Matt BlazeEvery time I post photos of these old sites, I get yelled and nerdsplained at by ham radio people who believe it is their personal duty to defend the honor of the shortwave radio spectrum and who cannot abide the suggestion that it is in any way obsolete for some purposes.
AI6YR Ben@mattblaze Shortwave is important! One must have a WAY TO POUND YOUR ENEMY'S RADIO STATION WITH KILOWATTS OF PEKING OPERA!!! #firedrake https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqnVTElvCT0
BC-312-N and Chinese Firedrake AM Jaming Station et al
@ai6yr The problem with kids today is that they don't learn morse code.
Ángela Stella MatutinaIt wouldn't hurt them, though.
(No, I'm not looking to start an argument. I'm not that kind of asshole.)
@angelastella @mattblaze LOL I know Morse Code... I think of it as a badge of honor. Didn't need it for my ticket. It can be useful.... But, I *did* once get an email when I was first learning where a ham mailed me a whole message about how I needed to go back to school because my Morse Code was too slow and it was atrocious, and how I never would have been accepted into the Signal Corps because I was too slow for WW2... I emailed back "well, I just started learning this and getting on the air this month" LOL, and then he apologized.
@ai6yr @angelastella I'm reminded of Jean Shepard's story of being sent to slow code school in the army... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRGyCKwY9po
Jean Shepherd: The Code School Story
Mister Wanko@mattblaze shep knew how to goldbrick with the best of them
Susan Calvin@mattblaze @angelastella HAHAHAHA that was well worth the 22 minutes and 40 seconds!!!! HILARIOUS
@ai6yr @angelastella It's one of my favorites of his radio work. Glad it was preserved!
Coles Street Pothole
ftgYeah, I got one or two "send with the other foot" types. Gotta ignore them. Also, WTF did they email you? Too painful to hear your "atrocious" key while they discipline you? Jesus wept.
Erich M.@ai6yr @angelastella @mattblaze
LOL. A 90 year old army contractor radio engineer told me a few years ago how the proceedings were during the early stages of the cold war in mid Europe. Whenever a new class of communications corps recruits in .AT had morse trainings contacting other classes of recruits, Czech operators would turn up on the duplex QRG in cleartext. Asking them if they were new on HF & if they'd need advice how to handle the encryption machines. =;)
David, a Bostonian in Tokyo.A few kids do, though.
A Japanese friend (AI prof in his last full-time gig) in his "retirement gig", taught EE at a second-tier Japanese Uni. He and his kiddies did a project in which they built (and had flown!) a cubesat which flashed LEDs in Morse code. It actually worked and could be seen from the ground with binoculars.
So, presumably, he insisted that at least some of his kiddies learned Morse code.
https://www.space.com/19564-japanese-satellite-morse-code-stargazing.html