From the Newsletter history archives...
About your fellow club members: In February, we wound up the "Club Officer Profile" series and intentions were to embark on spotlighting, briefly,
all
our club members in this space beginning with the March issue of the Newsletter. However, due to extenuating circumstances (scheduling a visit to each member's QTH for hamshack photos, etc.), this did not materialize due to editor's time constraints. Moreover, rescheduling this feature to the April issue (this issue) did not happen either...this time due to extended flu-like sickness (XYL first, then me!) at the editor's QTH and again not able to get around to member's homes for the necessary photos and narratives. Therefore, this feature will not begin with this issue...but is again tentatively rescheduled... this time for the May 2005 issue. Sorry.
Vintage Equipment
From the August '86 newsletter (entitled "Lenoir Amateur Radio Club" -after it was adopted as the official newsletter of the LARC but before it was renamed as the "News and Views"), it was noted that Mike Cowick, N4FAX, was the EC for Caldwell County and was also appointed as the chairman of the club's newly instituted Emergency Communications Team and was assisted by Mike McCoy, AA4TW, & George Fuderer, N4OJM (SK).
(Each month, a brief spotlight will appear here on equipment you may have seen at hamfest swap tables. This month it is the
Johnson Viking 500 Transmitter
).
Undoubtedly one of the heavy-weight champions of the early 50's was the Viking 500...not only in sheer weight, but by performance as well! Very popular with the "well-heeled" crowd, the 500 was often heard clearing out frequencies with its excellent audio and with its 500 watts of staying power. A cult following soon emerged...but with the advent of SSB, A M operation soon started dwindling and their numbers later found their way into the "collectible" category. Occasionally, they surface on hamfest tables, but they still command a respectable price in the neighborhood of $300 to $400 for a copy in fine condition!
One of our members,
Bill Barr, KG4GSV,
recently forwarded an email to the editor in which the main theme was Spam. Since the subject is timely and affects so many internet users, part of that email is repeated below.
"Spam" is unsolicited commercial e-mail that is sent to you by unscrupulous people trying to make a fast buck -- usually by ripping you off. Many spams say that you can get off the mailing list when you ask, but very often if you try it, it leads to more junk mail because you're confirming to these unscrupulous people that your address is good. Just throw away any junk mail you get.
Most wonder how such scammers got their e-mail address. It is actually pretty easy for them: if your address is shown in any public place, spammers can and will find it. They use software to scan web sites, chat postings and more for any address they can find, and it's added to a list that spammers pass around. Once you start getting spam, it's too
late: you will continue to get it forever until you get a new address that is not shown in any public place.
The Internet is a wonderful resource that can help you find out nearly anything you want to know. It's also home to the same types of people who inhabit the real world: thieves, conmen, liars, cheats, exploiters and other ruffians. You can be robbed online just as easily as you can in a back alley. Keep alert! If something sounds too good to be true, and maybe it's a scam, trust your instincts: avoid them. Delete their e-mails and don't go to their web sites. There are plenty of good places to go.
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