My Idol: Nikola Tesla

Courtesy of Wiki Commons- Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower which was dismantled for WW1

In fifth grade, we did a thing called wax museum. We had to pick a person who was an American citizen, had lots of info about them, had made a positive contribution to society, and was preferably dead. John Lennon wasn't an American citizen, someone had already taken Marie Curie, so I picked Nikola Tesla. My social studies teacher was a bit confused, so I had to explain to her. " See those lights? Those run on alternating current. Uh- huh. He was the one who invented it." Once I explained that Edison invented direct current,  she let me be Tesla for wax museum. I was overjoyed. We went out to Savers and bought uncomfortable boys' shoes, a dorky white shirt with cuffs, and an even dorkier pinstriped vest. I brought in a book about 'advances of the twentieth century'.  I researched until I could feel my brain oozing out of my ears. Wikipedia and Google became extremely close friends of mine. Finally the day arrived. I had prepared two speeches and memorized them. One was a short simple version, and the other was a long speech that pretty much covered his entire life.
Although he was a bit... crazy at times (most of his life) he was a genius and I greatly admire him and his work. For a place explaining just how awesome he was, go to:
 http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

Alas, Poor Lincoln!

My father is 'improving' a typewriter. In other words, he is savagely drilling into the typewriter's (Lincoln's) skull and putting a nameplate from a car right on his forehead. Then he will put a sound chip from a model engine in his brain. I objected to the surgery, but he did it anyway, claiming that Lincoln has to get back to his hot rod heritage. Lincoln lived in an auto- body shop, and came to us for five dollars with paint spatters all over his body and glass keys. He was going to be a parts bank for Margo, but then Darling Father discovered that Lincoln worked. For a while Lincoln was happily tuned up, typed on, and loved. Then Darling Father committed this treacherous crime. I will bring you more news on Lincoln later, but for now, happy mother's day.

Call sign!

The day has come... I have a call sign!!!

Ham day!!!!!

As of today, I became a registered ham radio operator!!! To do this, you must score 74% or higher on a 35 question exam. This is not as easy as it sounds. Darling father and I took a ten- week class to prepare ourselves for the exam. We went to the class every Saturday and learned various ham things. The class did an excellent job of preparing us for random bits of stuff we might run into when operating, but it was not geared towards the test. It was my second time taking the test, and I personally thought I was going to fail again. So you could imagine my surprise when a very friendly ham congratulated me.
Anyway, this blog will include bits of (Surprise, surprise!) radio junk mail that we receive, ham events, and so much more. Feel free to tell about any of your experiences as a ham, seeing hams, etc. I will tell you when I get my call sign and radio, and maybe some of you can get me over the air!

Tesla's Wardenclyffe Radio Research Facility:  Source Wikimedia Commons