The Pendulum - News - 01/05/2006 - Local Man Celebrates 90th with Family Friends and Ham Radio

The Pendulum - News - 01/05/2006 - Local Man Celebrates 90th with Family Friends and Ham Radio

"Local Man Celebrates 90th
with Family Friends and Ham Radio
By: Tim Faulkner 01/05/2006

John from West Virginia congratulated Everett Sunderland on his 90th birthday party using Ham radio-speak.

'Happy birthday greetings to W1LX from W3HPQ,' he said citing the operator call signs.

The fact that the party had occurred two days earlier wasn't important, it gave them something to talk about, or in this case holler about as excessive interference caused their radio frequency to crackle.

John and Everett are part of a group of Ham radio enthusiasts that call themselves the Old Goats Network. They are a dozen or so senior amateur radio operators that meet over the radio waves each day at 7:30 in the morning and 1:00 PM to chat about life and say hello.

'John's 79. He's one of the young ones,' Everett said with a chuckle. He noted that most of the Old Goats were over eighty and ninety years old and that the members were declining. 'We lost two last year,' he added.

In addition to John there was Sam from Lakeland, Florida, and Al in Kentucky and a few other voices chiming in to the birthday discussion from other parts of the country.

They comprised an old-school chat room, using only radio hardware and real-time conversations. "




73 fer nw,
Bob AD5VJ

10X# 37210, FP#-1141, SMIRK#-5177
http://www.n5iet.com/
Code may be taking a back seat for now,
but the pioneering spirit that put the code
there in the first place is out front of it all.