Tuesday, September 28th 2004
Update by: VE3HBD
Hi there folks.... Sorry for the long delay in getting an update done, but as you were probably aware I was out of the country for a week. I was down in the good ole US of A visiting my partner in crime Seth N3JFW down in Maryland, and meeting some of our loyal readers and contributors who met with us for dinner. I had a great time, and wanted to thank all who came out and spent some time with us. It was great finally putting a few faces to the names.
The triip was good - the 13 hour drive from Toronto to Southern Maryland was pretty uneventful (if a little long). Rather than the backroads route I usually take, I stuck to the interstates. Took the New York State Thruway to I-81 in Syracuse, south on I-81 through Pennsylvania and into Maryland. I really enjoy seeing and experiencing "America off the beaten path" (hence my usual routes), but this time I was more interested in getting there without falling sleep and ending up wrapped around a tree.
The week involved food, guns, radio, more guns, more food and more radios. Seth and I met up with a couple of Hamsexy readers and friends Dave N3EJT and Todd KB3CGS for some good gunsexy action. We travelled out to Dave's property deep in the wilds of Frederick, MD and had a good afternoon laying with various machine guns and other firearms. Being Canadian, it was all an extreme novelty as there literally wasn't one weapon that we used that wasn't specifically prohibited back home in Canada. Despite what Michael Moore tells you, guns are NOT as openly legal as they are in America. Just another lie from everyone's favorite left-wing nutjob (grin).
After peppering the forest with several hundred rounds of Wal-Mart bought ammo, the next day Seth and I met up with Jason KI4HAB (ChartofMaryland) and went down to visit HRO 
(Ham Radio Outlet) in Woodbridge, Virginia. Jason bought an antenna and I purchased a nice new Yaesu VX-7R. We also tickled the Hamsexy nerves of some of the staff when I started talking on Seth's Astro Saber to see how well their Uniden Digital Bearcat scanner decoded P25 digital. "OH MY GOD THAT'S SO ILLEGAL!" said the clerk, shocked that we were operating digital on a ham simplex frequency. We tried explaning that it's perfectly legal to operate unencyrpted digital modes on 2M, but we're not sure that we were able to convince him of it.
That night we went across to Prince George County to go Skeet shooting. Other than the relentless blackflies we had a good time. It felt good that gun-naive me was able to crack more clays than gun-guru Seth. There's something about shotguns that really appeal to me, and I'm considering getting into it back home. Shotguns are, fortunatley, legal in Canada - so I don't forsee a problem.
Seth and I also caught a few movies. While waiting for a movie in Rockville we caught this hamsexy car - what appears to be a crummy Acura or something with a big pushbumper on it. Very puzzling as to why this was installed. as there is no evidence of any lights or radios or anything. It's borderline, but worth mentioning
My last two nights we went to bd's Mongolian BBQ in Bethesda two days in a row for dinner. The first night we met up with a couple of Seth's friends, their kids and Charlie KF4OSS, one of our Hamsexy Forums moderators. Although the line was a little long at the grill we had a good time, and we all got to drool over Charlie's new truck. The next night we went back to the Mongoloid BBQ to have one last hamsexy dinner with Dave N3EJT, Jason KI4HAB and John KA3LAO. We had a great time eating, hanging out and harassing the help. John's got this amazing (albeit pointless) ability to decode DTMF just by listening to it, including #, * and A,B,C,D..
In all, a great trip. Thanks to everyone I met and had fun with... I look forward to the next time!
I would also like to issue our condolences to the family of Monty Sisco, who passed away the other day of a heart attack. Monty was the cornerstone of the Batlabs Batboard, and will be greatly missed. Click here for the online condolence book for Monty and his family. We'll miss you, Monty.
Monday, September 20th 2004
Update by: VE3HBD
We got this letter today in the Hamsexy mailbag:
Hello,
I my name is Mike and the main person at (C.O.V.E.R.T.) now name changed due to conflict on O.V.E.R.T. Search & Rescue in Durham,ON to (v.E.T.S, Volunteer Emergency Traffic Support)
I would like to clarify 1 MAIN BIG thing, that Chevy Venture van you have on your website IS NO LONGER A Member of ours, due to the fact he keeps BREAKING the law. As you may have guessed (reds in the light bar).
Explanation of our duties:
We assist the Fire & Police in York Region, ON with traffic support duties. As in closing down traffic lanes or re-directing traffic due to accidents and fires. York Region Police (Districts 1 & 2) and Fire know us pretty well and we have gotten a great deal of respect from them and we would like to keep it that way. The only lighting equipment we use is as per MTO (Ministry of Transportation) requirements (AMBER) with a white mixture, an arrow bar for traffic control and a CB to talk with other members of different points of a closure. That's IT, That's ALL, not very impressive to us, LOL.
As this is why i am writing this letter to you so that an ex-member does not mis-represent us.
So, overall can you please update some of the information you have on the mini-van (Scott T,) so that he is not representing us like this. Like take away the COVERT name.
Regards,
Mike
v.E.T.S.
Thanks for writing, Mike.... If you or someone else in your group would like to submit a profile of your organization, along with photos of your cars and/or members, I'd be happy to publish it. We've approached many people wishing to offer up the 'other' side of this issue.... ARES groups, groups like your organization, etc. in defending themselves by providing a free and open forum - but no one's taken us up on it yet.
Anyhow folks.. I'm in the great state of Maryland all this week, so there won't be any updates until I get back on Saturday. Seth and I are going to be in deep conference, planning our direction for the site for the next year, working out various logistical issues, and building killer destructo-bots to enforce our final solution on ham radio and... well, just the meetings, and maybe some skeet shooting. I'm also looking forward to meeting up with some of our readers and fans at our FIRST ANNUAL HAMSEXY CONVENTION in Bethesda. It should be fun! Vaya con dios, my friends. See you all in a little less than a week.
Friday, September 17th 2004
Update by: VE3HBD
Alright, alright... I told you all that weve had enough of the QRZ nonesense, and I meant it. I would like to make it up to our humble readers by offering the following:
THE BENCHMARK OF PROFESSIONAL HAMSEXYNESS!! SEE!!!!
So kick back, relax, burn up a phat bleezie in tha heezie, and enjoy:
From the submitter:
Notice the "high intensity" Radio Shack blue strobe light on the drivers front bumper cover. The one on the passenger side is missing, it must have been blown off by the force of the wind as that twin cam motor exceeded Mach 1 on the way to a grass fire. Also you will notice 2 more of those "high intensity" $5.95 Radio Shack strobes on the light bar, a clear one screwed to each side of it for that all important intersection clearing power. And lets not forget the water proof boat trailer lights in the rear deck of the car. Everyone knows that everything a fireman has needs to be waterproof, these lights included. Added for extra traffic warning power is that Federal Signal SignalMaster arrow stick in the rear window with 2 red lenses. I heard that the installer didn't even charge extra for the #1 grade 2x4 to mount it on. They usually are mounted on #2's, but this was a friendship deal and he got the upgrade!! As far as communications are concerned, he can stay in touch with the 3 glass mount scanner antennas on the back window. When you mount 3 of them together, within a couple of inches of each other, you get that all important sound of when the antenna whips hit against each other in the wind.
We are also told that he is indeed an emergency worker and authorized to run the colours on the car (unlike the Ontario, Canada formerly-of-C.O.V.E.R.T. nerdmobile) - so it doesn't really qualify as ham, but it sure fits the SEXY profile.
"Attention K-Mart shoppers.... Blue light Special on the left fender"
Wednesday, September 15th 2004
Update by: Purple Zero
If there's any sort of silver lining in this whole QRZ bullshit is this: it's allowed us to see what other hams think of this site. All one has to do is visit the thread that Bryan mentioned below, and read the little nuggets that some people have tossed into the ring.
Clearly, a great many of those in the ham radio community don't get the joke, and choose to react to this with hostility and anger. Are we too "out there" for the ham community? Are we offensive? Nah... the people who get angry do so because we hit a little too close to home for their comfort. This site is parody... it's satire... and as with all forms of satirical comedy, we know that we're on the right track when people get angry at us. The ones that get pissed and feel the need to vocalize it are most likely the demograph of Ham we're making fun of... middle aged, probably overweight, usually unwashed... either in a empty marriage or haven't gotten that far with a girl yet. It's a proven fact - the ones that get angry at comedy are usually the targets, if they know it or not. Or they're humourless old cranks - either way we've struck paydirt. :
One of the choice *****clips from the QRZ thread *** is from W0LC - who feels too *****ing infuriated by what he finds on here he lashes out with a p***poor le**er that just CRIES over-c*mpensa**n. To him we sincerely say: *********** with a red hot ******************.
Hamsexy et al is where the losers with p**poor attitudes end up usually! They get kicked in the butt off here for their stupid and rude behavior, probably the same ones that *belch, kerchunk, cuss, whine, moan* etc.
Let there be anti-QRZ.COM sites for all the whiners, space cowboys, former vets with purple hearts that whine, etc. At least we don't have to read their tripe on here.
When I need a good laugh, or need to throw up a lunch to cut the carbs, I can read some of the postings on Hamsexy.com or the NCI website.
RAAAAAALLPH...
If I may....
I AM THE MORNING DEEJAY... AT W-O-L-CEEE! CEE! CEE! CEE!
PLAYING ALL THE HITS FOR YOU... WHEREVER YOU MAY BE
(My apologies to any Harry Chapin fans out there)
For someone who extolls the need to be virtuous on his QRZ profile page, that was a pretty immature post. But, beside the point, it's just another message from the uninformed, closed minded hams that this site is choosing to highlight. He kisses QRZ admin's ass in public, but I am sure he would be the first to scream in a shrill fashion if his posting rights were taken away for something he didn't agree with. he doesn't' care what the cause is, he doesn't even know what it's about... he's just against it, and that's good enough for him. Good Lord, he uses words like "Elmer" - a term that belongs in Ham radio's past along with tube rectifiers and Italians flying kites on hills in Newfoundland.
Tuesday, September 14th 2004
Update by: Clyde McPhail
$49.95 a month, and all I get are the nerdy channels....
