Here Is A Special RANDOM ACCESS THOUGHT For Saturday June 25TH, 2011! All The Action At The Schenectady Museum Amateur Radio Association's Field Day!

Here Is A Special RANDOM ACCESS THOUGHT For Saturday June 25TH, 2011! All The Action At The Schenectady Museum Amateur Radio Association's Field Day 2011! Among The Usual Gang, The Quiet Tim W2QAC, Crush W2CCR, Tony W2BEJ And Dave NF2G! 20 Meters! PSK31! Cheese Fixes, Knitting Looms, Antennas! A Good Time Being Had By All! AND! AND!! The BuckEye Bullet Too!

http://soundcloud.com/the-buffetline/ratp110625-smara-field-day

More Theories From Bill W2XOY! Reactions To A Contemporary REACT!

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This last Sunday, a bunch of hams got together at the Empire State Plaza in downtown Albany for The Great Train Extravaganza! In attendance were Tony W2BEJ, Bill W2XOY, Zach KC2VWY and myself N2FNH. After the show, we convened at the Wolf Road Diner in Colonie for a little late afternoon lunch. Bill offered tales of his recent involvement with REACT, a national volunteer emergency services organization. Naturally, these stories were documented by yours truly and packaged as another ongoing edition of the RANDOM ACCESS THOUGHT. Here is the link to that presentation:

http://twaud.io/q5Hr
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And don't forget! This Week In Amateur Radio lives on at the TWIAR home page at:
http://www.twiar.org/
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And also via Twitter, at this location:
http://twitter.com/TWIAR
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And of course, on Facebook. Try this boatload by clicking:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118165121555935#!/group.php?gid=118165121555935&v=wall
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If this mess doesn't gel, then search "TWIAR" at your Facebook search bar.

It's To Laugh! (zwee-wee-wee-wee) It's To Laugh!

I made mention over on Facebook that I had been experimenting with laugh tracks and that just for the fun of it, I would be adding some of those sort of enhancements to future Random Access Thoughts, Files and the myriad promotional announcements(such as PODCARD/QSL/TWITTER announcements) generated for playback on TWAUDIO and This Week in Amateur Radio.The subject is not only one of the eclectic aspects of audio post production, but certainly one of the most interesting. So herewith, a compact list of bookmarks on the history and current state of the laugh track.

http://www.tvparty.com/laugh.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh_track

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2218/why-do-sitcoms-have-laugh-tracks

http://www.andheresthekicker.com/ex_ben_glenn.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/26/arts/charles-douglass-93-inventor-of-laugh-track-for-tv-dies.html

http://www.thewavemag.com/pagegen.php?pagename=article&articleid=24803

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2009/10/four-old-gadgets-we-love-and-four-we-hate/

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!

Easy Listening Radio: Radio That is Easy to Listen To! (anencoreperformance)

In this week's (encoreperformance) edition of the Random Access Thought for the week ending November 8th, the subject is Easy Listening Radio or perhaps more to the point: Radio that is easy to listen to. This admittedly off-Broadway performance attempts a linkage (albeit quite tenuous) between listening to broadcast AM and FM radios, shortwave receivers, and police scanners and yet being able to rest comfortably and even doze off at the same time.

This week's Random Access Thought was recorded in various rooms deep within the N2FNH Hacienda using my remarkably inexpensive forty-nine dollar Radio Shack analog cassette tape recorder. The associated Random Access Promo features Cigman Krasnov, his sister Marilyn and my Number One and Only Son Zachary. By the way, one of my extemporaneous rants took place in my bathroom. However, on playback, that typical bathroom background reverb was not clearly evident so I added bathroom echo during the editing session.

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 RAT080521_EZLR.cab, right click and "Save Target As" to your hardddrive. Use your WinZIP or IZArc to extract the select RAF audio WAV file inside!

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Not only is this Random Access Thought an encore performance, but this post is an encore performance too! (exceptforthephotoeffect)

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P.S: MNOAOS Zach voiced the slug line ("...that's the subject of the next...") in the associated RAT Easy Listening promo and really got into being a beautiful music announcer. Since he knew his father had voiced for a number of beautiful music stations in the 1970's including the Schulke client WEZG in Syracuse, he was a natural for the assignment!

We Just Got a Letter! We Just Got a Letter! And So Forth!

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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OK I admit it. Between QSOs I visited your blog.
73, Harry
W9HGO -SKCC #4647

I have been an active SWL'er since 1960. Passed my General written 10/20/04 and passed my code exam and extra written on 1/23/05. No transmitter at the moment but have a JRC525 on the receive side. My previous radios were a Yaesu FRG 7000 and a Hallicrafters SX-110. I am usually on 10 15 40 or 80 listening for CW to copy or our local repeater here in Chicago, IL (147.15). I like the idea of QRP and looking for an old inexpensive boat anchor to go along with the JRC. Also interested in glow bugs and want to build up an old 1 tube transmitter at some point in the future. At the moment, July 2008, looking for my first HF rig. Finally got my first HF rig a beautiful Icom 765. On August 28th I made my first QSO. I am doing mostly CW and waiting for my digital interface so I can do some psk31 and RTTY. You will find me mainly on 40M. But check out the SKCC sked page http://www.obriensweb.com/sked/ and come and find me. I can do about 5-7 WPM so be patient.

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Hello George,While strolling through the ham radio sites I recently found TWIAR. IT'S FUN!Some of your most important topics are hardly a topic on this side ofthe pond. Distances are much shorter here - you can easily go from oneend of Germany to the other within a single day and there are some82.000.000 people living in this crammed space.Every 60 miles or so you have a town of at least 100.000, quite a few ofthem 1.000 years old and some even 2.000 years. So we had enough time tobuild an infrastructure to last. The last desaster where amateur radioplayed an important role in was the Hamburg flooding in 1962. Besides:As far as I can judge many things are much more buerocratic over here.How does it come that TWIAR has not been mentioned at Wikipedia? Thatis, until today - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Week_In_Amateur_Radio_International.

Let's hope that none of the moderators will delete it. Perhaps you can find a ham or two to polish the article. But you know the Wikipediapolicy: Don't do it yourself...vy 73,AlexanderDL4NO

TIME! That's the Subject...and so forth!

Time is the subject of this week's installment of the Random Access Thought. MNOAOS Zach's pal Bix Nix visits with Marilyn Krasnov. Bix wants to know what what it means to be obsessive. Ms. Krasnov responds by playing a tape I recorded several years back at a late summertime Troy Amateur Radio Association picnic at the nearby Riverspark Pavillion. During that event, I whipped out my C49DRSACTR and interviewed Jeff WA2AIB who launched into an intense diatribe on his his self-admitted compulsive issues concerning time.

Bix gets a lot of airtime this week, appearing in both our TWIAR/TWIARi blog promos and also our latest QSL Card Offer promo. Here is Bix's script where he stops by Canarsie Wireless to show Mother Radio his shiny QSL card collection.

(FX1 - canarsie wireless background, rainy afternoon.)
(FX2 - big warehouse doorbell.)

MR: WHO IS IT?

BX: IT'S ME, BIX.

(muffled.)

MR: COME ON IN.
(FX4 - big warehouse door open and close.)

MR: SO, WHAT BRINGS YOU TO CANARSIE WIRELESS ON THIS DOOM AND GLOOM SUNDAY AFTERNOON?

BX: HI MOTHER RADIO, I THOUGHT I'D STOP BY AND SHOW YOU MY AMAZING COLLECTION OF QSL CARDS.

MR: SAY, DO YOU HAVE ONE OF THOSE OFFICIAL THIS WEEK IN AMATEUR RADIO QSL CARDS WITH THE ASTEROIDS?

BX: WHY YES, I DO. HERE, NOTICE THE HIGH GLOSS FINISH TO THE CARD. SEE HOW
CLEAR THE RENDERING OF THE ASTEROIDS HAS BEEN DESIGNED AND DEPICTED.
(FX5 - qsl card flexing.)

MR: THAT'S AMAZING.

BX: AND ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS E-MAIL BILL. N2FNH AT CAPITAL.NET TO RECEIVE ONE OF THESE QUALITY QSL CARDS.

MX: WHAT WAS THAT ADDRESS AGAIN?

BX: THAT'S N2FNH AT CAPITAL DOT NET, N2FNH AT CAPITAL DOT NET.

MR: THAT'S GREAT! NOW, THAT YOU'RE HERE...
(FX6 - rumble.)

I'VE GOT THE LATEST MONITORING TIMES...
(FX7 - madcap1.)

OK HANG ON! GO OUTSIDE IF YOU'RE GOING TO FREAK OUT.

(FX8 - madcap2.)

MR: WHAT IS IT WITH YOU GUYS. I MENTION RADIO MAGAZINES AND BAGELS AND YOU ALL FLIP OUT. YOU'D THINK IT WAS PLAYBOY.

BX: WHAT'S PLAYBOY?
(FX9 - bounce out.)
(FX0 - babba booey.)

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!
---
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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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!

High Technology Complaints and Curious Observations: Part 2!

This week's Random Access Thought continues the thread first introduced in Part 1. Recorded back in February of this year, Canarsie Wireless Senior Technician Boleslav Krasnov, along with Mother Radio(Mrs.Krasnov),Marilyn, Cigman, Commander JainPain and My number One And Only Son Zachary cover various topics including computer voices, analog-like sounds out of digital cash registers, making money change in the twenty-first century, and instantly obsolete personal entertainment devices. Included in this special edition, my own personal bigtime gripe: What has happened to school closings on the radio?

Download this week's TWIAR Ham Service or the TWIARi Broadcast version. Even better connect to: http://twiar.org/n2fnh/RATParts/

Look for file number RAT080202_TEK2.cab, right click and "Save Target As". Use your WinZIP or IZArc to extract the juicy audio WAV file inside!

Producing the Random Access Thought: The 5 Stages!

The creation and completion of a typical Random Access Thought, sometimes also known as a Random Access File, for This Week in Amateur Radio is essentially a process laid out in five stages which if carefully crafted, will produce a viable result. Here are those stages:

1) THIMK:
Before production can embark in earnest, a subject is required. Although the focus will be lodged somewhere deep within the expansive electromagnetic domain, the very nature of this feature will be a random selection. Therefore, topics can range from amateur radio repeater IDs and long wave non-directional aircraft radio beacons to business band radio bootleggers and onward to the history of the Internet Tubes.

At this point, thought will also given into what sort of environment the episode is to be presented. Thus, if the subject is Stratovision - an experiment in the 1950s for wide range distribution of television programs by high flying airplanes, then the setting will be on board a post WW2 commercial Douglas DC-6, which brings us to stage 2:

2) SOURCING SOUND:
Prior to writing the script, voice clips, primary sound effects and environmental backtracks or music will be sourced from the N2FNH Sound Effects Library. For a recent feature on Business Band Radio Pirates, I recorded individual voice and radio sound clips direct to harddrive from a Uniden BCD-396T scanning receiver. These recordings have been preserved and may show again in extremely modified form in future releases.

For the same episode, I decided to go with an indoor radio room environment, which in this instance resulted from a merge of two previously designed tracks. The first was a background consisting of radio scanners in a room mixed with the sound of birds coming through an open window. The other was made up of additional scanners with distant muted city traffic. The two separate tracks were carefully balanced to provide the right environmental flavor. On many
occasions, a custom mini-library of specialty effects will also be designed. When the subject was the infamous Network of Internet Tubes, audio was composed to simulate what it might actually sound like being inside one of these alleged tubular worlds.

Likewise, a voice must be assigned. For a number of years, I hosted each week's performance but as weekly production became increasing more complex, other actors were recruited. My Number One And Only Son Zachary was drafted into service at the age of ten to handle announcing chores in the RAT and RAF promos that proceed the feature. Bill Continelli W2XOY has on occasion hosted a Random Access Thought with material he has written that falls beyond the realm of his popular Ancient Amateur Archives, also heard on This Week in Amateur Radio. Recent entries from Bill included "CQ MARS!" and "The Story of Reggie".

Some of the characters who appear in the RAT, BLOG and QSL promos have also been employed as hosts. Mother Radio, Cigman, Marilyn and Boleslav Krasnov have appeared as RAT emcees. During this phase, certain sounds and music components may be processed (compressed, equalized or filtered) to work better against the primary voices.

3) WRITING:

This is the hardest part. My procedure is to first research the topic either through text literature currently on hand or by trolling via the Internet. Using my trusty text editor, the Norton Commander, significant facts, keywords, and phrases are collected and digitally jotted down. Then, copy is composed and arranged around these core elements. From keyword insertion to final draft, the copy may be rewritten five times or more over a three day period, while at the same time assembling the voice clips, the effects tracks and anything else I need.

I can sometimes escape extensive writing if the content is taped in the field using my cheap, inexpensive, forty nine dollar RadioShack cassette analog tape recorder. In covering the local Schenectady Museum Amateur Radio Association Field Day this past June, most of the RAT consisted of field recordings of club members with commentary scripted around each clip.

4) RECORDING:

Recording the final document is easy if one of the virtual characters reads. Very little clean up is needed plus the virtual voices read exactly as I tell them. "Clean up" is defined here as unwanted, extraneous noise that detracts from the quality of the presentation. When analog voices are used, there may be more "tone" and incidental noise. Likewise, breaths and other peculiar artifacts are also deleted.

5) FINAL MIX:

At this time, the TWIARi RAT, BLOG and QSL promos are mixed down to two tracks while the Random Access Thought is configured as a single track. I say "two track" because they are not stereo or binaural recordings but the result is a stereo effect. Voices and primary sounds will be assigned a "position in space". For example, Zach may be positioned 38 per cent left of center while Mother Radio is located 63 per cent right of center. This is sometimes referred to as ping-ponging but the payoff is that Zach is to your left and closer to center while MR is stage right but somewhat farther away. In some cases, environmental backtracks and ambiances may have actually been recorded in full stereo which further enhances the "two track as stereo" effect.

In the end, it's a labor of love. It's just a part of my amateur radio hobby that keeps me out of trouble.

The Weather Station on Mount Washington!

This week's Random Access File is an encore Performance, a repeat. You know the bit: if you haven't heard it before than it's new to you! Anyway, the subject is the Weather Station on Mount Washington. Our host this week is Central New York's favorite son, Chris - KB2FAF. Joining Chris in this heavily wind scored and excessively thunder clapped episode is Mother Radio and Mr. Munroe in a wrap around downtown bar scene. By the way, some of the thunder was recorded over seventy five years ago on 35 millimeter optical film. AND! Some of the thunder was recorded over a year ago on my remarkably inexpensive forty-nine dollar Radio Shack analog cassette tape recorder! The audio quality is about the same.

My number one and only son Zachary and Marilyn get together to discuss the weather in the Random Access promo. Likewise, Zach and his bitty buddy Bix investigate alien pods in our QSL offer.

"The weather Station on Mount Washington" can be heard over This Week in Amateur Radio - Edition #790 and This Week in Amateur Radio International - Edition #175.

Easy Listening Radio: Radio That is Easy to Listen To!

In this week's edition of the Random Access Thought for the week ending May 24th, the subject is Easy Listening Radio or perhaps more to the point: Radio that is easy to listen to. This admittedly off-Broadway performance attempts a linkage (albeit quite tenuous) between listening to broadcast AM and FM radios, shortwave receivers, and police scanners and yet being able to rest comfortably and even doze off at the same time.

This week's Random Access Thought was recorded in various rooms deep within the N2FNH Hacienda using my remarkably inexpensive forty-nine dollar Radio Shack analog cassette tape recorder. The associated Random Access Promo features Cigman Krasnov, his sister Marilyn and my Number One and Only Son Zachary.

"Easy Listening Radio: Radio that is easy to listen to" can be heard on This Week in Amateur Radio - Edition #789 and This Week in Amateur Radio International - Edition #174.

Who ARE those people? Part 1 - A boy and his dog.

If you are more than an occasional listener to This Week in Amateur Radio, then you may also be familiar with the "Random Access Thought" (or "File", depends on my mood at the moment). As the title suggests, the content is selected in random fashion from a broad range of topics related to amateur radio or to other things of a electromagnetic nature, no matter how eclectic, no matter how obscure.

And, if you are more than an occasional listener to This Week in Amateur Radio, then you may also be familiar with some of the voice characters who perform in the Random Access Thought main feature and its attendant Random Access Promos and QSL Card Offers.

My number one and only son Zachary began voicing his own character at the age of ten when This Week in Amateur Radio International first started broadcasting over WBCQ - The Planet at 7415 KHz. Over the years, a virtual neighborhood of virtual people was developed for Zach to play against.

For most of 2005, Zachary's dog made numerous appearances in Random Access Promos (in real life, we have a 15 year old feline, Suzie, who I sometimes refer to as "my one foot wife"). We never really knew what the dog's name was, but he was big. Remarkably, his bark sounded just like the Japanese quasi-superhero Godzilla.

As of this writing, Zach is now thirteen, his voice is changing and when encore performances of the Random Access Thought are re-aired, on occasion you can hear distinct differences in voice pitch.

Zach very much enjoys doing the voice work. There are two official mottoes...no, mantras...which I will always announce prior to recording. The first: "Be enthusiastic but not goofy!". The second: "Watch the blue screen, and not the green screen!". The blue screen displays the character script while the green screen shows the voice audio being recorded.

In Zachary's world of video games, PSPs, DS Lites, iPODs, computers and the Internet, appearing on a 50,000 watt shortwave station (not to mention billions of ham repeaters worldwide) may not seem like such a big deal. While engaging Mario, Sonic or Link in vicious virtual video vengeance, Zach will pause to listen to his on-air performance and when it's over, shrug his shoulders and get back in the game.

WHEN I WAS A KID! Being on the radio (such a dead medium for Zach) would have been the thrill of a lifetime.

More Later.