[Tig] Ham operators? A Turkey on Wry

[Robert Lovejoy]

>In film school we had amateur illegal TV stations...

     Proof I'm too old - we had quasi-illegal radio stations going in 
college.  Never mind the carrier current, I picked up an Allied Radio 
Knight-Kit  part 15 AM transmitter.   Gorgeous little transmitter with a 
12AX7, 50C5 and a 35W4.  One tenth of a watt, but we got creative with the 
antenna and at least covered the dorm.
     I had a case of Radio Bug, not just Hams but all types of radio.  I did 
a ton of AM DXing back when Radio was still a vital medium.  Heavy doses of 
R&B from John R out of Nashville, and the top 20 out of WABC-AM in New York. 
We were living in the Virgin Islands at the time (if anyone has ever been 
there, I used to work at the TV station atop the mountain in St. Thomas - 
when it started up.  But I digress...) and local radio was full of Calypso 
and droll background music.  At midnight the Puerto Rican stations shut down 
and the US East Coast rolled in.  But nowadays it all sounds the same, alas, 
as corporate vision dulled the life out of the medium.   Shortwave has been 
supplanted with Internet radio.  I do enjoy XM.
     But Hams have a special place in radio.  I was fortunate to know a few 
over the years.  I could have passed the written but never got motivated to 
learn morse code.
     We had a share of hurricanes in St. Thomas, and every Ham on the island 
would stay on as long as the power held out and pass information both 
locally and to the continent.  Great people.
     Happy DXing!