Text 1481, 235 rader
Skriven 2007-01-07 18:31:00 av bob klahn
     Kommentar till en text av Roy Witt
Ärende: N60 x E20
=================
 ...

 bk>>>>  And worth every nothing of it.

 RW>>> But worth 100 times more than 10 messages with a lot of
 RW>>> guessing and no knowledge of what you're talking about. I

 bk>>  No, it's not. We were having fun.

 RW> It took you three guesses to find out that Holgar and the
 RW> Aland Islands are off the coast of Finland, not Sweden.

 Oh let it go already. Bad enough you have to turn this into a
 cheap shot exhibition, but you even have to forget to check your
 facts.

 It's between Sweden and Finland. The people are mostly ethnic
 Swedish.

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 ALAND

 LOCATION AND COMMUNICATION LINKS

 The Aland islands lie between Sweden and Finland, in the
 northern Baltic Sea, with excellent communication links. There
 are daily car ferries and cruise ships connecting Stockholm and
 Aland, which take about two and a half hours, and during the
 summer there are additional sailings from Grisslehanm to Eckero,
 a two-hour journey. From Finland there are daily ferries from
 Turku and Naantali (about six hours). By air, the flight from
 Arlanda Airport, north of Stockholm, takes approximately twenty
 minutes, from Helsinki thirty minutes and from Turku about
 fifteen

 GEOGRAPHY

 Aland is an archipelago consisting of some 6,500 islands and
 skerries, with a total land area of 1,481 square kilometres.
 They stretch for about 50 kilometres or 30 miles from north to
 south and the same from east to west. The highest point is
 Orddalsklint, which rises 128 metres above sea level, and
 geologically the red granite is a striking feature. The capital,
 Mariehamn, is located on the largest island of Fasta and where
 most of the inhabitants, approximately 80%, live.

 ...

POPULATION AND MAJOR CENTRES

The islands have a total population of 25,000, and about 11,000 live in
the capital, Mariehamn. The town is on an isthmus, with harbour

 ...

HISTORY

Some 10,000 Viking graves are dotted around the islands. In more recent
times, the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917 caused anxiety
among Alanders regarding their future. The islanders asked for a reunion
with their mother country, Sweden, but Finland was not willing to
relinquish Aland. In 1921 the situation was settled by the League of
Nations, the decision reached was that Aland should belong to Finland
and obtain autonomy. In the agreement, Finland and Sweden undertook to
"secure and guarantee the population of the Aland Islands, the
preservation of their Swedish language, culture and local traditions".
Aiand is demilitarised, the islands must not be fortified, and Alanders
are exempt from military service.

 ...

LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

Swedish is the official language. Alanders love music and singing, and

 ...

SPORT AND LEISURE ACTIVITIES

Aland have been represented at the Island Games since its inception in
1985 in the Isle of Man and are one of the founder members of the
Association. Aland had the honour of hosting the Fourth Games in 1991,

 ...

Dick Ekstrom

<http://www.natwestoffshore.com/islandbanking/dib_frame.htm>

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 RW> Even then, you tried to compare it's location to somewhere
 RW> in the state of Maine.

 I said a picture of a lighthouse did not identify it's location,
 so you couldn't tell if it was in Finland or Maine. If you have
 ever been to Maine you might understand, esp the far northern
 part. I was stationed at Loring AFB Maine, just outside Caribou.
 It's all cold country.

 RW>>> could understand it if the guesses were coming from a
 RW>>> Novice, but coming from someone who claims to have been
 RW>>> licensed for years, I have a low opinion of their AR skills.

 bk>>  I have operated mostly on 2 mtrs. And not even that for years.
 bk>>  My HF time is measured in hours, over more than 25 years.

 RW> I gathered that, since your license is about to expire.

 I will renew it. I believe in keeping licenses current.

 bk>>  My technical skills are likely far better than yours. Just based
 bk>>  on 40 years of working in electronics.

 RW> Probably so. I make no claim to electronics expert.

 IOW, what amateur radio started out with.

 bk>> Most of that in industrial automation, so I probably am familiar with
 bk>> things you have never seen.

 RW> I have a few years under my belt in industrial automation
 RW> too. Mine is in the robotic production assembly field. The
 RW> electronics in that field is as easy to work on as a lamp
 RW> socket.

 Robots are slow. Very little we have is that slow. No robot
 could keep up with our machinery.

 bk>>  The First class commercial dated back to 1969, 38 years.

 RW> I never had a need for it, but it wasn't that hard to pass,
 RW> c1970.

 I didn't have a use for it either, but I got it in case I
 decided to go into broadcasting after I was discharged from the
 service. Then I found out how low the pay was.

 bk>>>>>> Some of us seldom operate, but go wild at building equipment.

 RW>>>>> I design and build antennas. My air time is used in testing
 RW>>>>> my designs. I see no reason to build equipment or antennas
 RW>>>>> if you're not going to use them.

 bk>>>>  You may not, other's milage may vary.

 RW>>> You mean like junk collecters...

 bk>>  Sometimes, yes. I still have a number of old Benton Harbor Lunch
 bk>>  Boxes in my garage.

 RW> 10mtr or 11mtr?

 6 and 2.

 bk>>>>>>  That's amateur radio as much as DX is.

 RW>>>>> I gave DX up ages ago. Right before I gave up listening to
 RW>>>>> Techs (codeless) make fools of themselves on two meter
 RW>>>>> repeaters. I do use 40m to keep in touch with my first
 RW>>>>> Elmer and best high school friend, in Missouri...

 bk>>>>  I haven't gotten on the air in years. Maybe I will, again,
 bk>>>>  someday.

 RW>>> Uh huh.

 bk>>  However, aside from all the above. Amateur radio is a hobby, and
 bk>>  a fraternity. Trashing others is bad form.

 RW> Then why do you do it?

 I didn't start this. Remember, everyone starts out with limited
 knowledge, and everyone has more he doesn't know in this world
 than he does.

 bk>> I can communicate in this echo with others I can't deal with at all
 bk>> in other echos.

 RW> Sure.

 Yeah. That's how amateur radio is.

 bk>>  It was that way until you started this.

 RW> Actually, you started it, see above.

 No, see below.
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 HG>> I thought radio amateurs were clever enough to find out the
 HG>> geographical location given the coordinates.

 RW> After reading the guesses made by some, it's apparent that
 RW> they're really not radio amateurs as we know they should
 RW> be. At least not into the DX part of amateur radio.

 I wasn't aware anyone here gets to set the standard for amateur
 radio operators. Some of us seldom operate, but go wild at
 building equipment.

 That's amateur radio as much as DX is.

 **************************************************************************

  Though Holger was a bit out of it to suggest that being a ham
  means you have to measure up to some arbitrary standard like
  that.

 bk>>  To some of us, including me, radio is practically sacred.

 RW> If it is so sacred to you, why arn't you practicing what
 RW> you preach and allowing your license to expire?

 A: I'm not allowing it to expire.
 B: I am far more hardware oriented than operating, but I also
 listen a lot. I got into this through SWLing.

 And I don't expect to operate much even after renewal. Maybe I
 will, maybe not. But I plan to keep building.


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

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