Morse Family Meets Members of Warminster Amateur Radio Club

The American Radio Relay League ^ | September 22, 2004 | By Norm Fusaro, W3IZ

[Denver Ditdat]

Randy Gehman, N3LJE, of Waminster ARC talks with members of the Morse Family.

One of the greatest things about Amateur Radio is that you just never know who you will run into.

Such was the case for Warminster Amateur Radio Club at the special event station the club set up at the Middletown Grange Fair in Wrightstown in Bucks County Pennsylvania.

For decades the club has had an Amateur Radio station on display every year at the Grange Fair where they provide information about ham radio to the public. The club accepts messages from fairgoers and passes the messages along to be delivered via Amateur Radio. This year's event also commemorated the 90th Anniversary of the ARRL and the 50th anniversary of the Agricultural Research Service.

This year the club had visitors from the Morse family. Ms. Adina Fowler Morse along with her husband Frisco Richard Morse and their son Johstono Alden Morse stopped by the booth to say hello.

ARRL is committed to support Affiliated Clubs in their efforts to mentor new hams.

Samuel F.B. Morse, the inventor of the Morse code, is the great, great, great uncle of Adina. Her father is Warner Alden Morse, N0KYT (SK). The family is steeped in family names and Adina's husband took the name Morse when the two were married.

Adina hopes her son will eventually become interested in Amateur Radio and Morse code. If you closely look at the photograph the toddler is instinctively reaching for the telegraph key. Coincidence?

[Denver Ditdat]

One of the things I really enjoy about amateur radio is the history and tradition. PSK-31 is great, ATV is fascinating, and the chance for an ordinary Joe to talk with astronauts aboard the International Space Station is a one-of-a-kind experience.

Given all of that, I'm still a CW man first and foremost.

73 de KØVJ

[Denver Ditdat]

Ham Radio Ping List

Please Freepmail me if you want to be added to or deleted from the list.

[Bobalu]

My goodness, I just love CW :-)
Got an old J-37 key right here by the keyboard...

Writing a CW program for a PIC microcontroller
right now :-)

[Clinging Bitterly]

Gotta give Morse his due, that was a revolution in his time.

I always found code to be a struggle and I never mastered it, just barely passed the requirements, and that was 26 years ago. Never got on the air using CW and have no intention to do so (though that could change if TSHTF some day, in which case I could probably manage). Oh I DO own a J-38 (don't all Hams?) and even a nice Heathkit electronic keyer, just never got into it as much as some guys.

To each his own, everyone brought their own thing to the hobby and mine was something different. Our group, with a lot of work, built a nice mountaintop repeater site, building and tower, we own it and we rent space to the government and other not for profit users. This was a very difficult and worthwhile endeavor that involved everything from cloak & dagger work to court battles to bring it about in our locale and we are proud of it.

I was an EARLY packet operator (when we had the PackCom TNC-1 & GLB clones and I had the nifty AEA gizmo that plugged into my C-64 too) in these parts, and was very active almost exclusively in that mode for a number of years. I took the shack apart a couple years ago with the intention of cleaning up and rebuilding but the project has never been done. Really gotta do that.

[X_CDN_EH]

Pretty cool. I like APRS and ATV.

73!

[spodefly]

-.-. --- --- .-.. ... - --- .-. -.--

-... - - -

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[Bobalu]

Nothing like working half-way around the world using CW on a QRP RockMite transceiver that cost just 27$ (delivered!) and it even has a microprocessor on board :-)

CW can almost always get through...

[Denver Ditdat]

I had one of those AEA packet controllers for the C-64, too. The PakRatt, wasn't it? That sure was a lot of fun. The Commodore 64 was THE ham radio computer back then - 73 Magazine used to be loaded with hardware projects and software for the 64.

It's too bad the packet bbs system died off back in the 90s. I really enjoyed that aspect of the hobby.

[Denver Ditdat]

Cool! That's going to be my next project. I have a licorice Altoids tin just begging to be filled with a RockMite.

QRP CW and melting solder - my two favorite ham radio activities!

[Denver Ditdat]

My main rig:

Love that smooth Ten-Tec QSK.

[Bobalu]

I'm infatuated with a new ICOM IC-703 QRP rig just now :-)
399.95 at HRO...
BTW.. there is a nice RockMite group over at yahoo :-)
And the processor in the RockMite even has a built-in keyer.

[Mark17]

Given all of that, I'm still a CW man first and foremost.

In Ham radio, everyone has a chance to do what they like best. For me it is HF voice.

73 de KJ6II

[Clinging Bitterly]

The PakRatt, wasn't it?

I think they used the PakRatt name on it, and that particular version was called, of course, the PK-64.

When I converted from the C-64 to a "real" PC, I picked up a PK232 (if I recall it was at the ARRL national convention the last time it was held in Portland, I had saved up some bonus money and popped for a lot of gear at that con). I still have that TNC and it still works fine. I like the multimode functions, it's fun to SWL with too, putting it in signal analysis mode and sweep through bands with unknown data signals and it would determine what it was and start decoding, very advanced for it's time.

It's too bad the packet bbs system died off...

Yup, I think the INTERNET did that in. I think it's still good preparedness for when TSHTF, and perhaps there are still enough operators ready I am not sure. I ran a very busy W0RLI mailbox here for a long time (after running MSYS for a couple years). Got to know Hank real well - he'd make a good FReeper and may even be one for all I know. The power behind the local user port was that PK232 and a Alinco DR1000T feeding a Mirage 160W brick amp into a Phelps-Dodge Stationmaster. Backbone access was on two separate 220 channels, one at 1200 and one at 9K6 via a KPC9612. Used the 220 version of the little MFJ DataRadio and it worked real well, that was after much experimentation with a pair of the little Tekk UHF radios that I could never get to hold their smoke (440 is just too tough around here with the hills and the weather, there is a small group of us who really like 220, a very underrated band, 440 gets too muddy too fast and success using it for high speed packet for hauls over about 20 miles has been nonexistent).

I pulled the plug on that BBS a couple years ago, though I have been toying with the idea of firing up a SNOS box and seeing what that's all about, Hank and his gang of cohorts in the Portland area are still going at it, and I still have all the gear.

The politics in packet radio could be tough, and I was into that sort of discussion hardcore - I had fans, if you want to call them that, all over the world, and our discussions via packet were much like we have on FR, the heated smokey backroom type - just a bit (well a lot) slower and without the pictures. Had some good relationships with folks around the world, even some Frenchmen, and the MIR cosmonauts, before and after the Soviet collapse.

Enough of all that though, might be starting to get the bug again. Maybe not a bad thing, it was a dream in my youth, and I think I was 20 when I got my novice ticket. Knew a few of the older guys in my club that started out with spark gap rigs, but they were already pushing 80 when I was 20 and I think they are all gone. Too bad, those were the guys that made this hobby, and I'm not sure what is going to happen in the future.

Thanks for adding me to the ping list, 73!