Tag Archives: HamNation

Famous Hams: New President and Vice President of Indonisia are both hams

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I missed this last month!  I caught it on last week’s Ham Nation during Don AE5DW’s Newsline report (at exactly 20:00 on the video).  The ARRL Reports:

Indonesia’s new national leaders are both Amateur Radio licensees.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, YD2JKW, holds a General class license. Vice President Jusuf Kalla, YC8HYK, is an Advanced class licensee.

Elected in July, Jokowi, 53, a former furniture exporter, and Kalla, 72, were inaugurated on October 20 in Jakarta. Indonesia is the world’s third-largest democracy, with a population of approximately 250 million.

Secretary of State John Kerry represented the US at the inauguration and met with the new president afterward. Jokowi previously served as governor of Jakarta and as mayor of Surakarta.

(published from DFW, Texas)

Crosstown Traffic: HamNation #169 features Tower Safety

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After the death of James Linstedt W9ZUC [eHam.com] of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, tower safety is once again a hot topic in ham radio circles.  James was 59 years old and an experienced tower climber, yet committed a deadly safety breach by not securing his harness to the tower when he needed to climb ten feet.  During that brief climb, he slipped and fell 95 feet to his death.  Numerous news reports were in the mainstream media about his death…  This is the one from his local paper, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.

Valerie Hotzfeld NV9L did a pretty interesting piece on tower safety on last week’s HamNation on twit.tv.  Her piece begins at 15:40.  You can also see this on YouTube — this link should take you right to 15:40.

Those of us in radio and electronics have chosen inherently dangerous hobbies.  We can get burned while soldering that PL-259 onto the RG-8.  We can get shocked.  We can slip with that pair of wire cutters and end up with stitches.  I’ve done all three of these.  But the tower work can be the most deadly.  Be careful everybody.

 

(published from DFW, Texas)