All Quiet on the Married Front...

I just wanted to post a quick note to let folks know I haven't fallen off the face of the Earth after the stirring events of 08/08/08. My wife and I were the guests of honor at a party thrown by my Tai Chi instructor and one of my fellow students. Almost the whole student body turned out with their friends/husbands/wives/significant others. The crowd also included library people and friends of the party host's. It was a beautiful evening full of love and good vibes. My soul is still smiling over it!

My wife made a couple of requests for tomorrow's show. One afternoon we were sitting here in the home studio at Mid-Life Crisis Central and she just starting spinning the CD racks- we went back and forth just listening to different things. Another mind adding to this will be a good thing over time. That said, she is more of a video person than a music person (and she is not thrilled with the Elk Calling thing but she tolerates throat singing). I am not sure if she will come on the microphone with me some day but we will see...

I'm heading to an Amateur Radio gathering in Boxboro Massachusetts this weekend (Yes, the emphasized areas are hyperlinks, just click on the little buggers). Otherwise known as "ham radio", this hobby has kept me off the streets and out of trouble for quite some time. I have been putting signals out over the air since high school, and one of the pleasures of owning my own house has been the ability to hang antennas nice and high to facilitate communications in a number of different modes.

Why "ham radio" in a world of broadband, cell phones and all kinds of digital folderol? All of the aforementioned accoutrements depend on INFRASTRUCTURE to work. Said INFRASTRUCTURE usually takes a dive during major storms and other kinds of cataclysmic events. If you live in Tornado Alley, Hurricaneville, ForestFire Town or other such places, you have seen men and women shadowing public officials allowing them to communicate with each other when cell sites and other communications modes have collapsed. Click here for some more pertinent information.

The instruction one takes to get a Ham Radio license teaches you about things technical and natural. Yes, I am waiting for the latest sunspot cycle to kick in so I can be heard across continents while running about 100 watts of power. I got hooked as a kid by listening to shortwave radio- I ran a wire to the metal fire escape of the fifth-floor walk-up in the Bronx where I lived to use as an antenna. Radio South Africa came in as loud as the local broadcast stations.

When my folks moved to the 'burbs in 1966, I met a fellow whose father was a ham. He and I wound up taking instruction in another ham's house and we attained our first licenses back then. The interest continued until my high school graduation. At that point I found out about things like women, partying and other such things. Then came college and my first real job, marriage and divorce/ single parenthood. Being housebound night after night caused me to consider things past- and the radio technology was still there. I picked up a portable shortwave radio and started listening again. I met a counterpart in another microscope company who was a ham, and that was it. I got re-licensed in 1986 and have remained so ever since.

I have a license issued by the same Federal Communications Commission that handles (or mishandles- depending who you speak to) all types of communications entities. I have a call sign that was computer assigned based on my license class. I throw that piece of minutia out because when people see it (N2GOP) they presume it is some form of vanity call (not unlike a vanity license plate on your car). In a word, NO!!!! The "N" is the prefix (one of the prefixes assigned to the United States by international treaty), the "2" denotes it was issued in the second call area of the US that includes New York State and New Jersey, and the "GOP" was the next available group of three letters that completed the call sign. By comparison, Commercial broadcast station call signs begin with either a "W" (east of the Mississippi River) or a "K" (west of the Mississippi). This convention only applies to BROADCAST stations. Cable entities can call themselves whatever they want.

I have gone on much longer than I thought I would, but that is just how it is sometimes. It is time to feed the fish and get the garbage out (domesticity, gotta love it). Be well and keep on listening.

Peace be with you,
Glenn