Good for you Bob, I'm glad your getting around more and have such good
friends to visit with. I've never tried Ham Radio, but recently looked
into the study material resources online. Lot's, and nice books too!
Oh well I live so deep in a hollow with limestone behing me I doubt
I'd ever be able to do much without a lot of know how and building,
think I might settle for a reciever instead.

Joe

On Nov 10, 2:21*pm, " wrote:
To All:

Try this address:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW7NpsHR3K0

A *friend dropped by, insisted on escorting *me on my Daily Trek. *I
swear to God, if *it weren't for these guys I'd probably just roll
over and go back to sleep. *But everyone sez I gotta walk so I haul my
sorry ass out of the Bunker I've created in one corner of the kitchen
and we go a'treking.

Not much of a trek. *Out the back door and a couple of circuits around
the patio.

We had a Political Cold Front move through over the weekend... lotsa
wind but nothing of real substance. *The wind brought some branches
down on the greenhouse so I extended the Trek, down past the African
succulents, through the tomato plant jungle. *As I was negotiating the
step up into the greenhouse my friend looks at the tomato vines and
plucks off three horn-worms. *Three of those suckers! *Plink, plank,
pluck. *And big ones, too.

I knew there were horn-worms eating up the tomato vine(s) but I
couldn't find *them. *And there's my friend; pluck, pluck, pluck...
just like that.

"How do you DO that?" I asked

"Do what?"

I'm about ready to hit him with a cane when he reaches past me and
plucks off a fourth worm. *Musta been four inches long!

"THAT," I yell at him, motioning with my cane.

"You mean... THAT?" and he does it again. *Smaller worm but going to
town on one *of the cherry tomato plants.

"Yeah," I tell him. *"That!"

He just laughs, picks off a couple more. *Baby-sized by now but they
don't stand a chance.and I swear, those suckers are damn near
invisible, they're so well camouflaged. *He's really enjoying
himself. *There outta be a law against a guy enjoying himself so much.

"Didn't you know I was color-blind?"

You coulda knocked me over with a feather. *I've known him better than
20 years, knew his taste in clothes ran a bit on the eccentric side.
Brass-Pounder. *Good, clean fist; no problem picking him out of a pile-
up. *Then I remembered him putting together a Heathkit, back when they
had Heathkits. *He'd built himself a niffty little Resistance
Checker. *Just slide the resistor down this vee-shaped slot and read
the value off a VOM. *Handy, if the color codes have been obscured
with varnish or what-not. *Checks *them, sticks them in a little
board, writes down the value.

The value of electrical components are color-coded: *Bad Boys Rape Our
Young Girls But Violet... You *are a sexist pig!

Well... Violet USED to give willingly but she got shot outta the
saddle about 1958, at least for Navy schools. *Usta go like this:

Bad = Black = *0 (ie, Zero)
Boys = Brown = 1
Rape = Red = 2
Our = Orange = 3
Young *= Yellow = 4
Girls = Green = *5
But = Blue = 6
Violet = Purple = 7
Gives = Grey = 8
Willingly = White = 9

I thought about it for a minute. *We've *got blind hams and deaf hams
and *mute hams and some ain't got no arms... you name it, you can
probably find a ham that's got it. *In fact, I guess I'm part of that
crowd now, what with having cancer and all. *So I just smiled and
said, "Well good for you then!" and he picks another horn-worm off the
little tomato plant by the big fern.

"They look different?" I asked him.

He nods, "Oh yeah. *Big difference." *I'm about to ask him what COLOR
they are then kick myself, 'cause he's got a completely different
spectrum to go by. *"See?" he sez, *pointing out a worm no more than
an inch long. *Even with him pointing it takes me a minute to spot the
damn thang. *"BIG difference," he insists as he gently lifts the worm
free and tosses it over by the fountain, where a bird pounces on it.

We finished my trek and he charged me a cuppa coffee and I let him
play with my radio, a Yaesu *FT-817 with an automatic tuner I built
outta a kit. *The whole thing *isn't much bigger than a large novel
but it'll tune DC to daylight and runs off a car battery, if
necessary. *I've had it for quite a while. *Had to save a whole year
before I could afford it. *He breaks into a round-table in Texas and
chats a bit, explaining he's never done so will on such low power.
The guys in 5-land give him some signal reports and he signs off. *And
out, heading out the door, threatening to come back. *And he's one of
those guys who keeps his word.

Monday, Monday...

Wife's off shopping and I go back to what I was doing, which is making
a 3-bay version of Chugger's wing-ribs, something light & airy;
something suitable for a Primary Glider.

--R.S.Hoover

PS -- There's several Groups specific to the FT-817. *One of them has
almost 10,000(!!) subscribers. *For comparison the Volkswagen Group
has less *than 1,000 subscribers and at least half of those are
dormant.
In fact, you can find a Group for just about ANYTHING... Ladies named
Lou with blue hair who drive a *Ford F-150 and drinks only white wine.

I once proposed a Usenet Group for lazy *people. *Trouble is,we
couldn't get anyone to sign on for it. *(yawn)
-rsh