Joe,
Hmm. Does "Doofuss" fall into that area? That is one of my
nicknames with the chief of police at work. :)
There was a deal on a ham radio net several years ago, where this
term took on a whole new meaning. It was on a digital mode, using
what's known as a terminal node controller or TNC...sort of a modem
for ham radio (1200 baud on the VHF bands). Data was sent in packets,
so the mode is known as "packet"...but what is sent is what is also
received. In that regard, packet is the only ham radio data mode that
is error free. However, some think that "packet" is what you do to
your ham radio items, in loading up your no longer used items to sell
at a hamfest. <G>
I had recently changed my ham radio callsign to WX1DER (that was my
third one...I was originally licensed as N5VLZ in August, 1991...then
changed it to AE5WX in June, 2009...then to WX1DER just after Christmas, 2012...and finally to WX4QZ in March, 2019). As a side note, the person
with that callsign is the ONLY one in the world with it.
Anyway, on this "packet net", we're typing at our keyboards. The "net control" was the wife of the Sysop of the packet BBS...which is over
ham radio instead of dial-up phone lines or telnet. The net was done in
a roundtable format. One ham, Ed, had the callsign KI0HQ. He had wanted
the callsign K0ED, but a ham radio operator in California already had
that.
As a side note, the US is broken down into callsign districts.
Originally, you had to have the callsign in the region where you
lived...but now, you can get a vanity callsign for whatever region.
The only exception is for callsigns in Alaska, Hawaii, or the US territories...if you live outside these areas, you can't get them.
Back to the net, though...Ed typed "I'm married, and E.D. is not
an issue". Well, another ham in Minnesota, Roger, KB0SON, thought
that E.D. stood for "Electronic Doofus" <G>. I knew what it *really*
meant, so I started chuckling.
Yet, *I* can relate to that, as electronics was never my forte'.
I can tell you the colors on a resistor (thanks to Violet <G>...the
acronym for that is BBROYGBVGW -- each letter is the first letter
of that particular color)...and that not even an amp of electricity
can kill you. Plus, I know what a battery is on a schematic diagram...
but that's it.
It gets over to the Sysop of the BBS, K.O. (N0KFQ), and all he
typed was "I'm curious to see how Ed is going to explain E.D. to
Roger". At this point, I'm chortling with guffaws. <G>
So, back to Net Control, Billie (KB0WSA), K.O.'s wife. She turns
it back to Ed, and he types "Billie?? Do you know Morse Code??".
And, she types "Yes...and I know a lot of other things as well!!".
At this point, I'm about to pee all over myself, as I'm laughing
wildly. <BG>
So, Ed types what E.D. really means on the computer...I'm sure
Roger was embarrassed!!
Sadly, Billie passed away several years ago, and K.O. died nearly
2 years after she did. But, a year after her death (a year before
K.O. died), I mentioned this on the net again, and K.O. commented
"it was so refreshing to hear that again...and it happened EXACTLY
the way Daryl told it". <G>
The BBS lives on with RF and Telnet access, now in Penfield,
New York. I alternate Net Control on that net, and I'm also the
weekly scribe.
Daryl, WX4QZ
... ESC?? I didn't know I was trapped.
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