I was puttering around the shack yesterday, putting some stuff away and throwing out stuff that I’ve either finished with or will probably never get back to. In doing so, I ran across this:
It’s hard to read, but the date of the 15 wpm endorsement is “JUN 28, 1972, almost 50 years ago! I think that, just for fun, I’ll try to qualify for the 30 wpm endorsement.
The certificate itself is really brittle, but I don’t want one of the new ones. I don’t like the way they look with the Vibroplex key on them. Maybe I can have this one laminated.
While I was at it, I decided to re-organize my small collection of ARRL Handbooks.
As you can see, I have the 1949, 1958, 1963, 1965, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1985, 1986, and 2000 Handbooks. Not shown is the six-volume 2022 Handbook that I purchased a couple of months ago.
Paging through these Handbooks really gives one a sense for the history of the hobby. For example, the 1948 Handbook has a chapter on broadcast interference (BCI). Now, we’d call that radiofrequency interference (RFI) or electromagnetic interference (EMI). Also, I didn’t find any information on RF exposure in the 1948 Handbook.
Great post. If you want the certificate to last, don’t laminate it. I worked in the archives department of our university for years and the only thing that would make our head archivist panic–on a heart-attack level–was when a good document was preserved by being laminated. It essentially destroy it over time–especially when it eventually delaminates. :) Go for a mylar sleeve (which is archival quality) and frame it, I say.
This may be overkill for your purposes though. Takeaway: lamination is bad. :-)
Got it. Where can I get an archival-quality mylar sleeve?
So my favorite shop for everything archival is Light Impressions. Here’s a link to a page one their site with a lot of options. Anything in their collection is 100% archival quality: http://www.lightimpressionsdirect.com/page-print-protectors/
We use their boxes, sleeves, and other material to preserve family photos, important documents, art, etc.
It’s not inexpensive, but the quality is always superb. My university even purchased items from them as well. Somewhere, sometime, I wrote an article about preserving QSL cards with archival-quality materials. I’ll need to find that. :)
Cheers,
Thomas