When I tell people that I am a ham radio operator, people often ask, “Who do you talk to”? When one of my friends, Ovide, K8EV, was asked this question, he answered:
You asked whom I might talk to on ham radio…
See Who Do You Think is A Ham Radio Operator? Notable Ham Radio Operators Around the World. I was not included in this list–must be an oversight.
I haven’t talked to anyone on the list but I have had interesting conversations with navy captains, civil emergency radio installers, radar operators, and airline pilots as well as the more usual run of engineers, scientists, computer specialists, farmers and ranchers, long-distance commuters, and lot’s of retired rag-chewers, asocial curmudgeons, codger-ranters (I consider myself a proud member of this last category!).
A more zany listing is available on the N1MAA website. Note article in left column on Princeton’s Nobelist Joe Taylor of pulsar fame bouncing amateur radio signals off the moon. The feat of sending radio waves into space and back was first accomplished by Cindy’s (Ovide’s XYL’s) dad (also a ham radio operator) in 1946 using the most powerful radar transmitter built at the time.
BTW: the most recent Nobel Prize to a ham was just awarded to George Smith at Bell Labs for the CCD (charge capture device in our cell phones, cameras, Hubble telescope, etc.)
Unfortunately, the Notable list is rather out of date. There are lots of SKs on the list, including many that aren’t noted as being SKs. Sorry to say but JY1, K7UGA, FO5GJ, and KB2GSD are all now no longer with us.
Leave a Reply