From the RAT Files Circa 2004: THESE ARE THE END DAYS OF AMATEUR RADIO! Well, Maybe Not Today...

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EDITOR'S NOTE: The following was originally composed as radio copy for air on FEBRUARY 21st, 2004 in a feature entitled THE RANDOM ACCESS FILE over THIS WEEK IN AMATEUR RADIO, North America's premier amateur radio audio news service. Please click on the following http://www.twiar.org/ for additional details.
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Listen to this: Everything old is new again. Did you hear this? Everything old is new again. BAH! Sorry.I don't buy it. How about this one: If you haven't seen it before, then it's new to you. Did you copy this? Do you see what a pantload this is?
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A question: How does this apply to amateur radio? An answer: Amateur radio is a legion, a very small legion of old men. Mostly old men with some old women. And maybe just a few babies. I'm going to define "baby" here as anyone under the age of 40.
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But it's mostly old men who spend much of their free time peering backward into the past instead of exploring forward into the future with this hobby, much less thinking outside the box. Mostly old men. Hell, I'm an old man myself at 52. At the very least, I am a lot older than I was. Old enough and a ham long enough to be a member of the Quarter Century Wireless Association. But I'm not interested. Most of the hams in this country are now over 55. In the context of the religious TV zealot:
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THESE ARE THE END DAYS OF AMATEUR RADIO!
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No young ones. No apprentices. No fledglings. Or at least, a very, very few. No one stepping on board to join us and ultimately carry on for us mostly old men and some old women into the next generation. Perhaps the first clue drifted into focus say two decades back. Maybe at your local ham club meeting, where, with some wringing of the hands, there was a steadily intensifying and temple throbbing realization that cable TV with its newborn Music Television was seducing our youth and stealing their very valuable discretionary time away. More time for the MTV. Less time for the amateur radio.
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MTV's fraternal twin then emerges forth from the media womb. Home video games, PONG and Missile Command, act as electronic parasites to our Quasars, our Sonys, our Toshibas, our Pioneers and our Emersons. More time for the Atari. Less time for the amateur radio. Easier to *pay* for the MTV and the PONG. Or at least for the parents to pay. Than to bone up on basic radio theory. And pound away at the straight key.
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The speculation at the meeting closes quickly because the featured speaker tonight is going to discuss the history of the Amphenol PL-259 connector. To any teen sitting in the crowd, he might as well take a hypodermic needle and insert toilet bowl cleaner directly into the jugular.
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Does anyone see this problem?
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If MTV and Atari did not chew up enough numbers of potential fledglings, then certainly the two Bills finished the job. The one Bill - Gates - hand delivered his not-quite-ready-for-prime-time Microsoft Windows 3.1 into our 1990's vintage TinkerToy PCs while the other Bill - Clinton - opened the floodgates of a heretofore quite obscure, very esoteric but also very powerful global inter exchange data network known to insiders as the Internet and of course, he pitched the whole schmear to the great unwashed as the Super Information Highway.
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Another decade passes.
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3.1 matures into XP. Unix morphs into 31 flavours of Linux. Atari passes the baton to XBOX, GameCube and PlayStation 2. 25 pound bagphones give way to Nextel. More time for file sharing. More time for Sonic the Hedgehog. Certainly, less time for amateur radio. But again, the speculation at the meeting closes quickly because the featured speaker tonight is going discuss how to build a two-meter groundplane antenna out of couple of Dollar Store coat hangers. To any teen sitting in the crowd, he might as well take a hypodermic needle and insert toilet bowl cleaner directly into the jugular.
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We hams did good there for a while: Single sideband. Solid state. FM repeaters. Packet radio. Amateur radio satellites. Hams in space. Cool stuff! We dug it! The kids didn't. And then, while most of us hams sought to reminisce about the good ole' days with all those G*d-awful mold encrusted radio resurrection articles that still play each month in the QST and the CQ. Every month, yet another face-the-rear compendium on the HeathKit DX100, the Collins 75A4, various ribbon microphones from the 1930's and the many ways you can scrape and expunge caked and crumbly rust from the five-watt resistors hand soldered to the underside of a metal chassis.
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Meanwhile, commercial interests were quietly pioneering and exploiting things like: Trunked repeater systems. Cellular telephone environments. Wifi wireless computer networks. Voice Over IP. Personal communications devices so small that you could easily drop them into a toilet. Cool stuff! We dig it! The kids dig it! It's transparent to the kids but they don't care. They just enjoy the end-user benefits.
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My Number One And Only Son, Zachary, now at milepost 8 on his own personal expressway of life in the fast lane really gets into his brand-shiny-new Motorola T5950 FRS radios. The very expensive Motorola T5950 Family Service Radios.It's not ham radio but he does love to talk any chance he gets to his friend who is a girl Jessica, number one of two daughters belonging to our own George W2XBS. It's not ham radio but it is a start. The FRS appears to be a better deal than the 27 Megacycle CB hell-hole that many of us cut our eyeteeth on many moon ago. Mostly likely though, neither Zach nor Jess will ever enter the hallowed halls of hamdom, but maybe it's not such a big deal. There is so much more out there for them to explore. There may be no time for amateur radio. So much new technology. I'll bet in a year or two, Zach and Jess will pitch the FRS radios for the Nextels or maybe every one of those tiny little pocket phones with the TV screens so they can see each other in some kind of reasonable color. So tiny, that you know at least one of those phones will most likely be accidentally dropped into a toilet.
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In the end for the rest of us, in the end days of amateur radio, there is nothing really wrong with being old. And nothing really wrong with reading about old things. And nothing really with doing old things. Just don't expect the kids to get involved. But every once in a blue moon sometimes, maybe one young fledgling may heed the call and so we must nurture the little grasshopper as best we can and shield the fledgling from our ugly ham radio politics and petty turf squabbles but we should change the name from Elmer to Ozzie (Osbourne, that is) so he can better relate.
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After all, one new member is better than none.
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- 30 -

QSL??? Yeah! We Got That!!!

Here, in no particular order, are a few recent e-mail requests for an Official This Week in Amateur Radio QSL Card. The more traditional pathway of writing a reception report and mailing it to: This Week in Amateur Radio Post Office Box 30, Sand Lake, New York 12153 has given way in recent years to an e-mail request sent to n2fnh@capital.net. So, whether you receive the program over your local VHF or UHF repeater, copy the show over WBCQ or download the latest weekly Internet Podcast, you can get your own TWIAR QSL Card by taking pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. either way works!

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Just dropping you guys a line to get the QSL card. I'm a new ham, got my ticket in April, just upgraded to general 2 weeks ago, and a friend told me about the show on 7.415 Mhz, and with my shiny new rig, and horrible dipole that looks like something the cat rejected as being too pitiful to even bother with, and probably right from being half baked by incidental RF experiments in the front room. So I first picked you up on 7.415, then to the website, and downloaded a few past issues, love the amateur archives and the ham humor parts of it, my father use to work with Bill Hamilton the guy who recorded the repeaterisms for the 7.76 repeater here in Columbus, and quite a few horror stories of how bill used to torment his bosses, apparently quite a character. Any ways I heard the email addy for the QSL card, (haven't gotten one yet) so thought i would throw you an email, and snail mail for the shiny QSL card.
Charles Johnston III (W8KWA)
3444 Independence Street
Grove City Ohio 43123

STAX!

RFC 1882! The 12-Days of Technology Before Christmas!

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What follows is another in a series of Requests For Comment that the TELNET NEWS/LAND LINE LID THIS WEEK has unearthed at various information repositories. RFCs are documents composed and written detailing certain standards or operational protocols for use within the Internet community. Some of these otherwise dry commentaries may actually make for some unusual, if not interesting reading.
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RFC 1882 - The 12-Days of Technology Before Christmas
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Network Working Group B. Hancock
Request for Comments: 1882 Network-1 Software and Technology, Inc.
Category: Informational December 1995
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The 12-Days of Technology Before Christmas
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Status of this Memo
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This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo does not
specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is
unlimited.
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Discussion
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On the first day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
A database with a broken b-tree (what the hell is a b-tree anyway?)
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On the second day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Two transceiver failures (CRC errors? Collisions? What is going on?)
And a database with a broken b-tree (Rebuild WHAT? It's a 10GB database!)
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On the third day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Three French users (who, of course, think they know everything)
Two transceiver failures (which are now spewing packets all over the net)
And a database with a broken b-tree (Backup? What backup?)
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On the fourth day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Four calls for support (playing the same Christmas song over and over)
Three French users (Why do they like to argue so much over trivial things?)
Two transceiver failures (How the hell do I know which ones they are?)
And a database with a broken b-tree (Pointer error? What's a pointer error?)
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On the fifth day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Five golden SCSI contacts (Of course they're better than silver!)
Four support calls (Ever notice how time stands still when on hold?
Three French users (No, we don't have footpedals on PC's. Why do you ask?)
Two transceiver failures (If I knew which ones were bad, I would know which ones to fix!)
And a database with a broken b-tree (Not till next week? Are you nuts?!?!)
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On the sixth day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Six games a-playing (On the production network, of course!)
Five golden SCSI contacts (What do you mean "not terminated!")
Four support calls (No, don't transfer me again - do you HEAR? Damn!)
Three French users (No, you cannot scan in by putting the page to the screen...)
Two transceiver failures (I can't look at the LEDs - they're in the ceiling!)
And a database with a broken b-tree (Norway? That's where this was written?)
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On the seventh day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Seven license failures (Expired? When?)
Six games a-playing (Please stop tying up the PBX to talk to each other!)
Five golden SCSI contacts (What do you mean I need "wide" SCSI?)
Four support calls (At least the Muzak is different this time...)
Three French Users (Well, monsieur, there really isn't an "any" key, but...)
Two transceiver failures (SQE? What is that? If I knew I would set it myself!)
And a database with a broken b-tree (No, I really need to talk to Lars - NOW!)
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On the eighth day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Eight MODEMs dialing (Who bought these? They're a security violation!)
Seven license failures (How many WEEKS to get a license?)
Six games a-playing (What do you mean one pixel per packet on updates?!?)
Five golden SCSI contacts (Fast SCSI? It's supposed to be fast, isn't it?)
Four support calls (I already told them that! Don't transfer me back - DAMN!)
Three French users (No, CTL-ALT-DEL is not the proper way to end a program)
Two transceiver failures (What do you mean "babbling transceiver"?)
And a database with a broken b-tree (Does anyone speak English in Oslo?)
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On the ninth day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Nine lady executives with attitude (She said do WHAT with the servers?)
Eight MODEMs dialing (You've been downloading WHAT?)
Seven license failures (We sent the P.O. two months ago!)
Six games a-playing (HOW many people are doing this to the network?)
Five golden SCSI contacts (What do you mean two have the same ID?)
Four support calls (No, I am not at the console - I tried that already.)
Three French users (No, only one floppy fits at a time? Why do you ask?)
Two transceiver failures (Spare? What spare?)
And a database with a broken b-tree (No, I am trying to find Lars! L-A-R-S!)
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On the tenth day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Ten SNMP alerts flashing (What is that Godawful beeping?)
Nine lady executives with attitude (No, it used to be a mens room? Why?)
Eight MODEMs dialing (What Internet provider? We don't allow Internet here!)
Seven license failures (SPA? Why are they calling us?)
Six games a-playing (No, you don't need a graphics accelerator for Lotus!)
Five golden SCSI contacts (You mean I need ANOTHER cable?)
Four support calls (No, I never needed an account number before...)
Three French users (When the PC sounds like a cat, it's a head crash!)
Two transceiver failures (Power connection? What power connection?)
And a database with a broken b-tree (Restore what index pointers?)
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On the eleventh day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Eleven boards a-frying (What is that terrible smell?)
Ten SNMP alerts flashing (What's a MIB, anyway? What's an extension?)
Nine lady executives with attitude (Mauve? Our computer room tiles in mauve?)
Eight MODEMs dialing (What do you mean you let your roommate dial-in?)
Seven license failures (How many other illegal copies do we have?!?!)
Six games a-playing (I told you - AFTER HOURS!)
Five golden SCSI contacts (If I knew what was wrong, I wouldn't be calling!)
Four support calls (Put me on hold again and I will slash your credit rating!)
Three French users (Don't hang your floppies with a magnet again!)
Two transceiver failures (How should I know if the connector is bad?)
And a database with a broken b-tree (I already did all of that!)
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On the twelfth day of Christmas, technology gave to me:
Twelve virtual pipe connections (There's only supposed to be two!)
Eleven boards a-frying (What a surge suppressor supposed to do, anyway?)
Ten SNMP alerts flashing (From a distance, it does kinda look like XMas lights.)
Nine lady executives with attitude (What do you mean aerobics before backups?)
Eight MODEMs dialing (No, we never use them to connect during business hours.)
Seven license failures (We're all going to jail, I just know it.)
Six games a-playing (No, no - my turn, my turn!)
Five golden SCSI contacts (Great, just great! Now it won't even boot!)
Four support calls (I don't have that package! How did I end up with you!)
Three French users (I don't care if it is sexy, no more nude screen backgrounds!)
Two transceiver failures (Maybe we should switch to token ring...)
And a database with a broken b-tree (No, operator - Oslo, Norway. We were just
talking and were cut off...)
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Security Considerations
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Security issues are not discussed in this memo.
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Author's Address
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Bill Hancock, Ph.D.
Network-1 Software & Technology, Inc.
DFW Research Center
878 Greenview Dr.
Grand Prairie, TX 75050
EMail: hancock@network-1.com
Phone: (214) 606-8200
Fax: (214) 606-8220
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Comment on RFC 1882
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Previous: RFC 1881 - IPv6 Address Allocation Management Next: RFC 1883 -
Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification

RAX3! Yet Another Random Access "Twas The Night Before"...And So Forth!

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This week's Random Access Christmas features Bill Continelli W2XOY serving up another amateur radio version of "The Night Before Christmas". Your humble producer (that's me) performed the introduction to Bill's holiday story. I assumed the role of Father Christmas, complete with heavy blustery winds and blinding snow - you imagine all this in your personal theater of the mind since this whole thing is an audio presentation.
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But here's a bit of inside, behind-the-scenes, information! At the time when I recorded that intro, I was suffering from a G*dawful head cold and as such my voice was quite raspy. This was actually not a bad thing but to enhance the gravelly effect even further, I took my Father Christmas voice track and modulated it with a 7 Hz tone. The result was a curious, fluttery effect
which worked well with the all the blowing and howling winds.
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Unfortunately, none of the Random Access Christmas programs are currently on file in my RATParts at TWIAR because those shows kept on George's harddrive. But! You can certainly download either the This Week in Amateur Radio ham service or This Week in Amateur Radio International for the week ending December 20th.
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The VHF Pirate Repeater Story Continues! More from 158.400 MHz in Upstate New York!

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A while back, I did a Random Access program (for the week ending 8/2/08) on a remarkable business band pirate repeater running locally on 158.400 MHz here in the Capital Region of upstate New York, which has been up and running for a few years now. This week, I received an email from a licensed commercial operator who has been interfered with by this bootlegger. While it appears the FCC can move swiftly when it comes to unlicensed freebanders, it may be another story when it comes to VHF QRM from a local interloper.

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Download either RAT080731_1584_BCQ.cab or RAT080731_1584_HAM.cab to hear what this electronic mess sounds like! Use your WinZIP or IZArc to recover the WAV file inside!

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Hey there found your website by Googling the freq. I am the owner of the repeater that was getting slammed by this moron when he was on 158.385. I went on a search and destroy mission awhile back to no avail. I did find out its somewhere up in Brunswick area The repeater that is. A friend of my did a Doppler thing and got the input and pl and we annoyed him off the air from 158.385. Very hi profile setup I can use to be able to key it from Greene county and hear it out in Delaware county. I filed a complaint with the FCC but I guess they don't care as he's still at it. Morse code id,Beep's etc. Was on a couple nights ago searching his property and called SP about a car. Also some of us noticed that upper New Jersey address's pop up from time to time. Maybe has it hooked to Echolink or something??? if you go to popularwireless.com there's like 21 pages of this ass I am not the only one hearing it. I have hadn't written pages of stuff I have heard and faxed it to FCC to no avail. Thanks for posting stuff like this as I am glad I am not the only one who cares to get these type of people off the air.

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Chris Scott KB2KNB WNLF-920 WQDT-760 WPRT-843

4 Boxes In A Box Set!

RFC 1925! The Twelve Networking Truths!

What follows is another in a series of "Requests For Comment" that the TELNET NEWS/LAND LINE LID THIS WEEK has unearthed at various information repositories. RFCs are documents composed and written detailing certain standards or operational protocols for use within the Internet community. Some of these otherwise dry commentaries may actually make for some unusual if not interesting reading.

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RFC 1925 - The Twelve Networking Truths
Network Working Group R. Callon, Editor
Request for Comments: 1925 IOOF
Category: Informational 1 April 1996
The Twelve Networking Truths

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Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of
this memo is unlimited.

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Abstract
This memo documents the fundamental truths of networking for the
Internet community. This memo does not specify a standard, except in
the sense that all standards must implicitly follow the fundamental
truths.

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Acknowledgements
The truths described in this memo result from extensive study over an
extended period of time by many people, some of whom did not intend
to contribute to this work. The editor merely has collected these
truths, and would like to thank the networking community for
originally illuminating these truths.

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1. Introduction
This Request for Comments (RFC) provides information about the
fundamental truths underlying all networking. These truths apply to
networking in general, and are not limited to TCP/IP, the Internet,
or any other subset of the networking community.

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2. The Fundamental Truths
(1) It Has To Work.

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(2) No matter how hard you push and no matter what the priority,
you can't increase the speed of light.
(2a) (corollary). No matter how hard you try, you can't make a
baby in much less than 9 months. Trying to speed this up
*might* make it slower, but it won't make it happen any
quicker.

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(3) With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine. However, this is
not necessarily a good idea. It is hard to be sure where they
are going to land, and it could be dangerous sitting under them
as they fly overhead.

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(4) Some things in life can never be fully appreciated nor
understood unless experienced firsthand. Some things in
networking can never be fully understood by someone who neither
builds commercial networking equipment nor runs an operational
network.

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(5) It is always possible to aglutenate multiple separate problems
into a single complex interdependent solution. In most cases
this is a bad idea.

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(6) It is easier to move a problem around (for example, by moving
the problem to a different part of the overall network
architecture) than it is to solve it.
(6a) (corollary). It is always possible to add another level of
indirection.

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(7) It is always something
(7a) (corollary). Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick any two (you can't
have all three).

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(8) It is more complicated than you think.

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(9) For all resources, whatever it is, you need more.

(9a) (corollary) Every networking problem always takes longer to
solve than it seems like it should.

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(10) One size never fits all.

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(11) Every old idea will be proposed again with a different name and
a different presentation, regardless of whether it works.
(11a) (corollary). See rule 6a.

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(12) In protocol design, perfection has been reached not when there
is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take
away.

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Security Considerations
This RFC raises no security issues. However, security protocols are
subject to the fundamental networking truths.

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References
The references have been deleted in order to protect the guilty and
avoid enriching the lawyers.

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Author's Address
Ross Callon
Internet Order of Old Farts
c/o Bay Networks
3 Federal Street
Billerica, MA 01821
Phone: 508-436-3936
EMail: rcallon@baynetworks.com
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Comment on RFC 1925
Comments about this RFC:
RFC 1925: Rule #1 of being pedantic: If you are going to use overly
large words to... by Jen (7/15/2003)
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Previous: RFC 1924 - A Compact Representation of IPv6 Addresses Next: RFC
1926 - An Experimental Encapsulation of IP Datagrams on Top of ATM

TWO! TWO! TWO RATS IN ONE!: A Random Access Christsmas! And! Amateur Radio Repeater IDs! Part 3: The 2nd Sequel

This week's edition of the Random Access Thought was composed and produced this week here at the N2FNH Bunker and features Mother Radio and Packetman for yet another kitchenside coffee clatch where the subject of note is amateur radio repeater IDs. A recent scan of the Googleverse revealed some new and quite creative entries. In addition, our technical director, George W2XBS offered a CD with additional ID material from the Broadcast Employees Amateur Radio Repeater - The Bear!...some really great stuff!

The effects used this week's feature are truly vintage, going back to the late 1950's and early 1960's. Packetman's freakout sequence was assembled from select effects from the Hanna Barbera, Jay Ward and UPA sound effects libraries. There is also a new RAT Intro and Outro, which features Cigman and Marilyn Krasnov playing around with MY audio equipment. On a personal note, I was a little distressed to discover that Cigman was smoking his cheesy unfiltered Viceroys around MY sensitive audio mastering equipment.

I cheated on the RAT promotional message, recalling the original repeater ID recording where MNOAOS Zach, then at the age of nine, was hanging with the enigmatic Tick Tock discussing the curious things people collect. I edited in an updated slug line ("...coming up in just a few minutes...) with fresh audio! Remember! This be a labor of love here.

What follows is the script that Beverly Krasnov (Mother Radio) and Packetman (real name held due to AFTRA contract restrictions) read before the Microphonium!
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INTRO
(FX: doorbell)

MR: Who is it?

PM: It's me, Packetman! (voice muffled)

MR: Come on in! So, what brings you to the Krasnov homestead this bright and sunny Saturday afternoon?

PM: I have more exciting amateur radio repeater IDs to play for you on my trusty mp3 audio player.

MR: Ok Puppy Boy! What have you got?

PM: The first two clips are standard fare, one a computer voice from WA1ZYX and the other, a noisy analog recording from W1BIM. Both of these repeaters are located in New Hampshire.
(VX: repeater clips: set 1)

MR: I hear that type all the time.

PM: Sometimes, you may hear a professional announcer, like this one from W1DC at Uncanoonuc, New Hampshire.
(VX: repeater clips: set 2)

MR: Very professional!

PM: Here a few more of Bill Hamilton's World Famous Repeaterisms.
(VX: repeater clips: set 3)

MR: I like those the best!

PM: The guys out west at the N6ICW repeater in Sacramento, California have taken this ID thing to higher levels. check out these famous celebrity impersonations.
(VX: repeater clips: set 4)

MR: They sound like Saturday morning cartoons.

PM: Yeah, but N6ICW also got a real broadcaster to do the voice over work too!

(VX: repeater clips: set 5)

MR: That man drives me crazy every weekday afternoon on the local radio station.

PM: And just like N2FNH, the N6ICW hams are big into sound effects too.
(VX: repeater clips: set 6)

MR: Far out!

PM: Finally, speaking of celebrities, the Broadcast Employees Amateur Repeater W9LOV at Schaumberg, Illinois, offers up it's own fleet of famous folk. I got these recordings from George W2XBS.
(VX: repeater clips: set 7)

PM: And that's it!

MR: You know, I was just thinking. There was a local repeater here that used to have very creative IDs and messages, but they took them off the air. Too bad. Now, they sound so stale. Well, anyway, now that you're here, I've got the latest Monitoring Times, Popular Communications and some garlic bagels right over there on the kitchen table.
(FX: twang, key at "monitoring times")
(FX: rumble, key at "popular communications")

PM: oh oh oh

(FX: madcap 1, key at third "oh")
(FX: oyoyoyoy, key at madcap tail)

MR: Cool your jets there puppy boy, we've got all afternoon!
(FX: madcap2, key at "afternoon")

MR: This boy really needs to get himself a girlfriend! (whispered)
OUTRO

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BUT THERE'S MORE! A special Random Access Christmas is in the offing as well. In our second week of ham radio Christmas specials, Shannon Ratigan N0JAM offers his own unique version of The Night Before Christmas, nicely post produced with my usual one-of-a-kind big pile of sound effects and other audio detritus. Detritus, by the way, is a five dollar word, used by crossword puzzle authors and science fiction writers everywhere!

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Mister Ratigan was apparently way before my time with This Week in Amateur Radio, but he has a nice vocal presence and delivery for the purposes of this Random Access Christmas which was fun to add additional sound to. According to QRZ, Scott currently resides in Dunedin, Florida. There is a photo image offered on his QRZ listing, but I suspect it may be a misrepresentation since the face showing is quite noticeably Vulcan, or possibly Romulan.

So download this week's This Week in Amateur Radio Ham Service and the TWIARi Broadcast version, or even better connect to: http://www.twiar.org/n2fnh/RATParts/

Look for file number RAT080902_RID3_BCQ.cab and RAT080902_RID3_HAM.cab, right click and "Save Target As" to your hardddrive. Use your WinZIP or IZArc to extract the RAT audio WAV file inside!

Apertures!

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You've Got Mail! Or Some Such Similar Registered Trademark...

Here, in no particular order, are a few recent e-mail requests for an Official This Week in Amateur Radio QSL Card. The more traditional pathway of writing a reception report and mailing it to: This Week in Amateur Radio Post Office Box 30, Sand Lake, New York 12153 has given way in recent years to an e-mail request sent to n2fnh@capital.net. So, whether you receive the program over your local VHF or UHF repeater, copy the show over WBCQ or download the latest weekly Internet Podcast, you can get your own TWIAR QSL Card by taking pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. either way works!

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Thanks for the write up on this subject. My brother is trying to get me into this stuff. I hope it does not die to soon. Keep up the good work
John Flint KC9MVQ
9216N 100E
Lucerne, IN 46950
secret promo code: RATRAT
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Hi,
I would love to get a QSL card for the show. I heard your station (listening now) on 7.415MHz @ 22:00 UTC 11/30/08…. You’re S9 + 10 into North Florida. I’m running a Yaesu FT-840, along with a vertical 180 foot loop.
73!
John Lynes
K4NIN