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Post by kit on Sept 30, 2008 8:32:21 GMT -5
Hi Ralph,
What's that? You don't have your ticket? Come on, man... there's no excuse! Download the question pool for Technician and get to studying. And with no Morse Code requirement any more, it's really cheap and easy. There are a few repeaters in the Utica area in both the 146.XXX, the 220.XXX and the 444.XXX MHz range and they're busy most of the time. And they're free. Hoo Wah! The best part is using the radios in conjunction with a group of guys (and a few pretty young ladies as well) to help other people. The Boilermaker is one of the biggies in this area but there are several other runs, walks and other activities as well where we're needed. So get with it and get your ticket. If you need it I'll give you the link where you can downlad the question pool. 300 possibiities (and all the answers are already given to you), but the actual exam is only 30 multiple choice questions. Ham radio is fun and very useful when needed. Just ask Dave.
Kit
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Post by stoney on Sept 30, 2008 11:37:35 GMT -5
Welcome, Kit!! I know who you are from 11 meters which I listen to often. I haven't heard you on there too much lately, though. I hope everything's OK with you....
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Post by dgriffin on Sept 30, 2008 19:03:05 GMT -5
Radio is my life's hobby and I've been at it for 50 years now, having first obtained my ticket in 1961, and before that operating an illegal Cornhill AM station! I knew nothing about antenna theory, but strung bell wire all over my backyard on Brinckerhoff Ave, figuring the more the merrier. My signal was weak, so I wanted to be on a frequency that I was sure was a clear channel. If any of you remember CONELRAD in the Fifties, it was the national emergency frequency and of course it was always empty, except for national tests. Those little CONELRAD triangles were on all the radio dials at 640 and 1240. So I broadcast on 640 (thank you very much, Uncle Sam), but the posters I printed and tacked up on telephone poles said I was on 650. "Live at 65!" One Sunday afternoon in 1959, I loaded a stack of 45's on the record player and hooked it up to the small transmitter (KnightKit). K4LV (Rich, then K2CEU) and I drove all over Utica in his mother's Ford and heard the music from Proctor Park to King Cole Ice Cream to Addison Miller Pool to the Stanley Theater. I was famous! If you thought to look for me on your radio dial. I'm lucky to be still at large. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONELRAD
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Post by stoney on Oct 1, 2008 9:17:42 GMT -5
Hey Ralph. Speaking of the CB, do you remember Southern Comfort?
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Post by kit on Oct 1, 2008 14:00:52 GMT -5
Instead of doing the Conelrad no-no thing you should have done what I did that year... got a job in Remsen working at the WREM radio station (1480 kc). Got quite an exposure substituting for 3 different DJs doing Counrty & Western (Kenny Youngs), Top 40 (Nick Nolan), and even Polish American tunes (Ed Sluzarcsyk). Collected and wrote my own news, did some of the commercials off the top of my head, even wrote my own sign-off (it was a daytime only station). But I didn't do the live broadcasts. Too busy with the other stuff.
But I remember east Utica. Not long after WREM I joined a professional photographers group and was good friends with Lou Gigliotti who had his studio near you. I've been doing photography for 47 years now (and I'm SICK of it). Gave up CBing (I was KDL8590 then) in the early 70s and got my current ham radio ticket (KC2GQR) in 2000. Much more rewarding helping others. Any hams out there who would like a job, let me know.
I still can't figure out how the hell to get a picture of myself into my profile. I use a Mac. Maybe that's it.
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Post by kit on Oct 1, 2008 14:03:46 GMT -5
Hey Stoney,
I remember your saying a little differently. "Don't sweat the petty things, or pet the sweaty things!"
Kit
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Post by dgriffin on Oct 1, 2008 16:22:14 GMT -5
Remsen! I think I remember that station!
You're giving up photography just as film is going out? A friend in the business who did my daughter's wedding was telling me a few weeks ago that he has a refrigerator to give away that he used to store film. He loves the new digital age, he told me, but he's trying to learn Photoshop and it is challenging him.
Some of these small radio stations were no more than shacks ... both studio and transmitting site (often the same room!) I remember one in Syracuse at 1470 or 80.
I love to see photos of ramshackle radio stations. Most are far to the south of us. I use a small loop to DX AM on winter nights. Amazing what you can hear. LF, too, when I can get my wife to turn off the dimmers in the house. I get a lot of Canadian NDBs, but the mountains are a challenge here. They're directly west of me and begin to climb steeply only about 3 miles away. AM is fine to the west and I often listen to Detroit's WJR, but LF to the west is a problem.
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Post by dgriffin on Oct 1, 2008 16:36:06 GMT -5
Kit, if you mean a photo as an avatar, you need to have it hosted. Photobucket will do, or I can host it for you on my site. Then just type in the url here on your "modify" screen:
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Post by stoney on Oct 1, 2008 16:48:10 GMT -5
Whoa, that's a good one, Kit!! I try not to pet sweaty things either. But sometimes one will slip in....
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Post by kim on Oct 1, 2008 19:34:28 GMT -5
I got it posted for ya, Kit! :-)
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Post by kim on Oct 1, 2008 20:46:19 GMT -5
Well, it was there, where'd it go?
Sigh.
Kit, I'll work on it tomorrow, I'm going to bed now! I don't know why it vanished!
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Post by kit on Oct 1, 2008 22:02:44 GMT -5
Kim,
I looked for the photo too, but maybe it was one of those sweaty things and someone petted it away.
Maybe you and Dave could figure it out. His reply really blew me away and I got completely lost. He mentioned a URL and I don't have one. I think mine fell off a few days ago and I never stopped to pick it up. So maybe people will just have to wonder what the hell I look like, and you're the only one who really knows for sure.
Kit
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Post by Ralph on Oct 2, 2008 0:27:07 GMT -5
Gee Stoney, that name sounds very familiar but I just can't place it.
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Post by kim on Oct 2, 2008 7:07:24 GMT -5
Oh yeah...I thought I ran over a URL the other day while driving down the road. I didn't think it was yours, though, as you're 700 miles away, but it was awfully windy...maybe it blew down!
Hehe.
I put your picture up on my blog and used the blogger photo software to host it, so it should have worked. I'm not sure why it didn't. I'll try again. If it doesn't work I'm gonna send it to Ralph! If Ralph can't get it to work, nobody can!
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Post by kim on Oct 2, 2008 7:22:42 GMT -5
There! I did it! I hope it stays this time!
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