Heard on the 940 Repeater

I like listening to the 146.940 WB4GBI repeater for the random bits of trivia, good natured ribbing, and general rag chewing.

For example, one unintended benefit of moving the squad car shotguns to the roof was that officers could no longer ash into the barrel.

Also, one ham has personal experience with Kevlar pants saving him from hospital visit when he tripped into a running chainsaw.

When a ham mentioned that he wasn't going to take a radio with him on a trip, he immediately was advised to at least throw an HT in the car. CTW said he always bragged to his wife that he could use his HF rig to contact Italy. Then she would point out that could reach across the globe, but he couldn't call the local AAA with it.

Medicare/Medicaid

Is Medicare/Medicaid welfare? That was the debate on the 940 Breakfast Club this morning. Actually, it wasn't much of a debate as a single person was arguing that it wasn't welfare. I don't have the data, but one guy was saying that the lifetime contributions of a typical person would not even cover one procedure.

Since the dollars don't seem to balance, I'm glad people don't take advantage of the system.

Link: Guess what kind of medical coverage he had?

"He wanted an ambulance to take him seven blocks to the hospital. And that's with an able-bodied girlfriend and a functional minivan parked 10 feet from his front door. He actually had to walk around his ride to get to his ride."

Oops. Nevermind.

940 BC Topic: Exploding Glassware - The End of Quality

The 940 BC guys were talking about exploding glassware. This sounds like another example where cost savings has trumped quality.

And if it isn't cost savings killing quality, then it is environmental do-gooders. They restricted the phosphates in dish detergents and now we end up washing dishes by hand or running them through the dishwasher twice. Brilliant.

940 BC: EmComm

A few days ago it started getting really cold and one local community suffered a power outage.

I was in the car on the way to work; listening to the 940 Breakfast Club. The usual rag chew was well underway when a lady's voice could barely be heard coming through the repeater. She sounded pathetic and was asking about the power outage. She was on her husband's radio. He was at work, but she knew he used it to get info on the weather. (I don't know it was an HT or if he had something more sophisticated setup in case they lost power.)

The guys quickly decided this could be considered EmComm traffic, since it was so cold. One ham dropped off to call the power company to get some info. Another offered to drop by her husband's work. Others offered to make phone calls for her. She said she was okay - in fact she went to check on some elderly neighbors.

While there may be some doubt about this meeting the standard for emergency traffic, I think everyone made the right decision to err on the side of caution. It also was amazing to see how quickly everyone adjusted to the situation and offered help. Providing aid is part of the mission of ham radio. You hear about it during large disasters like in Hati, but I think it happens a lot more on a smaller scale.