Thanks to those that have submitted stories of late. If you have an article in your head and want to have it posted here, let’s keep this community going while our friend continues to help his neighbours. Draft up your story in an email with reference points to the pictures you want embedded and their captions, and attach photos to the note and send it my way to vincedeon at gmail dot com and note QRPer in the subject line to get my attention.
I’ve often wondered if naming radios is just a Thomas thing or if others do this also. He mentions them so fondly in his articles here or when we are recording Ham Radio Workbench as we were last night.
Sort of top-secret: Thomas was our featured guest in last night’s recording and I think that episode will come out as an extra outside of our regular schedule.
Thomas assured us that he and his family are doing well. He acknowledges that so many have sent him words of encouragement and reads every one of them. He’s apologetic that his limited internet time is managing completion of forms for FEMA and such instead of responding to you all, but wanted you to know that he appreciates your support from afar.
Greek philosopher Seneca said that “luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” and, from what I heard last night Thomas and family were not only well-prepared but quite fortunate. The luck part happened when he and his neighbours banded together to handle a mountain-load of tasks garnering praise from the FEMA representatives who visited them. One thing stuck out from the interview -and I’ve seen this first-hand– help will not be on the ground to you, in a disaster zone, for several days. We all need to be self-sufficient for at least that period of time.
During the interview he spoke of passing out his HTs to neighbours and establishing a twice-daily schedule of check-ins among them, at 8am and 8pm. This is an indispensable tool in situations like this! I asked if he named his HTs as he does his HF gear.. it was a fun moment and you’ll have to listen for yourself. But I then, inspired, broke out the Dymo and did my own named on the gang from Peanuts. Lucy and Linus, the brother and sister, are both Yaesu VX-7s that were my workhorse HTs during the 2013 Southern Alberta Floods. Since that time they’ve been joined by Woodstock, the Alinco DJ-MD5XT, for logging road use (it’s type approved for both commerical and amateur), Schroeder, the TH-D74, as it can -I’m certain- play a symphony once I find that page in the manual, and last but not least, Snoopy, for it’s the carefree and fun to use FT-70DR.
So – back to the title of this post – Do you name your radios? Let me know in the comments.
Yes I do. Elecraft, Xiegu, and Venus SW-3B
No. I’ve had a hard enough time naming children and pets.
Yes .
My name is Marshall and this is my radio Darryl and this is my other radio Darryl.
Seriously, if I named my radios I would be constantly forgetting their names so I don’t do it. I have named one or two of my guns over the years. I think the only one that is named anymore is Roscoe which is the service revolver I carried back when I wore a badge.m
Of course we name our radios here.
Just covering HT’s, we have:
* Two Kenwood TH-D74A’s named “Paul’s TH-D74A” and “Paula’s TH-D74A”
* a Yaesu VX-8DR named “VX-8DR where did I put the spare batteries?”
* a bevy of Baofeng BF-F8’s named “Should be in Paula’s GHB”, “Should be in Paul’s GHB” and “Should be in the drop everything and go bag” plus one or two others in the pool all named “spare BF-F8”
* a Kenwood TH-F6A named “TH-F6A that I bought from Dick, he was a fool to sell it.”
* a Baofeng tri-band UV-5R named “Tri-band Baofeng to use when working in the forest because if it gets squished I won’t cry”
* a Wouxun KG-UV8H named “Wouxun I can’t remember the model”
* a Wouxun KG-935G named “GMRS Wouxun”
* four Midland GMRS radios all named “That annoying chonky why are all the batteries dead?”
The HF radios all have similar uninspired names except for the KX-2 which is named Hermia, after the character in Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” who ‘though she be but little, she is fierce’.
I am little surprised by how many HT’s there are. Am I the only one who is not entirely sure how many radios I own?