Newsletter  Volume 24  Issue 9

e-mail edition

 

 

AHARC Officers 2001-2002

                       President...............Al Myers, KW2J

                       Vice President......Basil McCuthcheon, K3QBU

                       Treasurer...............Don Weiman, K2UOB

                       Secretary/Editor....Dave Grice, N2WDS

                       Program Chair......Mike Zias, NG2O

 

 

 

!! Important Message !!

Next meeting will be held on January 8th

at 7:30 pm at the Allegany County Courthouse.

Directions may be found on our website:

www.aharc.org

 

 

 

 

President's Message

 

 

= No report this month =

 

 

 Local Repeaters & Nets

 

Repeaters

Ulysses - K3QBU 145.430-               Alfred - K2BVD 146.955-

Wellsville - KA2AJH 147.210+        Coudersport - N3PC 146.685-

Bath - N2HLT 146.805-                     Arkport - KC2FWS 147.045+

 

Nets

 

New York Phone 3.925MHz @ 1 pm   NYPON 3.925MHz @ 5 pm

WPA Phone 3.983 MHz @ 6 pm          PA Phone Net 3.958 MHz @ 5:30pm   

Western District Net 146.460- daily @ 6:30 & 9:30 pm; relay via 145.310-

160 mtr ragchew net nightly on 1.923 MHz @ 8 pm (NY, PA, WV OH & Ont)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editor's Notebook

 

I trust everyone had a very enjoyable holiday.  Did anyone get a new "toy"? 

 

Well I am back to using the "old" format I have used in the past.  To be honest, I preferred the style used last month…it gives our organization a more professional looking newsletter, however, due to web space limitations, it's much easier for Don, K2UOB, to place this style newsletter on our webpage, so if you'd like to review past issues of the AHARC Newsletter, just go to the website.

 

A reminder, let Mike, NG2O, know if there are any programs you would like to suggest, or maybe put on!  Mike, KC2GMH, has suggested that a demo/project of PSK31 would be a great subject for a future program.  Any other ideas?  Pass’em on to NG2O mikezias@aol.com

 

Kid’s day is coming up on January 5th, why not participate and encourage a youngster in being a future ham?  Details are in this newsletter.

 

One more little reminder…if you changed your email address please let Don, K2uob know at – k2uob@arrl.net

 

Ok…that’s all I have for this month…anything subjects you would like to write about, send it to me at – n2wds@arrl.net

 

73, Dave N2WDS

 

Special Events

Special event station K1D will prime Kid's Day pump: Special event station K1D, operated by Peter and Jeanne Schipelliti, W1DAD and K1MOM, in New Hampshire, will be on the air starting Saturday, December 22, 2001, andcontinuing for the next two weeks to encourage participation in Kid's Day http://www.arrl.org/FandES/ead/kd-rules.html>. The next Kid's Day is January 5, 2002, 1800-2400 UTC. Look for K1D on or around 3895, 14,270, 21,370 and 28,370 kHz. QSL to 7 Dearborn Ridge Rd, Atkinson, NH 03811. A free (via e-mail) K1MOM Amateur Radio Coloring Book for children—including operating aids for Kid's Day, log sheet, WAS map to color in and phonetic alphabet--is available from Jeanne Schipelliti, k1mom@arrl.net.

                                                                                                  (Courtesy of ARRL Newsletter, Dec. 21, 2001) 

                                      

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next article, written by Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF, deals with the events on September 11, 2001 and the subject of real heros.  This brought back great memories for me, and hope it does the same with you.  (editor)

From the November 2001 "VHF-FM and Repeater Column - Worldradio Magazine"

Some Year End Thoughts on Heroes

As this will be the last column of the year 2001, I want to reflect back for a moment. Not just at the past twelve months. Rather to the 59 years that I have lived and that many of you have shared with me.

As you know, it was on September 11th that our nation was attacked by what I believe to be a bunch of cowardly and very demented Middle Eastern zealots. A group of hate filled fanatics who apparently have decided that this world will not exist unless it exists in their vision. They are psychotics who are willing to kill, injure and name in the name of some warped and very belief that by destroying those who do not believe as they do will assure them a spot in whatever ‘heaven' they may believe in.

What these cowards never expected was that out of the ashes of New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington DC would rise a group of heroes. Not the politicians in the White House and Congress with their "lets get even" rhetoric. Not the military commanders that are almost assuredly planning the total annihilation of whatever terrorist faction performed these dastardly deeds. The heroes I am talking about are the NYC Police Officers and Firemen who lost their lives in the line of duty while doing all they could to save the innocent victims of this heinous attack on America. I'm also talking about the heroes who are clearing the rubble by hand as this is written the evening of September 15th 2001 -- only 6 days after that attack. Working against time in the hope that someone may still be alive amid the ruins.

There are some who say you do not find American heroes anymore. Not necessarily ‘ham radio hero's." Just the people we have looked up to and admired over the years we have been a part of this mortal coil. Well before the attacks on New York City and Washington DC this subject was brought to mind for me by a posting to one of the "hometown Internet bulletin boards" that many of us inhabit. In this case it was a board known as "da Brooklyn Stoop" wherein the following was posted by a longtime ham radio friend named Mort Cohen, WA2ARS:

"Sixty years ago this summer (summer of 41) Millions of Americans were caught up in Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak.

Paul Simon captured the nostalgia for DiMaggio in the lyric: "Where have you gone Joe DiMaggio? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you"

The question remains: Why are there no heroes today with DiMaggios grandeur? Why are there no more DiMaggios?"

As I read Mort's posting, the first heroes that came to mind was a pair of TV reporters named Aaron Fitzgerald and Larry Welk (the grandson of bandleader Lawrence Welk). They were up in a helicopter over the Los Angeles Palladium along with a number of other media choppers when the one operated by KTTV Fox 11 developed a problem. It headed back to Van Nuys Airport. Welk and Fitzgerald broke off their news coverage and followed the Channel 11 chopper. When the latter crash-landed just inside the airport, it was Fitzgerald who risked his own life to pull the Channel 11 cameraman and pilot to safety. In my book, these guys are heroes of the very best kind.

But my thoughts did not stop there. I began to think about all of those whom I have/had admired in my 59 years. There were many – ranging from the super-heroes in comic books. There were my early television heroes like Captain Video. And, sadly, as I grew older there was the loss of a number of friends who gave their lives for our nation in the Viet Nam War. Then I thought of my friends Larry Levy WA2INM and John Peterson the former WA2FMF who -- as teenagers -- volunteered to provide communications after two planes collided over New York City with one crashing into Brooklyn. They risked their lives for their community -- and they were really only kids themselves. Heroes all in my eyes.

It took a few days to come up with a response. Mine was one of the last posted. As 2001 comes to a close, please permit me to share it with you. I think it is very apropos:

"'Whats that you say Mrs. Robinson; Jolt'in Joe has left and gone away....'

Yes he has gone away. So have many others we idolized as youth. So has John 'The Duke" Wayne. And Tom Mix. And Gene Autry. And Roy Rodgers. And Captain Video (Al Hodge). And oh so many others that we as youngsters of the 1950's came to idolize.

If I can borrow a phrase from the opening of the Superman radio and t-v show -- all of these people and so many more stood for "truth, justice and the American way."

And how many young -- red blooded boys of the 1950's fell in love with a dark haired angel named "Annette" that they saw dance across their TV screen on the original Mickey Mouse Club? And I am sure there was a male counterpart that all the "girls of the '50's" loved on that show as well. But we came to revere kids like Annette Funicello not only because they were talented and had "made it onto the small screen." We idolized them because the paradigm we grew up under told us we could do the same -- even if we could not sing a note and had two left feet.

As a result, we tried very hard. Some made their version of the limelight. Most of us did not. No matter, we at least tried -- guided at least in part by the like of "Joltin Joe" and -- yes -- "The Mouseketeers."

So what is it we all are really looking for? Maybe these lines from the song "And That's How I Remember Yesterday" explain it:

"We looked up to cops and down on crooks. We fished with last years fishing hooks. I never feared the darkness when I woke up in the night. Because the rumble of a subway train would put me back to sleep again. And that's how I remember yesterday. A little was a lot to us and people seemed to have more trust. And that's how I remember yesterday."

Maybe what we really want is to once again be able to trust in others today as we did when we were kids growing up in a galaxy not so far away? Because the people we could trust were the biggest and most important heroes of all back then. And I will add that the people who are now taking us to war to protect America will be even greater heroes than any we have known in the past.

To a better 2002 de Bill Pasternak WA6ITF

P.S.: I am still not sure I "know" who a hero is, but I "feel" I know a hero when I see one. And it is feelings that really count.

Bill Pasternak, WA6ITF Writer - Producer The Amateur Radio Newsline, Inc.

                                                                  (Courtesy of WorldRadio, November 2001 issue)