K5LAD - 50+ Years of Ham Radio Memories
Volume IX
Does History Repeat Itself?
There's an old saying that history repeats itself, and I happen to believe that it's true. Perhaps not always in the way the original saying was made but it does repeat itself. Earlier in my 50 Years of Ham Radio Memories documents, I mentioned that I made a slow-down weight to use on my Vibroplex semi-automatic key. This allowed me to send dots in a nice smooth, although fairly slow, speed. I mentioned that that weight was made by filling an old presidential campaign button with solder and hanging the pin clip over the end of the dot generating arm. The campaign button could have come from the era of either 1952 or 1956 since the two people whose names were on that button ran for president during both those years. Actually, the one I used was from 1956, my pre-Novice days.
The two candidates were Dwight D. Eisenhower - "Ike" and Richard "Dick" Nixon running for president and vice-president and the button originally said "Ike and Dick" although once the solder was heated up time after time to make it a solid tin/lead mixture inside the button, the paint came off completely leaving bare metal.
In another area of my Memories I had mentioned about several people from my earliest ham radio days. One was Merle Eichenfeld - W5IER who was my mentor, my Elmer, and who somehow put up with the innumerable questions and visits of a teenage boy who couldn't get enough of the information on this wonderful hobby. Everybody called him "Ike" a nickname derived from his last name. Everyone knew him as "Ike" and, I believe, only his wife called him by his actual first name.
I've also mentioned, in my Memories, about Richard Pembroke - K5LDR. Richard and I were in the same grade in high school, we both were members of the Sand Springs Amateur Radio Club, and we both took our ham tests at around the same time. Richard's nickname was "Dick" and that's the name we know him by.
Hmmmmm...... Dick and Ike................ Ike and Dick.......... Did history repeat itself with me, first with the Vibroplex campaign button weight and later with some of my first ham friends? Perhaps.
This thought hadn't occurred to me until recently when I was looking at some photographs I had taken at the local Green Country Hamfest. The picture is here below:
Dick - K5LDR and Ike - W5IER
Page visited 485 times Return
to the Home Page