used our K6TZ call for the primary two stations and K6SBZ for the GOTA
station. Our class was "2A" and our section was "SB".
We assembled and installed the massive Force-12 antenna on a rotator atop
the 50' pneumatic mast on the Rover along with an 80-meter dipole, we set
up the two-element StepIR on a push-up mast (that was a feat) along with a
40/80 meter dipole, and we erected three fiberglass masts with guy ropes to
support a G5RV multi-band center-fed di-pole antenna as an inverted-V at
about 30' at its center-point.
Our total score was 2,236, comprised of 553 QSO's (multiplied by 2 since we
used less than 150watts for all QSOs) plus 1,130 bonus points. For more
details (like bonus points break-down), see the file called "ARRL Field Day
Entry Form as submitted.pdf" found at
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ub5v6rz1zczz905/AACVSSl0d6qP2OE7OfHrAa1Xa?dl=0
(note you must add the Total Bonus Points to the Claimed Score for the
final score). If you want to find out more about comparative scores check
out the ARRL web site for last year's scores; this year's scores will not
be published until November. Also, check out the ARRL Contest Soapbox by
clicking on http://www.arrl.org/contests/soapbox and selecting "2018 ARRL
Field Day" in the Event drop-down for pictures and comments people have
posted regarding Field Day - they are still streaming in.
The band conditions were not as bad as predicted. We actually had some
pretty solid runs. In fact, the team of Dennis WB6OBB and Jim N6SXB
managed a rate of 128 QSOs per hour, at their peak! While Dennis is a
seasoned contestor, this was Jim's first; Jim was logging for Dennis.
Congrats to the dynamic duo! Now if we could only sustain that rate, we
would have scored 12,288 points in 24 hours across the two stations
(including our 2x multiplier for running on emergency power). We all have
something to work toward next year!
We made 273 QSOs on 20 meters, 214 on 40 meters, and 31 on 80 meters.
Interestingly, we didn't have any QSOs on 10 or 15 meters. All QSOs were
single side band (SSB aka "phone"). Perhaps next year some of our infamous
CW members will join us; and I know several of us are working on our CW
chops now. Setting up a digital station may be fun as well.
I generated several statistics files (also found at the above Dropbox link)
in case you want to see how many QSOs we were achieving per hour on which
bands, which (geographical) sections we contacted on which bands, which
sections we contacted most, what DX entities we hit (Armenia, Australia,
Spain...), etc. The logging software we used (N3FJP) generated some of
these statistics, bit I also generated a Cabrillo formatted file and ran it
through a rather old DOS program called CBWS.exe which produced some other
interesting stats. Also, the graph I generated from the logging software
shows at what times of day we were QSOing on which bands - notice that 80
meters was in the wee hours; also note the big spike in the middle showing
Dennis and Jim's rapid-fire QSOing.
At that same link you will find the pictures that I took (be sure to change
the View As drop-box from List to Large). Please reply to this email and
shoot everyone links to YOUR pictures as well.
If anyone wants the raw logs to run stats on, or otherwise, please let me
know.
I think we all learned a lot at Field Day; I know I did. Everyone has
already started to think about next year's Field Day. We need to decide
how many stations we'd like to do next year, amongst other things. Would
you believe there was a 20-station operation in our Santa Barbara section
this year? The call is AA6CV and they were contacted by our GOTA station.
Also, we contacted a 10-station operation in the Santa Barbara section
called N6R (check it out on qrz.com). We also contacted a 15-station
operation out of Maryland-DC, a 14-station operation out of Santa Clara
Valley, a 12-station operation out of South Texas, and an 11-station
operation out of San Joaquin Valley. (I am NOT suggesting we shoot for
anywhere near this many stations, however; just two was a lot of work :-).
We also need to decide how many antennas we want to use (it was five this
year, per above), what radios, where we'd like to do Field Day (a little
more public exposure would be nice, but being up on a hill can't be beat),
how to spread the word, and how to get earlier commitments. I discovered
we really need to have some training in advance as well, such as: how to
use the logging software, how the contest exchanges works and what it
means, how to use the radios (every radio is different), and some basic
things like knot tying and proper ways to roll up electrical cords and
ropes.
I'd really appreciate some constructive criticism on things you thought
went well, and what did not, and how these can be improved for next year so
that whomever runs the event next year will benefit from our experiences
this year. This is the time to vet these ideas while still fresh in
people's minds. (I'd prefer that Field Day specific responses were sent to
the FIELD DAY email list rather than this one - see bottom of this email on
instructions to join THAT list).
I want to thank Mike K6QD (our very experienced contestor) for leading the
Rover crew in setting up the Force-12 (and helping set it up twice before
hand), for his great advice and for finding some bandpass filters for the
event. Also, Bob K6CTX purchased parts for and helped prep the Force-12 on
several occasions before Field Day and made sure the Rover was ready for us
on Field Day. Wayne AF6GX helped numerous times with the Force-12 before
Field Day and helped set up AND break down. Abhilekh W6WV not only helped
in advance of the event, but stayed all 24-hours non-stop, did a lot of
operating, and helped with set up and break down; he was a phenomenal help.
If it were not for these four hams, this never could have been pulled off.
May hat is off to them.
Thanks to Theo KK6YYZ for obtaining permission to use Elings Park overnight
for the event. Thanks to Levi K6LCM for helping with publicizing the event
(and set up, operating, and break down). Thanks to Tom N6YX for help with
the logging software, the Elecraft K3, Rover help, repair of the 40/80
meter dipole, etc. Thanks to David Larson AC9AC, Theo, and Colin KM6OLA
for also helping set up. Thanks to EVERYONE who picked up and loaned
equipment and supplies.
It took over four hours to set up the three stations and I was very worried
about break down as my only volunteers were my father, Bruce KK6SXA, and
Mark KB6WBH, but I was absolutely impressed with the break-down turn-out.
Nearly everyone who helped set up came back for break-down plus several
others (Mark came JUST for break-down - what a trooper)! We broke down in
only 1.5 hours.
Thanks to Dorothy K6DSO, Bruce KK6SXA, and Paula KA6PCH for running our
public information booth. Dorothy decided to collect names of both the
hams who attended as well as visitors, which was a GREAT idea. We had well
over 60 people who signed up, but I think we probably had closer to 100
people at the event. We need to remember to do this again next year.
Thanks a million to Paula for surprising everyone with delicious home made
sandwiches for lunch; what a treat!
Thanks to all of our operators: Dorothy, Bruce KK6SXA, Paula, Mike, Jim &
Dennis, Abhilekh, Jim W6JFE, Levi, Eric KG6WXC, Bruce KG6NRW, and Haydn
KK6OYV. I was very happy that we got a couple of last-minute operators who
I don't see around much, but who filled in the schedule for me - thanks to
Chuck WB6KDH (an experienced contestor) who held down the fort during the
night-shift in the Rover and Leigh KM6JE who helped out at the StepIR
station.
Eric brought a TON of gear including a tent that several of us crashed in
after being awake for hours on end. He also brought up a special antenna
to make satellite contacts, and the requisite radios - very cool and lots
of fun.
Haydn did a fantastic job running the GOTA station. The GOTA station is a
special "free" station that does not count toward our total number of
stations, and could only be operated by newly licensed hams, Novices,
Technicians, or General and above inactive hams (other than the GOTA
coach). Haydn did a great job involving visitors and taught a couple of
young boys to operate. We had at least five youth visitors (18 and under)
and three youth operators, including Haydn, for which we got bonus points.
My nephew, Taj, who is 11 years old, made several contacts under Haydn's
direction. Another young man named Dillon (probably about Taj's age) and
his father watched for a while but Dillon was too shy to take up the
microphone, although, with his father's and Haydn's encouragement, he
finally made a contact. The neat part about this story is that Dillon came
back after his family had dinner because, according to his father, all he
could talk about at the dinner table was his experience with ham radio
earlier in the day. He made several more contacts under Haydn's
supervision. Maybe one of these young boys will be running field day in a
few years :-)
I hope I didn't miss any acknowledgements. If I did - please let me know,
and I sincerely apologize! Hopefully the turn-out next year will be so
large that whomever is running the event won't possibly be able to list all
the names in a single email ;-)
If you want to follow along with the Field-Day commentary, or pitch in with
a response or comments, please subscribe to the SBARC Field Day Mailing
List found at http://lists.netlojix.com/mailman/listinfo/sbarc-field-day.
There will soon be archives of the list so you can read emails from before
you joined the list (archives not visible at the moment, but we are working
on fixing it).
Also, consider joining the general SBARC list server:
http://lists.netlojix.com/mailman/listinfo/sbarc-list.
Sincerely,
Ken Alker, KA6KEN
Field Day is really shaping up; we are only a day-and-a-half away! Below
is the schedule so far. Come by and check it out, even if you are not
signed up to help.
Please check out the yellow cells in the schedule below and let me know
if I can fill any of those cells with your name. While Saturday is
looking really good, I could use a couple more volunteers to help with
mentoring at the GOTA station (Bruce Alker has overlapping
responsibilities which I'd like to avoid), and a couple more people to
help set up at 7am. For Sunday, I need two more operators, one GOTA
mentor, and two more to help breakdown (very necessary). Please email
me if you can help in any way.
I am not going to use this mailing list for further Field Day business.
There is a new mailing list that everyone is welcome to join, even if
you can't help or attend this year. It'll start getting busy tonight!
To subscribe, please click the following URL or paste it into your
browser: http://lists.netlojix.com/mailman/listinfo/sbarc-field-day .
Thanks to all!
*Field Day 2018 Schedule*
*Sat 7am - 11am SETUP*
1) Ken Alker
5) David Larson (7:30am)
*
* 2) Abhilekh
6) Theo (7:30am)
*
* 3) Mike Wapner
7) ??
*
* 4) Wayne Beckman
8) ??
*
*
*_
_* *_PUBLIC RELATIONS
_* *_STATION 1
_* *_STATION 2
_* *_GOTA STATION
_*
*Sat 11am - 3pm**
* Dorothy Oksner
Mike Wapner
Abhilekh
*Sat 3pm - 5pm**
* Bruce Alker
Mike Wapner
Jim Everson
Bruce Alker(?)/Paula Hamer(?)
*Sat 5pm - 7pm**
* Bruce Alker
Jim Scott & Dennis S.
Jim Everson
Bruce Alker(?)/Paula Hamer(?)
*Sat 7pm - 11pm**
* Ken Alker (until dusk)
Jim Scott & Dennis S.
Levi
*Sat 11pm - 3am**
* CLOSED
Eric Satterlee
Chuck Gould
*Sun 3am - 7am**
* CLOSED
Chuck Gould (until 6am)
Bruce Coffman
*Sun 7am - 11am**
* Paula Hamer (8am)
*
*
*Sun 11am - 1pm** BREAKDOWN* 1) Ken Alker
3) ??
*
* 2) Bruce Alker
4) ??
*
*
Ken Alker
SBARC, Director at Large
Field Day is THIS SATURDAY!
I am very excited because I've already got FOURTEEN people signed up to
perform public relations duties and to operate stations! I need another
two operators, and we'll have enough to operate TWO stations! I need at
least one more PR person to help with the public information table. Be
sure to attend and hang out for a bit even if you can not stay for long, or
operate.
I also need some GOTA coaches for our Get-On-The-Air station. ANYONE who
has been licensed in the past year and all Novice and Technician licensed
hams should come out to operate the GOTA station; the coaches will show you
how. Each of you can help us earn up to an extra 100 points in the
contest. Also, if you hold a General license or above, but are generally
inactive, please come out as you can operate the GOTA station as well!
Finally, I need a couple more people to help set up Saturday morning at
7:00am, and a couple more to help pack everything up at 11am Sunday
morning. We need hams who are 18 and younger to operate as well (even if
the GOTA station) as we earn extra points for the younger hams. If you
know anyone 18 or younger who is licensed, please encourage them to come.
Field day is not only a contest, but a way to show the public what we, as
the Santa Barbara Amateur Radio Club, are all about. More than 40,000
amateur radio operators throughout North America will be partipating in
field day this year. Field Day has been an annual event since 1933, and
remains the most popular event in amateur radio.
Saturday morning we will be installing the HUGE Force-12 antenna atop the
Rover van! Its longest element is nearly 20-feet long! The telepscoping
mast on the Rover is almost 50-feet high! This will be a site to see.
We'll have several other antennas on-site including a really cool StepIR
and some di-poles. We'll be running 100% on emergency power. At some
point, a couple of us will be making satellite contacts, so be sure to show
up to see this.
For more information, including directions to the SBARC Field Day site in
the South Park area of Elings Park, visit http://www.sbarc.org. Please
RSVP to ken(a)alker.net today and let me know exactly how you can help out,
even if it is just coming by to try out the GOTA station. Please come out
and help us prove that "when all else fails, amateur radio works!"
When you RSVP, please let me know what time-slot (or SLOTS) would you like.
Let me know if you want to be an operator, a GOTA coach, or do public
outreach (or all three) for the shift(s) you choose. We'll likely be
running two stations, so keep this in mind when responding. It is proving
to be hardest to fill the 11pm-7am shifts, so I need night owls too! Let
me know if you want to do multiple shifts or two half-shifts, etc. If you
want to create your own time slot, please do - I'll work everyone into the
schedule one way or another! Also, be sure to let me know if you can help
set up and/or break down.
TIME SLOTS:
Sat/Sun (4-hour slots; but you can make up your own):
11am- 3pm
3pm- 7pm
7pm-11pm
11pm- 3am
3am- 7am
7am-11am
Ken Alker
Director at Large
ka6ken(a)alker.net