The Steel Guitar Forum

We now have 81 WOW!

Alan Tanner - W8FAX - Dayton, Ohio
Ben Carnevale - W1VZT - Falmount, MA
Benton Allen - WB5TWC - Muscle Shoals, AL
Bill Perry - K5CLD - Hurst, TX
BJ Jenkins - NC4BJ - Dunn, North Carolina
Blake Hawkins - N4YCQ - Land O'Lakes, Florida
Bob Luman - W4MPQ - Georgiana, AL
Bob Maickel - W2BOB - Floral Park, NY
Buddy Elkin - KB4UDW - Henderson, KY
Charles L Powell - N5LMS - Kingsport, Tennessee
Charles Rodrigues - K1QGN - Tiverton, Rhode Island
Chris Collins - MM0AHC - Oban, Argyll, Scotland
Chuck Halcomb - KC5W - Lubbock, Texas
Chuck Miller - N0NC - Newton, Iowa
Clyde Wiggins - WB4GLI - Bradenton, FL
Curtis Boatright - N5RMY - Frisco, TX
Dale Gray - KD0FHO - Buena Vista, CO
Dale Hoppy - K6UA - Fallbrook, CA
Dalton Boehm - AD9GB - Tallula, IL
Dan Burnham - AE4AY - Tullahoma, TN
Danny Hammers - W4MOP - Floral City, Florida
Dave Beaty - K7MNC - Mesa, Arizona
Dave Potter - AC5LS - San Antonio, TX
David Cutter - WB5SFB - Duluth, GA
David Hartley - G6CWP - United Kingdom
David Morris - WB8PJZ - Wapakoneta, OH
Delbert Phelps - KB8VJV - Brookpark, Ohio
Dick Wood - WD5CBO - Springtown, Texas
Dr. Hugh Jeffreys - WA4PEM - Southaven, MS
Don Brown, Sr. - KD2WO - Millville, New Jersey
Donny Hinson - K3JPP - Balto, MD
Duane Becker - KB7GCF - Elk,WA
Ed Phipps - KK7BM - Chino Valley, AZ
Fred Thompson - K1VYE - Waldoboro, Maine / Bushnell, FL
Gary Stenulson - K7GMS - Billings, MT
Greg Cutshaw - AA2FX - Corry, PA
Gregg Thacker - N5LYS - Farmers Branch, Texas
Howard Parker - WA3BMM - Clarksburg, MD
Ivor Greenwood - GI0AIJ - Northern Ireland
Jaclyn Jones - KB8SIU - Dickinson, TX
James Sluder - KG4WYD - Mountain City, TN
Jamie Danter - NE4TT - Kannapolis, North Carolina
Jan Mulder - PA3HCR - The Netherlands
Jim Keith - KM5AC - Anna, TX
Jim Mitchell - WB3JLA - Phily, Pennsylvania
Jim Paschall - K9JCP - Paris TN
Jim Phelps - K7JAZ - Mexico City, Mexico
Jim Seay - KC4YDF - Lenoir City, TN
Jim Sweeney - WB4RAB - Mount Juliet, TN
Jim Walker - KJ4JAJ - Alabama
Jimmy Lewis - AB5YS - Harrisonburg, Louisiana
Joe Finley - KA5IFX - Ozark, Arkansas
Joe McHam - WA5OKT - Houston, TX
John Lemay - AC3G - Tucson, AZ
Johnne Lee Ables - W1YB - Sun City, AZ
Jonathan Cullifer - W4CGP - Nashville, TN
Keith Currie - VE5HKC - Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, Canada
Ken Adkins - K9DVA - Galena, MO
Ken Huber - WB0TXV - Bellevue, Nebraska
Lem Smith - K5WSM - Fulton, MS
Les Green - WB0WIW - Jefferson City, MO
Larry Custer - W3KMT - Dandridge, TN
Mark MacKenzie - KC4KFC - Franklin, Tennessee
Marvin Born - K8XU - Columbus, OH
Michael Robertson - KE6ZUC - Ventura, CA
Mike Fereday - G3VOW - Newbury, Berkshire, England
Mike Hoover - WB5AOC - Bryant, Arkansas
Mike Sigler - KB8PWI - Rushville, OH
Ned McIntosh - VK2AGV - New South Wales, Australia
Reginald Diller - W3VTF - Waynesboro, PA
Ric Epperle - KE7MK - Sheridan, Wyoming
Rob Segal - WA2NFG - Buffalo, NY
Robert Harper - W4IWJ - McCalla, Alabama
Roger Kelly - KE4IAW - Mount Carmel, TN
Ron Silva - WB6YMK - Fresno, California
Roy McKinney - KD7OOO - Imnaha, OR
Russ Little - N5UG - Hosston, Louisiana
Sam Marshall - N7INV - Chandler, AZ
Steve Morley - W1LV - North Haven, CT
Tommy Gibbons - KG4NVM - Trimble, TN
Walter Jones - WT8E - Athens, Ohio

Last ones added was:
Jaclyn Jones - KB8SIU - Dickinson, TX

Danny

I kept waiting for my call to be added to the list. I guess I will have to post to get included!
WB4GLI GOOD LOOKING INDIVIDUAL. Good in QRZ.COM. Hope to see you at the January Manasota Steel Guitar Club jam. Thanks again for all your work on our web site.

Clyde & Tom

Your right Clyde, I was waiting for your post.
For those of you that don't know Clyde, He is a great guy. GLI......well......this part......I'm not to sure about. But a great guy.

All kidding aside he's a goood friend

W4MOP MOTHER OF PEARL
Danny

KC4YDF Lenoir City,Tn. 73'S

how do they get from "amateur" radio to "HAM" radio? I've always wondered that.

Why Do They Call Themselves "Hams"?
"Ham: a poor operator. A 'plug.'"

That's the definition of the word given in G. M. Dodge's The Telegraph Instructor even before radio. The definition has never changed in wire telegraphy. The first wireless operators were landline telegraphers who left their offices to go to sea or to man the coastal stations. They brought with them their language and much of the tradition of their older profession.

In those early days, spark was king and every station occupied the same wavelength--or, more accurately perhaps, every station occupied the whole spectrum with its broad spark signal. Government stations, ships, coastal stations and the increasingly numerous amateur operators all competed for time and signal supremacy in each other's receivers. Many of the amateur stations were very powerful. Two amateurs, working across town, could effectively jam all the other operators in the area. When this happened, frustrated commercial operators would call the ship whose weaker signals had been blotted out by the amateurs and say "SRI OM THOSE #&$!@ HAMS ARE JAMMING YOU."

Amateurs, possibly unfamiliar with the real meaning of the term, picked it up and applied it to themselves in true "Yankee Doodle" fashion and wore it with pride. As the years advanced, the original meaning has completely disappeared.


Danny

What do you think the future holds for amateur radio operators? The one and only supply store in Memphis has suffered since pc's made such a hit; ie, no lic. required for a pc. I am still active during storms, and made a lot of contacts during Katrina. Many boaters monitor ham radio; the marine band is close by. My low band machine is Kenwood with a 26' vertical (marine-type) antenna on the roof. Also I have a hand-held which incorporates all bands from 142Mhz through the 170's, including hospital.

This might help answer a few questions:

http://vkradio.com/future.html

Or, a discussion forum on the subject:

http://www.eham.net/articles/6438

Looks like I'll have to break out my illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator..



And to think us steel players get a bit testy.?

Regards, Ric... KE7MK

I took my Tech Class exam tonight. I passed! I'll sign in on this post with my call sign soon.


73's

JW

Good Work Jim!! Hope to hear you soon.
Bob Luman, W4MPQ

K7gms here and I have been in ham radio for over 38 years and this is a vanity call also...I decided it was easier to remember seeing it is my initials...

wrong forum

opps

I got it!

KJ4JAJ

HEY JIM!
CONGRATULATION!
and what a call.


Welcome to Ham Radio
73
Danny

Thanks Danny!

I also a member of the Walton Country ARC in DeFuniak Springs, FL. We will be having another exam night in March and I plan to go for the General then. I should be an Extra Class by the end of the year.

JW

KG4NVM - Tommy Gibbons, Tech.

Hello Danny Hammers, I just found out my good Sailing Buddy K6UA ," Dale Hoppy " passed away.I will be seeing his wife Sue soon in Fallbrook. Leo

WB5SFB Advanced – Licensed 1976

David

My beloved Bug key still sits in my china cabinet, just to remind of my Navy days !! - in need of a polish though!!

Paddy,

Seeing your bug keyer brings back memories! I have two Vibroplex bug keyers in my collection, but never used them at sea...they were a bit of a problem if the ship rolled! At sea I used an iambic keyer and a home-brewed "Accukeyer" from the WB4VVF design for my commercial working. Didn't work ham radio maritime mobile though.

Attached is a photo of the radio office (my "shack") on the biggest ship I ever sailed on, 232,000 tonnes DWT "T. S. M. V Iron Pacific". The gear looked OK, but the MF transmitter was just one generation removed from the MF transmitter in a Lancaster bomber...made by Marconi Marine. Rugged, simple and easily repaired in the field.

Very cool photo Ned ... the key to using a bug at sea was getting yourself in the right position so the rolling ship didn't set it off when you weren't expecting it ha !!!!

Hi,
KB8SIU
Not very active except when the wind blows off the Gulf of Mexico down here. Ham I mean. Steel Every weekend.

Boy Jim, you got lucky. Hope you can make the Greenville , Alabama Hamfest this Saturday. We'll have a good crowd this year.
Ned, I knew Jim WB4VVF when I lived in Orlando 67-77. He did a good job on those keyers.

Bob Luman
W4MPQ

Hi Bob,

Yes, that Accukeyer was one rugged and smart piece of gear. Mine went 10 years in marine service and never missed a beat. I built it with the 4 memories which was handy for loading up a call and a whole weather OBS message to a coast station.

I still have the keyer I built in 1980 and it still works! I was OK at 28wpm in my seafaring days (we never worked that fast, about 16-18wpm was a comfortable speed) but these days I'd struggle to read 12wpm. Haven't used CW now since 1992. Also worked HF TOR and Inmarsat Standard A at sea.

I was there at the very end when GMDSS put all of us "sparkies" on the beach. I went into TV engineering and freelance camera/sound recording, then into satellite uplinking and have only just decided to retire from this to devote myself full-time to a flying-school I was given after the death of the owner.

One thing about being a radio ham is that the electronics of the steel guitar present no mysteries. Whether it is replacing a volume pedal pot or wiring in a new pickup, the old soldering-iron comes out, the smell of melted flux assails the nostrils and hey presto!...job done! A good background in electronics is a very useful thing for a steel player!