AmateurRadio.com

The following evening, the meeting of the Twin Counties Amateur Radio Club promptly started on time. Chuck Phillips WB2MSV, the TCARC President, called the meeting to order,  The club members were antsy and eager to get the business portion of the meeting done with, so that the festivities could begin.

“OK, before we adjourn and go to the party matters at hand, is there any new business to discuss?” Chuck asked.

George Mason raised his hand, and immediately you could hear a few groans.  “What is it now, George?” Julius WV2O yelled from the back of the crowded room.

“You just hold your horses, Jules” Chuck admonished. “George has the floor.  We’ll get to the pizza soon enough. They’re not even here yet, anyways!”  Everybody had a good laugh at that one.

George got up before the assembly, and with Davy and Jimmy’s help, explained what had happened over at the soup kitchen.

Someone from the back spoke up,”Well George, Davy, Jimmy, that sure is a stroke of tough luck,  I feel bad and all, but what can we do about it?”

That’s when George spelled out his plan.  “Look guys, I know it’s close to Christmas, and that a lot of you are tapped out.  But these folks have it a lot worse than we do. We all have warm houses, plenty of food and warm clothes on our backs. We all have shacks filled with radio gear, some of it pretty darned expensive! Most of the folks who go to this soup kitchen have very little or next to nothing.  We’re fortunate enough to have family and friends to rely on.  These folks have no one.

C’mon fellas – we’re supposed to be known for serving the public, right?  A hurricane, a blizzard, a search and rescue or some other crisis comes up and we’re all there with our radios, waiting and ready to help out. This is really no different, when you think about it.  This is a man made disaster instead of a natural one, that’s all.  You guys have come through in the clutch so many times before, that I can’t even count them all. I can’t believe that you’d just let this one pass us by”.

The room went silent.  Then Norm KB2SBB chimed in from the right side of the room, “I’ve had my share of tough times.  When I lost my job after we were first married, Martha and I really struggled. It looked pretty bleak for a long time, so I know what these people are going through. I move that we donate $200 from the Club Treasury AND donate tonight’s proceeds from the 50/50 to the soup kitchen. Anybody want to second that?”

George K2FD stuck his hand up. “I’ll second that in a heartbeat.  And on top of that, here’s 25 bucks of my own”.  He handed N2EBA the cash.  Then he said, “C’mon guys, there weren’t all that many kids on the list that George and Davy and Jimmy mentioned.  I think there were like twenty or so?  How about if we each get one of those kids a gift and bring them to that Christmas Eve party?” By the time the Club Christmas party refreshments had arrived, all the children’s gift purchases were accounted for. In addition, someone actually passed a hat around and about $500 had been donated if you included the official club donations. Davy gave all the members of the Club the details about the Soup Kitchen Christmas Eve party. All the guys insisted on being there and agreed to assemble at the appointed time.  As they were leaving, Chuck pulled George over on the side and  the two were discussing something in a low voice. George’s eyes lit up and a smile about a mile wide appeared on his face.

Later that night, when George Mason dropped Jimmy off at home, they both excitedly told Jason what had happened.  Jason couldn’t believe his ears. He immediately called Donna Pescarelli, and without giving too many details, told her not to worry, that all was being taken care of.

“Jason are you sure about all of this?” Donna asked, just a bit skeptically.  She wasn’t exactly filled with her usual Christmas spirit ever since the burglary.

“Donna, if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the past year, it’s not to doubt Davy, Jimmy, George or any of their Amateur Radio buddies. Look Donna, you were Abby’s best friend. You always trusted her. You can trust me and Davy, too. Oh, and by the way, tell all your regular volunteers to take Christmas Eve off, and spend it with their families. They deserve it. Davy’s Amateur Radio Club promised to cover the whole shebang.”

Donna was incredulous. “I don’t know what to say!”

Jason answered, “Then don’t say anything, just be at the kitchen early on Christmas Eve. We’ll all meet you there.”

To be concluded tomorrow …….

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

An action-packed episode awaits your eager ears. In Episode #119 of Linux in the Ham Shack, your intrepid hosts discuss the new Cinnamon desktop, Amazon's desire to make deliveries by unmanned drones, WEFAX and slow-scan television. On top of that, there is information on the best light weight desktop environments for your computer, and the announcement of a new contest where you can win a Raspberry Pi. Check out the Contest page for more details. Thanks as always for being a loyal listener, and have a very merry holiday season!

73 de The LHS Guys

Russ Woodman, K5TUX, co-hosts the Linux in the Ham Shack podcast which is available for download in both MP3 and OGG audio format. Contact him at [email protected].

And so they went, down the line of children.  After they were done, everyone left, but not before Donna had made sure that all the people who were there knew when to return on Christmas Eve for dinner.  There would be not only food, but also a huge Christmas tree complete with presents for all the kids.  Then the crew of volunteers tore everything down and cleaned everything up.  They all bid each other a good night and all agreed that they would be back for the big Christmas Eve party.

The next few weeks went by and they were busy ones.  Christmas shopping, decorating, school and work kept everyone at that all too familiar, hectic December pace.  Time seemed to evaporate. It was the week before Christmas, on a Monday evening when Jason Bolton received a frantic phone call from Donna Pescarelli.

“Donna… calm down!”, Jason said. “What’s the matter?  You’re so frantic that I can’t make out what you’re trying to say”.

“Oh Jason, I don’t know what to do!” Donna was half talking, half sobbing.  “I’m at the soup kitchen right now.  I bought a big tree for the Christmas Eve party, and was going to decorate it. When I got here, I found that someone has broken into the place. All the toys we had bought for those children…gone!  All the gifts for the parents… gone!  What am I going to do?”

“Did you call the police?” Jason asked her.

“No, not yet.” Donna told him.

“I’ll be right there. Get back to your car immediately and lock yourself in. Whoever broke in might still be close by.  I’ll call the police. Don’t get out of your car until I get there or the police do”.

Jason yelled for Davy to come downstairs. “Geez, what happened Dad? You sound pretty upset. Not anything I did, I hope?” Davy asked.  Jason quickly explained to his son what happened. he told him that he was headed over to the soup kitchen to meet Mrs. Pescarelli and that he would be back later. Davy was shocked, “Aww man! Who would do something so nasty, so close to Christmas?”

Jason answered, “I don’t know son, somebody desperate, I guess. But this really puts us in a bind. All those gifts were bought with money donated by our Church.  I don’t think there’s enough left to buy replacements. Anyway, I’ll be back in a while. I have my keys and I’ll let myself in. Go to bed your normal time, tomorrow is a school day. I don’t want to come home and find you still up, trying to work some Ham somewhere on the other side of the world!”.

“I won’t Dad, I promise.  Give my best to Mrs Pescarelli”.

By the time Jason got there, the police had arrived.  Unfortunately, the burglar had plied his trade all too well. He got in and out quickly, and without leaving a clue.  Even though it was a forced entry, the police were able to tell that whoever it was knew exactly what he was doing.

“Probably someone looking for money for drugs, Ma’am.” the police officer had told Donna. “Unfortunately, there’s too much of that kind of thing going on around the neighborhood here.  Even with all the patrolling we do, it’s hard to stop it all.  There are some “usual suspects” that we can question, but I’m afraid your stuff has probably already been fenced for drug money by now”.

After the police left, Donna sat there in disbelief. “Jason, what am I going to do now? Those kids were counting on me. I don’t want to add another disappointment to their lives.”

Jason was a shocked as Donna was. “I don’t know Donna.  I’ll start looking around to see if we can get some local businesses to donate replacements.  It’s going to be tough, though. Time is tight and so are people’s budgets.  But you know what?  Say a prayer and trust in God.  Something good will come out of this…yet”.

Jason got home earlier than expected.  Davy was still up, and they talked the situation over in the kitchen over some mugs of hot cocoa.  “I don’t know what we’re going to do, Davy.  Christmas is next week and time is running out.  I seriously doubt the church is going to have enough left over to replace what we lost.”

The two sat there, trying to work the problem out,  Then suddenly, Davy got an inspiration.  “Dad,  I think I might have the answer. The Twin Counties Amateur Radio Club is meeting tomorrow night. After dinner, I’m going to the meeting with Mr. Mason. Let’s see if him and I can’t get a bunch of the guys to do something about this.”

“I don’t know Davy …..” Jason began to say.

“Dad, it’s the annual club Christmas party tomorrow night.  This is a great bunch of Hams, even if they are all older than me and Jimmy.  A lot of the guys like to come off as grumpy old men, but you know what? Underneath their gruff exteriors, they’re the best! And besides, Christmas is the time for miracles, right?  I’ve got to call Mr. Mason, right now before I go to bed and let him know what’s happened.”

Davy called George and let him know what had happened down at the soup kitchen.  At first, George was as shocked as Donna, Davy and Jason.  But then, some of that ol’ Ham “can do” spirit surfaced and George ended the call by telling Davy not to worry about a thing.

To be continued …….

72 de Larry W2LJ
QRP – When you care to send the very least!

Larry Makoski, W2LJ, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New Jersey, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Hi all!

I’m working on a major update for the kit guide.  I’m finally alphabetizing the list, and including a directory of sources.  I should have the new guide up by this weekend.

I have added a bunch of new vendors. 14 so far and counting.  If you can think of any more, let me know at: W2NDG(at)RadioKitGuide(dot)com

The next big change will be getting the guide into a separate hosted site, and adding a files section, and a forum.

Big things are coming.

Click “Read The Rest of This Post” to read the current list of vendors.

(note: new vendors in the list (*) have not been added to the site as of yet)

73 de Neil W2NDG

Read the rest of this post

Neil Goldstein, W2NDG, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from New York, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

I’ve been listening to PJ7/ G3TXF on Sint Maarten Island for several days now and hoping for the opportunity to add another new DX entity to the log book. I made this contact easily last night with a single attempt on the 30 meter band.

Sint Maarten is another one of those small islands in the Caribbean area and a tourist destination within a few short hours flight time from the United States. Princess Juliana International Airport is an unusual landing spot because it’s very short runway for these big planes. They need every foot of pavement possible to avoid an embarrassing “dip in the pool”.  

Not for the faint of heart, standing on the beach here is a unique opportunity to experience a new form of wind surfing. Watching giant aircraft landing overhead is spectacular enough, but the “take offs” are quite another thing. Wind surfing takes on an entirely new form, from the rear of one of these planes, when they take off for the home flight.

My DXCC list is getting really short now. Despite my enjoyment of a long CW QSO the last few months.

John Smithson, Jr., N8ZYA, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from West Virginia, USA. Contact him at [email protected].

Today 10 meter is in a good shape. I worked a new DXCC this morning 5R8IC from Madagascar with CW.

Paul Stam, PC4T, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from the Netherlands. Contact him at [email protected].