Glad to be able to help out John. Good to know that there are still hams
around that are willing to do for those less fortunate.
I have to relate a story that happened at the Orlando Hamfest. I was
working in the Vibroplex Booth and visited the Elecraft booth to chat with
Eric one of the owners of Elecraft. I had built several K2's for
handicapped hams and he ask if I had a card so I gave him a few and later in
the day a gentleman walked up to the Vibroplex booth asking for me. He was
having real difficulty in talking so I put two and two together and ask him
if he had a stroke to which he said yes. I ask him what I could do for him
and he said he had started building an Elecraft K1 and had the stroke and
was looking for someone to finish it for him and Eric had told him about
me. I gave him my card with my address on it and told him to mail the radio
and parts to me and I would be glad to complete and align it for him. He
ask how much and I said no charge you just pay for the freight back to his
home. He thanked me and I think I even detected a little tear in his eye.
He mailed me the radio and I checked over the work he had done and corrected
a couple of mistakes and completed the build and the alignment in two days
and then kept it on for 48 hours making contacts randomly with it to be sure
there were no surprises and then returned it back to him. He sent me the
nicest thank you note and a check for the shipping charges and a nice added
amount with a note that said he could afford it and to pass it on to a ham
who couldn't.
Ham radio is a wonderful thing. I have never charged anyone for repairs
unless the insisted on paying. The reason is that as a very new and very
young ham I built a Heathkit DX-100 in 1957 and it had a problem I was
unable to locate so a local ham offered to look at it for me. He found one
little strand of a wire in the driver section shorting to ground and clip it
out. He told me how good a job I did building it and then I ask how much I
owed him and he said $25.00. In 1957 that was a lot of money for a 16 year
old boy in high school and working in a grocery store. I swore from that
day on I would never charge for my services for fellow hams.
73
Jim Younce K4ZM ex K4LXU
Elecraft K2 Field Tester
K2 SN: 18
-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of John Farler
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2016 11:48 AM
To: tentec@contesting.com; qrp-l@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TenTec] I'm old but I'm slow....
Several months ago, on the Ten Tec list, I told about a ham who has almost
lost his sight, and asked for parts to fix an old 540 for him to use, since
it has only a few knobs, and should be easy to use. He had a Tech license
for 19 years and got the general and extra within a year and said he wanted
to upgrade while he could still study with just a big magnifying glass.
He didn't have a lot of moneyfor a new rig, either, so I had an old 540
but it didn't transmit, and needed new finals and drivers at least.
To get to the point, two hams who are on both the TT and QRP-l lists came to
the rescue.Mike Bryce <http://www.theheathkitshop.com/page12/index.html>,
WB8VGE, offered to do the repairs for free, and K4ZM, Jim Younce, offered
the needed parts gratis. Together they got the rig going and aligned, and
David Pierce, KE4OZS, is now
enjoying it.
Please excuse my slowness in bringing this up to show the real spirit on the
Ten Tec List as well as the QRP-L. These two really exemplify the Amateur
Radio Spirit of being very helpful.
One reason it has taken me so long is that I wanted to put the story on my
webpage, and you can see more info atk4avx.net
<http://home.windstream.net/johnfarler/KMARC/david.html>. You may want to
backup from this and look at a story written by my mentor, W4JDU, about his
experience in WW2, during the Battle of Midway.
Thanks again to Mike and Jim for their work and generosity. It is greatly
appreciated.
73,
John Farler, K4AVX
k4avx1@windstream.net
http://k4avx.net
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