Ham radio goals for the New Year????

Favorite new Year's Snacks or Foods?

1620 - The "Mayflower", and its passengers, pilgrims from England, landed at Plymouth Rock, MA.  

On December 21, 1620, the Pilgrims came ashore at Plymouth.

After 66 days at sea and several weeks docked in Provincetown Harbor while the passengers explored Cape Cod, the Mayflower finally docked in Plymouth on December 18th.  On December 21st, the first expedition took the shallop ashore.

Here are a few things you may not have heard about this iconic moment in history:

1) The Pilgrims did not actually land on Plymouth Rock.

There are no written or verbal accounts that the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, and the landing place of the Pilgrims has not been determined. In fact, the rock wasn’t identified as anything of significance until 1771, when 94-year-old Thomas Faunce, claimed that his father, who arrived in Plymouth in 1623, and several of the original Mayflower passengers assured him the stone (which was much larger at the time) was the specific landing spot.

2) The first passengers to step foot in Plymouth were…

…not documented! Little is known of the first expedition in Plymouth, but we can guess that it was likely all men who boarded the 30-foot shallop to explore their new home.

3) The Pilgrims did not name Plymouth (or America, for that matter)

Bradford wrote, while the Pilgrims were still living in Holland, that he was hoping to travel to “America,” which could have meant either North or South America, as both continents had been identified as simply “America” sometime around 1515 in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, who made at least three voyages to the continents between 1497 and 1512. The Pilgrims were also aware that where they landed was called “Plymouth,” thanks to Captain John Smith’s well-documented expedition in 1614 (which is also significant because of this high-profile kidnapping) and the maps that were created as a result.  Captain Smith is credited with naming this region New Plimouth.

4) The Pilgrims might have moved on to another location…

…had it not been for the terrible sicknesses being shared among the passengers and the looming winter.  Bradford wrote, “it was the best they could find, and the season and present necessity made them glad to accept of it.”

5) Forefathers Day was introduced in 1769 to celebrate the landing of the Pilgrims

Before the creation of the United States of America, and almost a century before Thanksgiving was proclaimed a federal holiday by President Lincoln (1863), Forefathers Day was a day for commemorating not only the landing of the Pilgrims but the values which they represented, which are still largely considered cornerstones of our Nation.  According to the Boston Globe, in 1802, John Quincy Adams delivered a speech at Forefathers Day in Plymouth “that celebrated the Pilgrims as proto-democrats whose Mayflower Compact had laid the basis for the great experiment in republican government to come”, and once his reputation began to rise, the position of Forefathers Day speaker in Plymouth became a coveted one. 

The Big Three

If you’re just starting out as a ham or if you’re a ham radio gear expert, you will often want to upgrade or repair your equipment or even replace it entirely. When that happens, generally, the most convenient solution is to find ham radio equipment online. However, you want to look for a reputable company that provides superior quality ham radio equipment for sale.

With Holiday gift giving upon us. Who is your go-to retailer?

Net Discussion Questions:

Have you been to Plymouth Rock?

Have you been on the Mayflower?

Where do you shop for ham radio gear?

• Why?

December 19 is the 353rd day of the year (354th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar; 12 days remain until the end of the year.

Why do people say, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”?

The saying, which generally means “Don’t be ungrateful,” seems to stem from the practice of giving horses as gifts. To check the age of a horse, you normally look into its mouth. This would be considered quite rude if the horse was being given to you as a gift

Fun Facts, Can you add to this list? let's hear a silly fact.

• It is impossible for most people to lick their own elbow. ...

• A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.

• A shrimp's heart is in its head.

• It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.

Attack on Pearl Harbor

“A date that will live in infamy”

The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, just before 8:00 a.m. (local time) on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The United States was a neutral country at the time; the attack led to its formal entry into World War II the next day. 

Japan intended the attack as a preventive action. Its aim was to prevent the United States Pacific Fleet from interfering with its planned military actions in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and those of the United States. Over the course of seven hours there were coordinated Japanese attacks on the US-held Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island and on the British Empire in Malaya, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

The attack commenced at 7:48 a.m. Hawaiian Time (6:18 p.m. GMT).  The base was attacked by 353 Imperial Japanese aircraft (including fighters, level and dive bombers, and torpedo bombers) in two waves, launched from six aircraft carriers.  Of the eight US Navy battleships present, all were damaged, with four sunk. All but USS Arizona were later raised, and six were returned to service and went on to fight in the war. The Japanese also sank or damaged three cruisers, three destroyers, an anti-aircraft training ship, and one minelayer. More than 180 US aircraft were destroyed.  2,403 Americans were killed, and 1,178 others were wounded.   Important base installations such as the power station, dry dock, shipyard, maintenance, and fuel and torpedo storage facilities, as well as the submarine piers and headquarters building (also home of the intelligence section) were not attacked. Japanese losses were light: 29 aircraft and five midget submarines lost, and 64 servicemen killed. Kazuo Sakamaki, the commanding officer of one of the submarines, was captured.

Japan announced declarations of war on the United States and the British Empire later that day (December 8 in Tokyo), but the declarations were not delivered until the following day. The British government declared war on Japan immediately after learning that their territory had also been attacked, while the following day (December 8) the United States Congress declared war on Japan. On December 11, though they had no formal obligation to do so under the Tripartite Pact with Japan, Germany and Italy each declared war on the US, which responded with a declaration of war against Germany and Italy. There were numerous historical precedents for the unannounced military action by Japan, but the lack of any formal warning (required by part III of the Hague Convention of 1907), particularly while peace negotiations were still apparently ongoing, led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to proclaim December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy". Because the attack happened without a declaration of war and without explicit warning, the attack on Pearl Harbor was later judged in the Tokyo Trials to be a war crime.

Larry Bird - Happy 66th Birthday

American basketball player and coach

Larry Bird, in full, Larry Joe Bird, (born December 7, 1956, West Baden, Indiana, U.S.), American basketball player who led the Boston Celtics to three National Basketball Association (NBA) championships (1981, 1984, and 1986) and is considered one of the greatest pure shooters of all time.

Bird was raised in French Lick, Indiana, and attended Indiana State University, where he helped revive the basketball program and led the team to a 33–1 record in his senior season. That season ended with a loss to Michigan State University in the NCAA championship game (1979), which was the first meeting of Bird and Magic Johnson, a rivalry that would become the centerpiece of the NBA’s popularization during the 1980s. Bird was drafted by the Celtics after his junior year at Indiana State (1978) but did not play professionally until the 1979–80 season, when he won the Rookie of the Year award after contributing to one of the largest single-season turnarounds in NBA history (a 32-win improvement).

Over the course of his 13 seasons with the Celtics, the self-described “hick from French Lick” cemented his legacy as one of the greatest players in NBA history. A 6-foot 9-inch (2.06-metre) forward, he was known for his unflappable confidence and clutch shooting ability, which together created an intimidating presence on the court. The Celtics won their first NBA title with Bird (and 14th overall) in 1981; they repeated with title wins in 1984 and 1986. Bird was a 12-time All Star and won three consecutive league Most Valuable Player awards (1984–86), the first non-center to do so. He averaged 24.3 points, 10 rebounds, and 6.3 assists per game over the course of his career, and his 21,791 total points scored was the 11th highest in NBA history at the time of his retirement. At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Bird was a member of the NBA-superstar-laden “Dream Team,” which won a gold medal in basketball. He was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.

Bird retired in 1992 and moved to a front-office position with the Celtics. He became the head coach of the Indiana Pacers (despite having no previous coaching experience) in 1997 and was named Coach of the Year after his first season. Bird resigned in 2000 after guiding the Pacers to an appearance in the NBA finals during the previous season, and he became the Pacers’ president of basketball operations in 2003. In June 2012 he resigned from the Pacers’ front office, just weeks after winning the previous season’s Executive of the Year award. After a year away from the sport, he returned to his position as the Pacers’ president of basketball operations in June 2013. Bird again stepped down in May 2017, having constructed teams that qualified for the play-offs in 8 of his 13 seasons in that position, and then took a role in the Pacers organization as a scout and consultant.

Net Discussion Questions:

TOPIC 1:

Ever since the Japanese attack, there has been debate as to how and why the United States had been caught unaware, and how much and when American officials knew of Japanese plans and related topics.

What do you think?

TOPIC 2:

Larry Bird was known for his unflappable confidence and clutch shooting ability.

What else do you remember about Larry Legend?

Do you think he is the G.O.A.T (Greatest of All Time) of the NBA?

66th ANNIVERSARY of 1st BROADCAST USE OF VIDEOTAPE

“The Tape Era” 1956 - 1986

The first broadcast use of videotape took place 66 years ago today.   At 6:15PM ET on Friday, November 30th, 1956, CBS recorded the live East Coast broadcast of Douglas Edwards and the News. The network used a black-and-white Ampex videotape recorder located at its Television City facility in Hollywood. CBS then played back the quarter-hour news program three hours later for stations on the West Coast. Specifically, KNXT in Los Angeles fed the program to nine stations of the Columbia Television Pacific Network (CTPN).

Ampex unveiled its 2-inch quadruplex videotape recorder in April 1956. CBS was the first network to place orders for machines and thus the first to receive any.  In April 1956 Ray Dolby, Charles Ginsberg and Charles Anderson of Ampex in San Carlos, California, sold the first practical and commercially successful analog recording video tape, a 2-inch quadruplex video tape (also called 2″ quad, or just quad, for short). They also introduced the first practical and commercial video tape recorder, theVR-1000, at the National Association of Broadcasters convention in November 1956.  It cost $50,000.  It considered its use of videotape for Douglas Edwards and the News a technical test and made no public announcement prior to the initial November 30th broadcast.

HOW DID IT LOOK?

Here’s how to Broadcasting Telecasting described the videotape broadcasts of Douglas Edwards and the News in its December 10th, 1956 issue:

West coast television engineers watching the Doug Edwards tapes last week noted on Monday that about five minutes of the program was marked by fine white lines due to “tape dropout,” but that the condition was less noticeable Tuesday and almost eliminated on the Wednesday show. These fine white tracings were noted by a non-technical observer on the secret test Nov. 30 for the first minute of the program but otherwise the picture quality was far superior to normal film kinescope and to other observers appeared to be as natural as a live local origination on that particular receiver.

Last week’s “tape-casts” were described by engineers to have the quality of the best 35 mm film programs now turned out by top Hollywood producers for network use and in addition, had advantages over 35 mm film quality. They explained the contrast range of the tape is far superior to film and very much like tv in that the tape reproduces well the full range from black through the greys to white without the bloom and flare often found in even the finer films.

In other words, the videotaped episodes looked pretty good!

WHERE ARE THE TAPES?

The earliest surviving videotape is a recording of “The Edsel Show,” a CBS special broadcast October 13th, 1957. What happened to the videotape(s) used to record Douglas Edwards and the News six decades ago? They were likely reused until they wore out, then tossed. Remember, videotape was in its infancy in 1956. The recorders were huge, complicated, expensive machines. Reels of videotape were large and costly, too.

It’s unlikely anyone at CBS considered saving the historic November 30th videotape for posterity. If any of these tapes are found, it will probably be very difficult to recover the programs–but hopefully not impossible

VIDEO TAPE TODAY

Tape is a linear method of storing information and thus imposes delays to access a portion of the tape that is not already against the heads.  The early 2000s saw the introduction and rise to prominence of high-quality random-access video recording media such as hard disks and flash memory, or digital storage.  Since then, videotape has been increasingly relegated to archival and similar uses.

Black Friday

Black Friday is a colloquial term for the Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States. It traditionally marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in the United States. Many stores offer highly promoted sales at discounted prices and often open early, sometimes as early as midnight or even on Thanksgiving. Some stores' sales continue to Monday ("Cyber Monday") or for a week ("Cyber Week").

Occurring on the last Friday in November, Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year in the United States since 2005.

The use of the phrase spread slowly, first appearing in The New York Times on November 29, 1975, in which it still refers specifically to "the busiest shopping and traffic day of the year" in Philadelphia. Although it soon became more widespread, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported in 1985 that retailers in Cincinnati and Los Angeles were still unaware of the term.

As the phrase gained national attention in the early 1980s, merchants objecting to the use of a derisive term to refer to one of the most important shopping days of the year suggested an alternative derivation: that retailers traditionally operated at a financial loss for most of the year (January through November) and made their profit during the holiday season, beginning on the day after Thanksgiving.  When this was recorded in the financial records, once-common accounting practices would use red ink to show negative amounts and black ink to show positive amounts. Black Friday, under this theory, is the beginning of the period when retailers would no longer be "in the red", instead of taking in the year's profits. The earliest known published reference to this explanation occurs in The Philadelphia Inquirer for November 28, 1981.

Since the early 21st century, there have been attempts by U.S.-based retailers to introduce a retail "Black Friday" to other countries around the world. Retailers outside the US have attempted to promote the day to remain competitive with US-based online retailers.

In more recent decades, global retailers have adopted the term and date to market their own holiday sales.

·         Are you a Black Friday Shopper?

Are you ready for snow? Most of New England will get its first snow late Tuesday evening. 

Drones:  They May deliver our packages someday They are a hobby and, also a business.

Hedy Lamarr

The Most Beautiful Woman in Film

Often called “The Most Beautiful Woman in Film,” Hedy Lamarr’s beauty and screen presence made her one of the most popular actresses of her day.

She was born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler on November 9, 1914 in Vienna, Austria. At 17 years old, Hedy starred in her first film, a German project called Geld auf der Strase. Hedy continued her film career by working on both German and Czechoslavakian productions. The 1932 German film Exstase brought her to the attention of Hollywood producers, and she soon signed a contract with MGM.

Once in Hollywood, she officially changed her name to Hedy Lamarr and starred in her first Hollywood film, Algiers (1938), opposite Charles Boyer. She continued to land parts opposite the most popular and talented actors of the day, including Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and Jimmy Stewart. Some of her films include an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flat (1942), White Cargo (1942), Cecil B. DeMille’s Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Female Animal (1957).

Beyond the Glitz & Glamour of Hollywood

As if being a beautiful, talented actress was not enough, Hedy was also a gifted mathematician, scientist, and innovator. Alongside the famed composer George Antheil, Lamarr patented the "Secret Communication System" during World War II. Her idea - now referred to as "frequency hopping" - pertained to a way for radio guidance transmitters and torpedo's receivers to jump simultaneously from frequency to frequency. The Hollywood star's invention sought to put an end to enemies' interception of classified military strategies, signals, and messages. While the technology of the time prevented the feasibility of "frequency hopping" at first, the advent of the transistor and its later downsizing propelled Lamarr's idea far in both the military and the cell phone industry.

Overall, the Hollywood actress introduced the technology that would serve as the foundation of modern-day WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems. Her creation of "frequency hopping," which holds an estimated worth of $30 billion, led her to receive the Pioneer Award of the Electronic Frontier Foundation as well as the Invention Convention's Bulbie Gnass Spirit of Achievement Award.

Lamarr's impressive technological achievement combined with her acting talent and star quality makes "The Most Beautiful Woman in Film" one of the most accomplished and intelligent women in not only Hollywood but also STEM.

Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces (who were discharged under conditions other than dishonorable).   It coincides with other holidays including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day which are celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of World War I.  Major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918 when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. At the urging of major US veteran organizations, Armistice Day was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

Veterans Day is distinct from Memorial Day, a US public holiday in May. Veterans Day celebrates the service of all US military veterans, while Memorial Day honors those who have died while in military service.  Another military holiday that also occurs in May, Armed Forces Day, honors those currently serving in the US military. Additionally, Women Veterans Day is recognized by a growing number of US states that specifically honor women who have served in the US military.

Observance

Because it is a federal holiday, some American workers and many students have Veterans Day off from work or school. When Veterans Day falls on a Saturday then either Saturday or the preceding Friday may be designated as the holiday, whereas if it falls on a Sunday it is typically observed on the following Monday. When it falls on the weekend many private companies offer it as a floating holiday where employees can choose some other day.  

Legally, two minutes of silence is recommended to be observed at 2:11pm Eastern Standard Time.

Non-essential federal government offices are closed. No mail is delivered. All federal workers are paid for the holiday; those who are required to work on the holiday sometimes receive holiday pay for that day in addition to their wages.

Spelling of Veterans Day

While the holiday is commonly printed as Veteran's Day or Veterans' Day in calendars and advertisements, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs website states that the attributive (no apostrophe) rather than the possessive case is the official spelling "because it is not a day that 'belongs' to veterans, it is a day for honoring all veterans.

One-eared dog named Van Gogh, Paints with his tongue!

https://www.wcvb.com/article/meet-a-one-eared-dog-named-van-gogh-who-paints-with-his-tongue/41849989# 

Broadcast Radio --  where is it at? 

Did it move to the Internet?