Hi all,
Just thought I'd inject a bit of humor into the reflector.
This falls into the "have to get one o' these" catagory...
Good and clean. AND CONTEST RELATED
Subject: Watch
Jake is struggling through a bus station with two huge and obviously
heavy suitcases when a stranger walks up to him and asks
"Have you got the time?"
Jake sighs, puts down the suitcases and glances at his wrist.
"It's a quarter to six," he says.
"Hey, that's a pretty fancy watch!" exclaims the stranger.
Jake brightens a little.
"Yeah, it's not bad. Check this out"...and he shows him a TIME ZONE
display,
not just for every time zone in the world, but for the 86 largest
metropoli.
He hits a few buttons and from somewhere in the watch a voice says
"The time is fifteen-fourty-five" in a very Western Texas accent.
A few more buttons and the same voice says something in Japanese.
Jake continues, "I've put in regional accents for each city".
The display is unbelievably high quality and the voice is simply
astounding.
The stranger is struck dumb with admiration "That's not all", says Jake.
He pushes a few more buttons and a tiny, but very high-resolution map
of New York City appears on the display.
"The flashing dot shows our location by satellite positioning,"
explains Jake.
"View recede ten," Jake says, and the display changes to show eastern
New York state with true/magnetic North, and grid square references.
"I want to buy this watch!" says the stranger.
"Oh, no, It's not ready for sale yet; I'm still working out the bugs,"
says the inventor. "But look at this,"
and he demonstrated that the watch is also a very creditable little
10-meter radio transceiver with an auto tuner, memory keyer, DVK
and a sonar device that can measure distances and tower heights up to
125 meters, a call logger with thermal paper printout for hard copy,
and most impressive of all, the capacity for voice recordings of up to 300
standard-size books,
"Although I only have the US/Foreign callbooks, QSL bureaus and
managers
and all the Antenna Compendiums in there so far," says Jake.
"I've got to have this watch!" says the stranger.
"No, you don't understand; it's not ready."
"I'll give you $1000 for it!"
"Oh, no, I've already spent more than that."
"I'll give you $5000 for it!"
"But it's just not..."
"I'll give you $15,000 for it!" And the stranger pulls out a checkbook.
Jake stops to think. He's spent $8500 for materials and Development, and
with $15 000 he could make another one, and have it ready for market by
the Dayton hamfest. Plus, getting the 10-meter high power capability
would be the easiest things by the next CQ 10 mtr contest. And the extra
money might allow him to add computer contest logging...
The stranger frantically finishes writing the check and waves it In front
of
him. "Here it is, ready to hand to you right here and now. $15,000. Take
it or
leave it."
Jake abruptly makes his decision. "OK", he says, and peels off the watch.
They make the exchange and the stranger starts happily away.
"Hey, wait a minute," calls Jake...after the stranger.
The stranger stopped and turned as Jake points to the two suitcases he'd
been trying to wrestle through the bus station:
"DON'T FORGET YOUR BATTERIES!
73,
John K1RC (john-k1rc@juno.com)
Dracut, Ma.
35 mi NW of Boston
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