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My Radio Station -KB2KFB
North Miami Beach, Florida 2-15-2000 Aaron H. Schectman
THINKING ALLOWED
Essays on issues, ideas and reflections on the times. Published now and
then. Opinions pro or con are welcome.
MY RADIO STATION-KB2KFB
Not so as you'd know it I am a radio station owner/operator. I have just
completed acquiring a new transmitter and can operate in Florida as well as
in New Jersey. I now feel comfortable in the company of Microsoft, ATT&T
and the banks and industries that are coalescing into big conglomerates
transcending even national and international lines. Boy does this sound
good - good and hokey, I mean to tell you.
I posses a radio operator's license as a Technician which, I understand,
will be upgraded to General next April without my doing anything. This will
mean I will not have to learn Morse Code at the speed of 13 words per
minute. I seem to be able to learn the technical part of the test although,
for the life of me, I recall very little of the meaning of the stuff I had
to learn to pass the tests. Still, I have a license and what I want from it
is the ability to call distant stations and converse with other old codgers
who find it difficult to move about and actually go to those places from
where the sound originates.
My new transmitter is a tiny thing. It is smaller than our cell phones and
is a dual band A.M., F.M. and Ham radio combined. If I had smaller fingers
I guess I could operate the tiny buttons better, but I'll be satisfied if I
can connect with someone. In Ham Radio (this is the name Amateur Radio goes
by), the ideal is to contact as many other Hams as you can and exchange
cards attesting to each incident. Your radio "SHACK", your main station
location, should have its walls plastered with far off contacts shown by
colorful customized cards.
I feel the same way about this radio as I do about the FAX software I have
just installed on the computer whose keyboard I am using to type this
THINKING ALLOWED. I successfully installed the software and have sent off
the registration card. What I cannot do is to keep the Fax logos and
different pages from automatically appearing on my start up screen. When I
successfully send a fax, like making a voice contact with another Ham, I
will have arrived in "tech" heaven.
Carol's Evaluation: 10 out of 10.
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