School Must Tell My Logbook Revisited Song Dealing With Hysteria A Simple Practice Another Hectic Day Learning the wrong things The burning of the Al-Quaran Where are
the phones ?Why do
people write ? A Few
Hard Call Signs My Shirts System
Thinking Common sense of Qso Why do you sit for CW
? State of The Art Ham Radio or
Hamputer Saman
Ekor A chat with
my student M0rse Test -
No Luck A Question
of Islam Start
Cleaning My Shack We Don't Want Your Money F-Car Government Must... Special For
Non-Hams.... Malaysian
Hams By Race USA Car
Rental The Change My Arch Enemy Self Discipline Sorry No Skype The Near Future Did I
report 9W2 ? Value
System Watching
American Idol Audition Nostalgia
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SCHOOL MUST TELL
Death due to murder and the story of
missing persons have something to do with social illness. Human freedom and
Human Right somehow contribute to the increasing problems of runaway kids, teen
pregnancy, street racing, drug abuse and fighting against the parents. At one
time school took the part of parenting but the NGOs, parents and even the
Minister opposed it and said that parents should take the role to check and
control their kids.
In real life kids simply oppose and
challenge their parents, cheat and bluff them, went out and came home at the wee
hours. Parents find it very difficult to communicate with their kids.
The Ministry and the government must
not just ignore the rising problem and look deeply at what policy to take to
encourage the schools and the teachers to guide and informed the students of
causes and effects of their actions. Otherwise teachers wouldn't just leave it
to the parent. Whether the kids play truant, fail in the test, sleep in class,
slipping away from classes and dress in a topsy-turby manner. I know of teachers
who still talk even half of the class went to sleep or when the class was very
noisy.
The school must tell what is meant
by 'Derhaka' and it's consequence. Unlike USA, in Malaysia education can still
mix with religion. It means the school can talk about heaven and hell or making
a detail analysis of the action of fighting against the parents. The school must
tell about the consequences of free sex, the importance of building a good
image, on dress and many other social behavior .
There have been several murder cases
involving school children and many cases of run away students.
Parent-teacher confrontation does
not pay. As there are many indifferent parents so are the number of indifferent
teachers. Once being attacked by the parents, many teachers simply ignore the
students. They can sleep, play truant, do not do homework, and dress in anyway
they want.
How many percent of the parents want
to talk about the danger of street racings to their kids ? And what to say about
it ? But a school can analyze it thru several aspects. And we found the students
found them amusing when we mentioned 'swimming on the road'.
Most important is to instill
responsibility, considerate, not to be greedy, always grateful to God and other
human beings, tell them between the good and the bad. It is the school's role to
produce a responsible citizen. With the parents and the school working hand in
hand many social illness could be controlled. Yet we all remember that
statements by the well known people about the right of the kid above a certain
age and they can take legal actions even on their parents.
Most of all "Jangan jaga tepi kain
orang" by Rais Yatim is one of the most interesting statements.
17/08/2010
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MY LOGBOOK REVISITED
Today
I no longer use the above logbook. However I would like to explain something
about it. The bottom right shows an image of IC706 Mark2G. Connecting the
computer to the radio will print the frequency on the image at Text22. As you
change the frequency the reading will also change. Clicking the menu ModeChange
I can choose the rig I connect to, commanding the rig to go any mode and adjust
the frequency.
You also see the checkbox with 3
title, Ham, Qrz and INA. On entering the call sign in the yellow box and
checking the box will display any info of the station on the top portion of the
logbook.
I include a map though it is messy
and unorganized that will show the location of the country by checking the box
below the INA. Example I type VK5 in the yellow box or any VK5 call sign.
Beneath it it will print the location namd and on clicking the while box the map
will be shown.
Also on the menu is Satelite which
will bring to the NASA's satellite page where I can see the location of the
satellites concerned.
Those are among the few features I
incorporate inside my log book. Therese are several versions of them. A few has
the animation cartoons that speak or read the text. I understand the new Windows
included the voice system in.
The installations is a little hard.
The file size is about 1.4 mgb because it contain many modules. Though I
enjoy using it, I need to change it to the simpler version because I am using
the html system to open my logbook kept in the remote server together with the
data. For new hams they have many free logging soft wares they can download.
Though mine is simple and less sophistication I just like the homebrew staffs.
16/08/2010
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SONGS
Now I have passed the 63 mark. The other day I opened
up a small organ which I bought more than 10 years ago and start to play with
the keys. Since I never learn music I am only able to play a few songs from the
memory. These are the oldies I used to like in the 60s.
I don't find the new songs tasty, with full of
shoutings without melody. Shout...shout..shout... I think the new generations
will not like Besame Mucho or ever heard of it. But I still keep songs like The
Queen For Tonight, Limbo Rock, Born Free, Oh Carrol, Rain-Rain Go Away, Seal
With A Kiss, the Sound of Silence and many more top pops in those years. I find
them very lovely. I think
the present music attract the youth by the beat of the drum. Even without any
other instrument the repeated beat would cause the movement of the legs and body
to take effect. And the lack of aesthetic sense do not drive them to appreciate
the melodious music. May be they would detest an opera too.
Old songs are soothing and words are very clear. It is
easy for the non-English speaking people to understand them. In fact kids could
learn speaking English thru them. When my English teacher complained about the
student's attitudes towards learning English, I asked him to teach them the
evergreen English song. Indeed I saw him bringing guitars to school.
There is a Tamil channel on ASTRO which has a program
on the traditional Tamil song. Singers as old as 70s were invited to sing and
they are good too. To sing a Tamil song you need to have an excellent vocal. I
would watch the whole show and enjoy the Tamil songs though I did not understand
a single word of it. The
other day when I visit Bandung, two young men came up on our bus and sang Biduri.
One was playing a violin and the other a guitar. The combination of both
instruments for the song produce a very beautiful music that really touches our
hearts. And that one time song I heard did penetrate my soul and mind. And I
still could recall it thru my keyboard.
The modern Chinese songs sound almost like English. At
time I was thinking it was English when not paying attention to the lyrics. But
I don't remember hearing the yelling songs in Chinese.
I believe melodious music, the non-yelling type, plays
important part in a person emotional and intellectual development. The 7 bit
Baroque music is believed to enhance mental absorptions of facts read. While
studying it is good to put on a soft Baroque music. When my student told me that
her daughter was learning guitar, I suggested that she should also learn violin.
Siki-Yaki, Chu-Chu San, Gigi dan Lidah Lagi Tergigit,
Biduri, and Besame Mucho are deep in my heart. They give me pleasure and
happiness. These are the evergreen songs.
16/08/2010
Top |
DEALING WITH A HYSTERIA
GHOST
Just now one 1988/89 female student
reminded me of a night of hysteria in the girl's hostel. She could still
remember how I dealt with the hysteria ghost.
People believe hysteria is caused by
a certain unhappy ghost which would disturb a group of boys or girls making them
cry and shout hysterically. A Bomoh or a Shaman would be called in to chase the
ghost away. One of the schools famous for hysteria attacked was SM Kebangsaan
Gulau.
Fortunately or not, I just don't
believe in ghost. Though some Americans believe in them and there was an attempt
by National Geographic to prove of it's existence, I just don't believe in it
even a bit. So, one night I was informed of a hysteria in the girl's hostel. My
mind start to compute an action to be taken. The teachers suggested a religious
teacher or a shaman to come and oust the ghost. I just said nothing.
When reaching the hostel I heard the
girls cried and shouted. I shouted aloud "Go and get a long and big cane and
boil hot water. I want to chase the ghost by canning those who are hysteric and
pour the hot water on their feet.." I took the cane and hit hard on the door and
call for the hot water. The cry immediately subsided. The teachers were trying
to control their laugh. They knew the psychological approach work. Soon after
everybody seemed to be fined. I saw some came out of the dorm and went to the
toilets.
That was not all. There was another
time when a boy came to my room and told me "Sir I am from SM Gulau." "So what
?" I asked. "Hysteria cikgu,"he said.
"You think you want to be hysteric ,
well go ahead. If you do I am sure I will call the mental ambulance to put you
in the Tanjung Rambutan. Do it now."
You know what happened ? He just
walked out of my room. No hysteria. Nothing. For years I did not hear any such
happening happen until I left the school.
The student who reminded me of the
experience she hardly forget knew what was happening and aware of what I was
doing. Thinking about it she laughed and we were laughing together.
Many time after that I read news
papers on hysteria and how publicity were given. Those schools would still fall
on Bomoh to deal with the phenomena.
You have to have a strong mind and
have 100% confidence that your method will work. I happen to believe in the
power of a mind, a mental telepathy, the sending of waves to conquer other
minds. I believe in the 'mind over matter' stuff. When I shouted and hitting the
cane against the door, I was so sure that it would work. There was no if and
don't.
When I told the story to my friend,
they said "You must be worst than the ghost. The ghost was scared of the ugly
person like you. May be you look like the mafia ghost..."If and only if there is
a ghost, it won't stay in country like ours where the noises of the plane and
cars did not give them the peace of mind. People are taking their places, cut
the trees and forest. Probably they might have migrated to some islands like
Commodore islands which is populated by big lizards and no human.
Strangely enough Holywood has been
making tons of money out of the ghost stories.
15/08/2010
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A SIMPLE PRACTICE
I remember telling my students, not
all of them, about the importance of letting the parents know where they are.
Mothers do not know where the kids are at daylight or night time. Some worries
and some would not care at all. "If you are at your friend's house ring up your
mother and tell her where you are and what time you will be back." Kids may end
up themselves in the padi field after being knocked by vehicles. "If you are a
father and you don't know where your kids are and still do not come home after
midnight what would you feel ?" I would ask them.
And I got a habit of telling my
clerks where I wanted to go and would informed them where I was. I did not want
them to say they did not know I went to whenever the parents or my bosses visit
the school. The could contact me any time and I would rush back immediately.
Even during a school holidays, I would keep my school clerk informed where I
was.
Had not Dato' Susilawati informed
her staff she she would be going, the puzzled would have been lingered and
probably the murderer would have gone scot free. A spouse should tell each other
of where each is going and with whom he/she will be with. But some flirting men
and ladies prefer to hide. It would be very dangerous and insecure for lady
flirters because their behavior would invite jealousy among the men they met.
They could even be murdered.
I have a friend whom I know is a
great flirters and would hide her where about and with whom she would go out
with. It is extremely difficult for me to advise her. I know she would not
accept it and would hate me forever. I have to wait for such a case to happen
and to tell her of the result. I wonder whether she could remember of a lady who
was murdered at an apartment before. But that was at her own apartment.
Cases of bodies found burnt were
published in papers. The mysteries were still unsolved.
Telling someone of our where about
did not stop other people from murdering us. At least it help the living people
to find the murderer. In case we are not dead yet we could still be saved. The
practice is simple and it is free. It is for our own good.
14/08/2010
Top |
ANOTHER HECTIC DAY
Hari raya does not end yet. Visitors
are still coming. Yet the Kenduri festivities are on and the students are making
re-union meeting. There was a re-union of 1993/1994 students which I could not
make it due to the visitors. Today the 1992/1993 students were having it at one
Bahtera Nelayan restaurant at 4.00 pm. And I had a kenduri invitation between
5.00 - 9.00 pm. Perlis's hams visited me at 3 pm.
At 4.00 pm I moved out and went to
Bahtera Nelayan about 10 miles away and met about 40 families including a TV
actor and his family. Soon after the great soccer referee Cikgu Subkhiddin
arrived and followed by other teachers. I just saw Subkhiddin on Astro channel
303 when he refreed the Korean-Iran friendly match. Subkhiddin was a very
popular figure at the re-union party. There were many walk ins. The original
number expected were only 10 persons. I was saying that 10 should not be called
a re-union. I chat with
Subkhiddin and asked him many things about refereeing, the language he used
during the game and how he made a decision. When the time came we have to
depart. After the photographic session I went home and arrived at 8 pm. My body
was sweaty and I felt very exhausted. My wife was ready for the Kenduri. Quickly
we leave our house. At the
Kenduri's house we have to park our car outside the area. My wife had to walk
using her walker and that took her more than 20 minutes. People came to usher
her to the table and it looked like nobody notice and recognize me.
At 9.30 pm we came back. I was very tired and went
horizontal for more than 30 minutes.
Though hectic, it paid off. Another interesting day
passed by. I was happy to see my students. Observe carefully which one is the TV
actor in the picture above. Our great Malaysian referee is on my left.
14/08/2010
Top |
LEARNING THE WRONG THINGS
Many of us think we know better than
the others and already decide to be teachers. The danger with teachers is when
they teach the wrong things to the students. At time facts are twisted
deliberately especially when teaching about our enemy. Looking back at history
on the origin of historical figures they were much mixed with myth to give a
divine touch to the persons so that they could command obedience.
I have been listening to people
talking and were wondering where they learnt about those things. Telling them
that those were wrong and lies would encounter with strong resistance and
challenges. To say Tungku Abdul Rahman Putera was a ham was a very serious
error. To say a 10 watt transmitter can transmit better than 100 watts was even
more foolish. To call a microphone a Push To Talk and QRX to temporary sign are
equally foolish. To fight and say the foolish stuffs are true and real is
inexplicable phenomena.
I am fond of asking an electronic
teacher why at night we can hear many oversea broadcast as compared during the
day time. The answer that I have heard was "Day time many interference. Night
time less interference." If this was told to the students, they would bring that
as a fact their whole life.
Facts twisting could be the
profession of politicians who want to maintain the status quo at whatever cost.
They can manufacture lies with proofs to cheat the voters.
It is a good habit to check anything
claimed as facts. Some do only need common sense and logic to confirm the
statement. And we can't even follow the belief of the majority. At one time the
world was said to be flat and one can walk to the edge of the earth.
There are people who simply ignore
fools and there those who laugh at their foolishness.
13/08/2010
Top |
THE BURNING OF THE AL-QUARAN
Iam not going to state anything thru
the eyes of Islam on the issue above though about 55 years ago my pious neighbor
had talked about it. But the analysis is based on the other perspective.
The 4 revealed books belonging to
the 4 revealed religions are recognized by Islam. May they be belonged to the
Christians and the Jews. Burning one of the four means burning all the reveal
religion as well as all other religions. I have written much about the rejection
of Christianity and religions by the Americans. Thou shall not commit adultery
has vanished from the verse. The state enactments on sexual freedom and the
position of the gays and lesbians and several other social activities indicate
the death of religion among the younger generations.
The fight over the teaching of
Darwinism and religion in schools had pushed religion away in the dark corner.
Religion has no place in American schools.
The West is more concerned with
things which they call reality and facts. God is said to be in human's mind
only. Religion is an opium. Some people may only be searching for God when they
felt sick and suffering from deadly cancer. The new generations made fun of the
church, pope and sisters depicting them as sex maniac and portray them in
phonographic movies. The disrespect towards church, pope and sisters is nothing
strange.
The swindling of money of a few
religious group created more distrust. People began to see the greed and means
to use religion to make money. There had been much story on Moon church of the
United State.
So the burning of the Islam holy
book does not stop there. It also means the burning of their own religion which
has been thrown aside by the younger generation. In fact when I went into a chat
room, one 84 year old American talked much about his hated wife and the church
she is in. It is an image of the American religious beliefs. The number is
growing. Religion is dead in America.
The weakening of religious beliefs
is due to the individual liberty, human right and freedom and the secular
education system. From the tender age children are taught to use reason and
logic, theory followed by proofs, hypothesis followed by proofs. Secondly no
sinners were seen punished by God.
People who feared no sin of adultery
are people who do not fear or believe in religion. And sex is almost free,
spouse exchanges, sex shops and sex movies, same sex marriage and other
Christian sinful acts are not a scary stuff anymore.
So the Malaysian Muslims don't jump
over it and no need to heed it. It is a symbol that depicts the diminishing
religious beliefs in the United States.
12/08/2010
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CHINESE SCHOOL
I was one of the luckiest to be banished to a Chinese
school by the state education department for being vocal. The department at that
period was bias against some schools and only looked high at a few Premier ones
like Sultan Abdul Hamid College and Sultanah Asma. Chinese school was a dumping
ground for bad Malay teachers then.
SM Kiet Hwa was very much different from many other
schools I know. The students were very independent, organized their own clubs
and activities, compete with each other for excellence and even running the
school band on their own. Each class printed it's own class magazine all on
their own effort. There were no such things as spoon fed. Even the running of
Persatuan Bahasa Malaysia, teachers were only called in to be judges at debates
or oratory contests. The students publish samples of good essays and distributed
to their members and collected the Malay proverbs and distribute them. They also
organize their own trip. I
remember when I became the Principal, the first school magazine was started and
organized 100% by the students, then the weekly school bulletin were composed,
published and distributed by the students. I only guide them how to start.
Unfortunately today the weekly bulletin were not heard anymore when the
teachers took over. I was
of the habit of discussing essay topics briefly on one day and on the next day
they will have to write essay in the class. I guarantee you the quality of the
essays and the standard of the Bahasa was very high indeed. No wonder Chinese
parents would want to send their kids to SM Kiet Hwa.
At the end of each month the Principal would go round
with a cane entering every class with the monthly result to cane those who fail
Mathematics, Science, Bahasa and other subjects too. The canning were not
soft. It really inflicted pain. And that went to the law breakers and the
indiscipline students. The
students respect their teachers. They respect me. Even years after I leave the
schools they still invited me for the Chinese new year celebration and they came
to my house during the Hari Raya.
It is true that when taking the good seed and cast them
into the sea they become islands. Take some guys and cast them anywhere they
become beggars.
I wonder who among the educationist
do learn what's going on in the well known Chinese schools like the Kiet Hwa,
Han Chiang and Chun Ling. Rather being bias and having the egoistic character,
they should take some time to look at themselves and be humble once.
Unfortunately the highly bureacrtic system is still in
practice which I believe will not create creative mind. They suppressed the
freedom of thinking and pushed their policy to be swallowed fully. And we tell
them of their failures they will brand you crazy and would continue to destroy
their kids future. After 30 or 40 years later, they would start to blame the
other ethnic group for their failures.
If I run a school with full autonomy certainly I would
not continue many of the current practices. I would add and subtracts the
subjects, the teaching of technology, chose my own teachers. I can assure you
the school will be the parent's first choice. I remember at one time someone in
the Ministry of Education said "we should learn from private school..." Yet the
private schools had to bow to the set curriculum and the education policy.
One basic rule which should be in every educationist is
not to work for promotion and to please the people above but to work for the
welfare of the students. The students must come first. I told my teacher "When I
ask someone to call you and you are teaching, please do not come. If I call you
for the second time that mean there is something important like your mother is
sick or dead". Rather than discussing how to attain Super Scale and higher grade
salaries, it is better to discuss how to make weak students able to learn.
We don't go to China to learn the
running of the school. We go to the local Chinese schools to learn things. One
of my students who came to vocational said "Cikgu, in my school canning is a
normal thing....I got canning too.." He was from a Chinese school from standard
one to form 3.
Chinese characters do not compose of
alphabets. You have to remember each one of them, and tenth thousands of them.
Try to figure out the type of brain and mind the learners finally possess.
The Malays shamelessly were shouting "Stop talking
English...speak Malay....." trying to impose the stupid thinking to the rest.
Instead of sharpening their minds by working and studying hard, they want the
easiest ways. Yet some people like to spoon feed them. 12/08/2010
Top |
A DAY HAS PASSED
The fist Hari Raya has passed. It
was like the previous years. After the morning prayer a group of us moved from
house to house, took a small amount of goodies while chatting and later moved to
the next house. This year the food was a bit heavy; the laksa, the mee, the
meehun, the Nasi Arab and mee rebus. By the time we arrived at the last house it
was 12.00 noon. We had to make preparation for the Friday prayer.
My wife had her own program, merely
visiting the next door neighbors. When I reached home at 2 pm she was not home
yet. My kids were at home telling that many boys and girls came for the one
ringgit goody. When I was a kid I did the same thing, visiting houses and
collecting money. Really Raya would be a very happy day for children.
When my wife returned we went to my
sister's house about 4 kilometers away living everybody else at home to
entertain any visitor. My sister's dish was the Nasi Tomato with the rendang .
After one hour we came home.
Waves of our neighbors made a visit
until 7.30 pm. I thought it was over. But a little later my brother in-law came.
Then my aunty with the other 28 persons joined in. My aunty would gather all her
kids and the grand children altogether, We chat and chat. The younger
generations would stay among themselves telling stories. My aunty was telling me
about her regular umrah's trip. At 10.30 pm they departed.
I went out to Kentucky Fried Chicken
after everyone leave. There was a big crowd and the queue was long. I ordered 8
sets of shrimps, 2 to eat and 6 to take away. I took my time enjoying the 10
pieces shrimps while watching the flat screen on the wall. I saw everyone was
gluing the eyes on the TV3 story.
I was very tired when I came home. I
switched on my radio and TV thinking after a rest I could do some hamming. The
noise woke me up. I still felt sleepy and switched off everything and went to
sleep. I slept on the bare floor and had a good night sleep.
I don't know what to do today
because I don't know who would be coming to visit. My aunty asked me to go to
her place at one of her son's house at Padang Besar. The sane big group will be
at Padang Besar today. May be we will be going there at 5 or 6 pm today.
Tomorrow I will be going to Yan at 1 pm to joing the 93/94 student's re-union.
The day after tomorrow there will be another one at Kuala Kedah.
A day passed so quickly. Many people
like me are counting days because our days are numbered. Today I am exactly 63.
At 63 I still blogged. When I asked a fitrah from one of my former teachers she
said "No fitrah and no money for you...You travel everywhere, you blog....You
are not qualified for any donation or fitrah..." At the student's reunion most
students would say "Cikgu, you are still strong ?" I have been wondering how do
they expect me to be.
A day come and go. It can be a
fulfilling day or passed with an emptiness. I remember one of my former bosses
said that he would fill his day by reading books. I was thinking whether he
could do that for the remaining of his retired life. In fact it is good to die
fast. NO problem to solve.
11/08/2010
Top |
WHERE ARE THE PHONES ?
This morning I woke up a bit late,
later then usual 2 or 3 am, but at 5 am. Tomorrow will be the festive day. My
two kids came back from Kuala Lumpur at 5 am exactly. I did not eat much for the
last day of the Ramadzan. Before going to bed again I switched on my radio on 7
mhz and scanned around. On the CW portions I heard YB4IR coming strong working
DX stations. Most DX signals heard were about 549. On 7008 GM station heard was
the strongest. Look like a pile up on this one. UT station was calling on 7.014
with several others at the background. 7.016 was LZ 8 sending something I could
not comprehend because there was no pause in between characters. 7.028 was heard
till 6.17 am.
Above that frequency until 7.1999 I
heard nothing until 6.30 am local. Where are the phone stations ? I know SSB
stations would appear about an hour or two later. The Indonesians would slowly
come to occupy the usual 7.050 and the other common frequencies.
It would be highly possible the band
at that time did not open yet and it could be hard for the SSB signals to pass
thru to Asia. Even the pirates were not heard on the CW part. But to me it is a
signal that the International Ham Radio is not dead yet. I did hear ham radio
after all. Hearing the phone conversation can mean anything. Pirates talk like
the full pledge operators. They also could be CBers.
This is not a sarcastic remark aimed
at anybody but a statement of facts. Thanks to those who are pushing ham radio
to live. In Malaysia it is not the 9M who are keen on Morse. Even several 9Ws
are training for the high speed listening and sending. I am sorry if I have had
made sweeping statements on 9Ws. I know that by the time these people get the
9M2, they are going to beat me flat and will echo Malaysia in the world of CW
with the other expatriates and a few 9M6 new stations who have been active on
the DX CW.
Phones occupy all the band too at
most of the time. They are never dead. But at the time I simply heard nothing on
40.
One other thing you should be
thinking about is how long do you think you are going to be on the band ? From
the observation many has gone and not heard for a long time till now. Working a
few hundred stations and exchanges signal reports would arrive at the point of
boredom. One may find rag chewing as the alternative venue. But it could be
limited by the command of English. Even falling back to the local chat on 40
would not be all the time interesting because most of the time the conversation
would around the repeated signal report over and over again. Coming on the band
just to say hello and then bid good bye won't last long.
I think 9M2GJ, 9M2RS, 9M2WT, 9M2PV
and myself are among those hams who have been hanging on the band for a long
time. Many had gone silent keys. I am the longest living Malaysian ham who is
still hanging on my brass pounder crossing the seas on CW. I hope the young hams
would be able to sustain and willing to test their endurance by participating in
the CW contest, not to win any award but merely to support the activity.
Again I would like to say to the 9Ws
that "You have the ability to learn. Never brand or downgrade your
own ability. Young people can
learn fast. Go and get a teacher to help you. Don't heed to any call to stop you
from enhancing yourself. They don't contribute to your growth and your education
or give you job or feed your family..."
09/08/2010
Top |
WHY DO PEOPLE WRITE ?
9M2YAS asked me why people write. I
said I don't know. We need to study the content and the topics before we can
make any conclusion. A writer has a flair and usually has a good command of the
language he is using. But that does not stop people without flair to write.
There was a prophesy about the sign of the end of the world "....that everybody
wants to be a writer...."Many write for the wanting to entertain people like the
professional writers who write stories for movies. Some science fictions are
trying to forecast and imagine what the future will be.
Many have passions at writing. They
can write about nature, describing the sunset and the wind giving life to the
natural happenings.
Journalism is something very wide
without boundary. It could be a political tools to propagate ideas, idealism, or
to attack and weaken an enemy. It could be an educational tool to disseminate
knowledge.
To know why people write is to look
at what he writes about. My writing consist of multiple topics which depended
much on my mood. The reason why I write is to struggle continuously against my
deficiency in language. I want to express as much as I can to overcome thing I
could not do before. My deficiency in English as well as Bahasa drove me to
fight against it. I just write for fun to pass time. Some would be based on the
current issues and some are not.
Basically the aim and purpose of writing is different.
May it be for fun, profession or to throw a slur the world of internet provides
every one of us the chance and opportunity to write.
Articles and what you write tell people who you are and
your level of thinking, your academic ability and even your mental as well as
emotional state. Readers will judge us. Writing non-factual things as factual on
technical and scientific stuffs could make fools of ourselves.
At time we may translate the direct anger of our heart
and mind into written words, abusive language may be used. I am of the habit of
using such nasty words when out of control. People could see my mental state and
denounced me as unprofessional. But I am not the only mad writer in the
internet. There are numerous other crazy and mad bloggers.
The best is to write an un-bias essays. One has to be a
real journalist to do it. Because I am a bad writer, I always remind readers
that they should not believe everything I say. If you disagree with me, you are
not my enemy. If you agree with me that does mean you are my friend. Most of my
political topics are bias. I write what I think is right though they may not
suit everybody's taste. A
few articles are to guide the new comers in ham radio. I just want them to do
well on the band. If they don't want to accept it then There is nothing I can
do. There is no single fix
answer to why people write.
08/08/2010
Top |
A FEW HARD CALL SIGNS
At about 3 am this morning I scan
the CW portion of the 40 meter band. I was surprise to hear a station which I
thought was Zainal, 9M2ZA. Zainal has been away from the band for years and as
far as I know he is not HF or 2 meter anymore. Could it be a pirate ? A pirate
with CW ? Cannot be. So I listened carefully several time. The call began again.
CQ CQ CQ DE 9M2ZA K
Later I heard CQ CQ CQ DE 9M2ZAK K 9M2ZAK K 9M2ZAK K
Then I knew it was not the 9M2ZA but
9M2ZAK. In Morse K is inviting the other to response. Calling CQ and end with K
is like saying stand by for a call. In the course of a QSO it means something
like 'OVER'. So stations with a call sign ending with K can cause confusion when
calling CQ on Morse code.
Usually calling CQ is ended up with
AR K. Please refer to SOP on CW. CQ CQ CQ DE 9M2ZAK 9M2ZAK 9M2ZAK AR K. Of
course without the AR do suffice. With call sign ending in K like VU2AK,
9M2KKK, 9M2TK could be confusing to new hams overseas. As for Zaki, I got gim
because of the repeated K and a little pause in between.
Call sign like JA1PQC is not as easy
as 9V1VV. So people with the K at the end is advised to refer to the CW SOP in
the internet. It is nothing to do with our proficiency or skill but that last
character could make inexperienced ham confused unless they listen to it several
time. But the expert won't find it difficult at all.
Zaki is braved enough to go CW DXing.
I really salute him. Not all new 9M dared to punch their keys. I would like to
call upon the other new comers to dare themselves. Several DX stations are new
comers too and were heard to call CQ at about 8 -10 wpm. Zaki worked at about 12
- 15 wpm.
Those who are about to apply for the
9M2 call signs try to avoid the call ended with K or GOD or even CQ.
Working CW on 7 Mhz is a little
difficult because there are suspected Indonesian pirates using high power
transmission on all over the CW band. They even sit on their fellow countrymen
and on the Indonesian CW net. The sophisticated Indonesians or Malaysians are
even using the ESSB plus the linear. Empty frequencies might have been used up.
The only chance is when the band condition does not open to the nearby stations.
European and other distant DX stations would be filling in the band. This is a
good time to work CW on 40.
Good luck to Zaki and all the other
new comers,. I really take my hat off and salute all of you who dare yourselves
to go CW Dxing.
07/08/2010
Top |
MY SHIRTS
The shirt I bought more than 15 years ago has now shown
another torn part. This time it is more serious. After ironing it just now I
still decide to wear it for this Hari Raya. After the Raya I will bring it to
repair. I just love the color and the design. In my QSL card I wore it.
Recently my student bought me a three hundred ringgit
shirt. It is without pocket. I told her shirt without a pocket is a Playboy
dress. "Did you put in in a washing machine ?" she asked. Certainly I did. And
just now I hard a hard time ironing it and the crimple just simply refused to go
away. It would unlikely I would wear it for the Hari Raya because I do not feel
comfortable if I don't hang my cell-phone in the pocket.
Picking up all the old shirts I manage to have 10 for the
celebration days. I have yet to look for a cotton squared red colored one which
is nice to my taste.
Other days I would wear the Radio T-shirts, either black
or white with my call sign at the rear end. I have at least 20 pieces and I
don't have to iron them. Wash and wear. My washing machine cannot do dry spin. I
have to dry all my washing outside.
Among all my most favorite dress is a NASA jacket which
was purchased at Cape Canaveral in 2002. I paid USD250. I went to Kennedy Space
Center for at least 4 times but merely looking and admiring the jacket because I
considered it too expensive. Finally I bought it after my kid's
commencement in 2002. At one time when an
immigration officer at the Los Angeles airport asked me whether I flew a plane.
Jokingly I said I flew a rocket.
In Malaysia dress is
expensive. Most brand sell it for more than a hundred ringgit for a single
shirt. That's the reason why I am very reluctant to go and look for a new one.
Yet I saw young people paying a few hundred ringgit at the counter for the
brnded ones.
Nevertheless though old and
no new shirt, I would put on a Sun Glass during the day time, purchased in
Padang Besar for twelve ringgit but it doesn't look cheap. My wife would not
suspect anything because I had had an eye operation recently. The teachers in my
former school could not anything too. I can look at beautiful women without them
knowing it. And I knew whether they were looking at me or not.
No matter what I wear women
would called me Pakcik ( uncle ). Even older women called me Pakcik. I did not
pass as Abang. Only in Hatyai women called me Abang.
People say old men do not
need to dress themselves any more. A sarong and a Baju Melayu will do for the
Malays. A head gear like songkok or kopiah lebai would be ample. I would wear
this dress once a week when I go to Friday prayer and go shopping with it. I
remember my late uncle from Kuala Kedah who would always put on black baju
Melayu and a sarong and came to town without wearing shoes or sleepers.
While dress can identify a
person's profession or status, it could be a tool to cheat and con people. A con
man may dressed himself as a certain government officer, a jobless guy may wear
a smart suit to attract a woman. Criminals are fond of using various dress to
run their operations.
People tend to show respect
to persons with proper attire and look down upon those who look shabby. But
basically a person need to be seen as presentable.
Tonight I am going to look
for the red color cotton shirt to iron it. So far I did not find any sign of it.
07/08/2010
Top |
SYSTEM THINKING
Thanks to the modern media
technology which enabled us to learn from TVs and the Internet. The Learning
channels of ASTRO give us the chance to learn about the world, the people, the
history, the inventions and how people think. Animal Planets not only
entertained us with the world of animals but also about the endurance of the
people investigating the social life and the history of the living wilds. The
History channel showed us much on the great people and the rise and fall of the
nation, and the history of social and scientific development.
But the one interesting movies is
about the investigation of the plane crash. Following closely the investigating
procedures we will learn on how the method and the system thinking should be.
Some took years to complete to discover the details. They looked at the design
of the plane, the material used and traced back the makers of the materials, the
design of each components, the pilots, the engines and much more. They would
stare at a portion of the plane body and able to see something evolve.
There is no such things as taking
things for granted. Even a very minute detail is addressed and tested.
Sadly enough I heard rumour
which I hope it is not true about the contractor of an airport who cheated on
several items but got the work passed. As far as human lives is concerned we
should not have condoned any corruption. And in the history of constructions in
Malaysia all corrupted practiced just escaped human eyes, and many involved
political people in the choice of the contractors from government buildings to
the food supply.
In other words we do not care about
thinking for the people or the nation.
Investigation is to seek the truth
and it is not to save or to accuse any person. I remember when I was posted in a
school. Some time later the new Principal of that school accused and reported
the previous principal for cheating the government in purchasing of materials. I
saw in my workshop there were excessive materials in stock and equipments were
more than completed. It means the teacher had ordered things probably without
the knowledge of the accused Headmaster.
When the police came into my
workshop with the new Principal he wrote something in the notebook and then went
out. I asked the school why was I not quizzed about the workshop. The answer was
because I was not there during the happenings.
What happenings ? Why the police did
not go around and looked at the stocks, stock books, bills and other materials ?
The poor Headmaster was jailed. Just
because they said nothing were bought but false claimed were made on those real
purchased.
If only we can restructure our way
of thinking and investigating, we could grow well as a civilize nation. Instead
Malaysia is the country where big and well known people always bluff and lies.
The oppositions accused the ruling parties as liars and the ruling people
accused the opposition as liars. At least one of them is a liar. The one is a
group. The group composes of many people, many enough to fill the nation.
How many of us care to watch the TV
programs mentioned. Make a point to find time to watch the plane crash
investigation because it made us looking at ourselves as well, on how we look at
things and accidence, how we deal with events as compared to those
investigators. There is no such thing as 'tidak apa' and 'lebih kurang'. If they
have to scrap the whole parking, radar and tower system, they would do it. It
may cost billion of dollars for the restructuring.
System thinking is not only applied
to the plane crash and investigation but in all other matters too. Let me give
you another example. Malaysia and Singapore airline were once one and the same.
Later came a split. Malaysia air under Aziz flourished and Singapore did very
well too. Today Malaysia air do not fly to New York but Singapore Air's trip to
USA still include New York and Los Angeles. They brought in Idris Jala, nothing
happened too.
Or is it not possible some people
simply don't want us to have a deep thinking in systematic ways ? They would
prefer the populace to be stupid so that it would be easy to pull their nose and
cheat them in anyway possible ?
06/08/2010
Top |
COMMON SENSE OF QSO
When things are not stated in the rules or regulations,
it would be very good to consult our common sense. Let me give an example. When
I hear two Malaysian stations having a conversation should I join in ? Normally
I would join in just mentioning my call sign. But I would not budge in if they
are having deep discussions on say the construction of linear, unless I
can contribute some. If I were to break in to talk something else than I would
have interrupted the flow of their discussions. Some new comers from Indonesia
would mention their suffixes using a single letter or two when some personal or
interesting discussions went on. There rule did not say that you can't break in.
But we need you appeal to common sense before protruding in.
Many a time we hear very strong DX stations having
discussions. I would not break in until they have completed. If we don't use any
common sense we would just call and call while they were talking. Actually we do
not only irritate them but also many other stations who are listening .
Another common error is we cannot
get the call sign of the calling station, may be because of the slang and the
pronunciation. We do not simply ignore him after we still cannot understand what
he said. Remember that person has been working thousand other stations and those
people can comprehend him. Surely it has to be something wrong with us. You can
always ask him to give his call sign in CW verbally or using a CW tone. More
often than not the stations I worked with use verbal CW. And likewise, if he
could not understand you after several repetitions, you use the verbal or tone
CW to give your call sign. Ignoring him and also the next stations could make us
look like fools in the eyes of the SWLs who monitor us.
A group of three persons is not a big group. So
mentioning it as a big group is quite weird. We usually call it a big group when
it is about 6 or 7 persons.
It is good to ask the experience hams on things that we don't know. Old hams
and experienced hams are not the same. There are many old hams who have no
experience in working DX or even local. They may only have just 4 or 5 QSOs over
40 years of ham life. IARU guidelines do not tell us everything.
05/08/2010
Top |
WHY DO YOU SIT FOR CW TEST ?
This person had work on 10 and 6
meters and had gained much experience in DXing. I asked him why did he sit for
the CW test ? He gave me a very simple answer. "It is an honor to pass Morse
test". It means more than that. It is an achievement. You buy an IC-756 Pro-3 it
is not an achievement because you buy it. You developed a software which solve
some major problem, it is an achievement. To know that you have skill in CW made
you feel you are a competitive person with another additional value. It makes
you wiser.
Take a teacher and give him any
class to teach mathematics, he/she will get 100% pass. Take another teacher who
gets below a 40% pass but all the time blaming the students. In my mind the
first teacher is of a greater value, wiser and better. He never get any
Datukship or extra cash for his achievement but he feels proud of himself. He
walks with his head high. He feels satisfied.
An HONOUR is a big word, occupies a
big space. It cannot be bought with money.
The CIA, FBI and Malaysian police
learn CW because they are scared that they don't know but the others know. It
could have a bad implication if they don't know. The nature of these body and
the ship work is different. They won't be using CW for communication but need to
know when intercepting one. They would be able to comprehend it even when off
duty. To these professionals there is nothing to do with an honor.
I said honour is a big thing. That's
why your hear the story of Kamikaze and a Suicide bomber. It is an honour to die
a hero rather than to live as a coward.
I have yet to ask others why they
sit for CW even after hearing the romours.
Not wanting to learn is a freedom of an individual. I
have the right to be clever or stupid as another person to be himself. Then
disturb not on those who want to learn. But if you want to criticize or belittle
me, it is alright because I give you all the permission you want. I don't bother
about it. Call it I don't have any honour or shame or moron or moral, it won't
bother me. To be frank, I
am proud to be a ham because I know CW not because I have a radio that I can
talk or passing RAE. CBers, parking attendants, the police and many other
professionals and non-professional have radio and talk. CBers talk throughout
the world too. They send and receive QSL too. If by any chance the CBers know
and work CW, I am sure they will feel proud too. However those without CW are
not stupid or unskilled hams. They just don't have time, busy in making bread
for the family, occupied with their work like doctors or lawyers or even small
businessmen. They don't even have time to say the the phrase "I hate CW". If
they have the time they come to talk on any frequency available to them just to
relax their mind. I have
never thought of the honorable concept before. It is not a strange answer but a
unique one. That's the reason why in my mind I said the CWers are special
people. I talked a lot to 9M6YBG who sent me plenty of pictures and discovered
that Go is also a unique person, and he is an engineer too. Go like a few others
got the ham ticket from USA with CW test, yet had to resit for his RAE and CW
here. These people did not complaint neither made any loud noise. No campaign
against the MCMC or anybody. I really respect people like this. They are
honorable guys. The story
about these people are not 'rekaan'. It is real. Many new 9M2s I encountered
with have something special in them. Many climbed up from the bottom, struggling
against all odds and successfully crossing several barb wires. They did that in
their lives not in ham radio. There is a Malay saying "Benih yang baik,dicampak
ke laut menjadi Pulau.."( A good seed will become an island when thrown into the
sea).
Funny just looking at the word CW,
we can know people. 05/08/2010
Top |
STATE OF THE ART
Do you want the state of the art
communication technology without the archaic Morse and RAE ? Go to the I-Phone
or your PC. The palm size mobile phone has almost everything we want. While
talking we can , not only see the person whom we are talking too, but also the
physical environment of his location. You want digital communication ? They are
there.
When ham radio decides to chase the
new development it is imperative that it has to shake itself off and away from
the traditional system. In my opinion it is not a necessary option to copy the
new hitech stuffs. because those other communication machines like the I-Phone4
are available in the store. Let the hobby remains with it's characters.
Computer can do what the ham radio
can do. But ham radio cannot do all what the computer can. Why compete ? Surely
the cell phone is superior and you do not need to struggle to put up antenna,
buying a tuner, a power supply, building a balun and have a tall tower. The
distinct different is in the cost we have to pay for talking. If the
international authority decide to charge the ham operators by the hours, then everybody
would throw their rigs down the drain and will do a complete shift to the state
of the art technology by investing in the I-Phone4.
What is coming soon is the 3D and 4E
TV. Many of us have the ecstasic experience in watching the 3 D movie. Now it is
coming to our home. The cost will be about 10K. Though it is not a communication
equipment, it is depicting the fantastic progress of the modern technology.
The archaic ham radio is not without
fun beside it's free air time. It is unique and different from the other
communication procedure which the general public won't and cannot do is the
Morse communication method. All the others are found in the I-Phone. The
simplest digital messages even used by a 10 year old is the SMS.
You may ask, "Why Morse when we can
do the simplest way ? " True, that it is not the state of the art communication
method. The question is similar to why people climb the hill when they have the
easy way to be there. So the thrill seekers go for sky diving, bungee jumping,
mountain climbing and playing Morse codes. Morse sharpens our mind.
The future shift to computer radio
is an effort to the fast growing technology, making a ham radio like a computer
radio. It takes away the character of a radio and to house it in the other
technology. It is taking out a ham radio out of it's home, and dressing it in a
different outfit until it's appearance change absolutely and yet it is called
ham radio. Many traditions do not change to suit the changing world especially
some religious practices. The Muslims do not change the prayer method or it's
absolution procedures using a single bath for praying.
Blaming CW for the decline in
numbers is a fallacy. Since the beginning of the hobby the number has been on
the increase until the coming of the cheap computer with tremendous fabulous
communication programs.
There are many people who just don't
to follow tradition by jumping out of it. They don't want to follow the
religious teachings which tell them of sins of adultery, cheatings, free sex
etc. They became free thinkers or just ignore religion. Take the viewing of
pornography in the public TV, the religion barred it. Yet the state law allows
it and people running the internet provide free stuffs for everyone, adults and
children.
The state of the art technology
enables new dangerous drugs to be manufactured and sold, the hard to trace
counterfeits, strengthened Israel's position over the Palestinians, and American
conquest of Iraq.
Many hams don't realize that they
were doing the right thing when they would use Yahoo Messenger or Skype when
they want to go for digital and Morse codes when wanting to have mental
exercise. While holding the tradition they also keep in phase with the magic of
modern technology.
Get an I-Phone4 for the fun of live
video chat with the friends all over the world. You enjoy it.
03/08/2010
Top |
CW
When I was a kid my pious neighbor
told me that a person must look for a teacher to learn reading Holly Book and to
learn the fundamental of of Islamic practices. Without a teacher we could sway
from the truth and the right path. We can learn by ourselves but we need to find
someone to check us to ensure we go the right path.
I am of a belief that everybody can
learn. Human being has been training other animals to learn. That was why they
sent monkeys to the outer space before a fellow human.
Many said that they had put much
effort still could not do it. Then I would like who the teacher was and how the
training went. Local hams did not want to approach me either because of their
superiority complex and masters of all or because they have the misconception on
what they think I am. I just wish they can grow up and think well like an adult,
and don't do follow stupid advice from irresponsible people.
Do you have to believe and submit to
what I say about you ? You should prove that I am wrong. Just now when I went
out with my student and her daughter I narrated a story for her daughter to hear
and learn something from it. I was never a bright student. If I were I would
have been a doctor or a lawyer. I was just lucky to have a circle of Chinese
classmates who happen to like discussing educational matters. We went out every
night, sat and chat in a place called 'Padang Court' in front of the Balai Besar.
One day they were discussing and quizzing on sciences. When I could not answer
any question they laughed at me. I felt ashame. The next day I went to buy a
Revision Course and read it the whole day. I went looking for a bright boy name
Syed Aswad, who became pilot later on, to teach me Sciences. He taught me about
acid and alkali, about elements, how the acid and alkali was form, on atom and
molecule. Syed Aswad opened my eyes.
Then the day of avenge came. In the
next discussion I surprised my group. But from Form 1 to Form 4 I did not study,
and was really stupid.
So if I were to say you are stupid
because you can't learn, are you going to believe me and submit to yourself that
you are ? If graduates can learn it does not mean we the non-graduate cannot
learn. To be a graduate one has to starts from the bottom. And I talked so much
on attitudes and attitudes building. I talked so much on learning and using
English and other languages. I talked so much regarding obeying rules and
discipline. Now that you have ASTRO at home, try to watch some documentaries
especially on the plane crash investigation. Observe how serious a small fault
could be and how they considered a very small detail which we would have thrown
out.
What is nice when a group is having
an eyeball ? The best and the most kick topic is talking bad about someone, and
exploit all our emotions to cast the bitterest slur to satisfy our heart. But a
great number would talk on propagation, the new SOP procedure and the type of
radio. The CWers would talk merely on CW for the whole evening on end. A very
would discuss of projects, new inventions, CAD and other technical stuffs.
If they just throw aside on
slandering and emotional outburst but instead discuss something fruitful so that
everybody would gain.
Those who have their own stand and
still want to learn CW no matter what need to find a teacher for advice or
practice. You need to know and follow several steps. And listen to the
experience people. I met a boy and tried to assist him on how he should start.
Instead he lectured me on how to study Morse and what he would do. What
could I say ?
Among the 30 recent candidates one
teacher contacted me a week before the test. I asked him to send me characters
and numbers. I said ,"Your sending is OK but need to brush up on a few. Do it
fast and quick without delay." I wanted to hear how his trainer sounded. He
played it for me and I thought the speed was ample for the test. Later I
discovered he rang up 9M2GET and had a long session to built himself confidence.
Today I heard he passed.
Planning, structuring and
organizing, and knowing how to teach oneself to encounter difficulties is a
process of character building. Nations began to recognize the character and
attitude building by sending youth and young people to outbound and summer
camps. People of endurance and fearless of challenges are special specie.
There are hams who almost reached
there but halt when listening to friends who can't not to proceed. They seek
friends who want to be like them. School boys tend to follow their drug friends
rather than those book worms. When they failed and scored no As some political
guys were saying exams are not important and did not show a real person. Funny
it looks like that some government officers seems to wage war on the straight As
scores by some discouraging remarks. I even heard such remarks from a university
lecturer who did not perform well while in school.
Be smart and go for excellence. Is
going for CW called excellence ? YES. You know what many other people don't
know. There are a few hundred thousand hams who know CW. And when you visit
their shacks and they work CW, you can join them. You are not a handicapped when
amongst them. The skill is in you not in a note or a pen. It has no schematic
diagram. It cannot be drawn using CAD CAM method. Are you not ?
Now many of you have done a lot of
listening. But have you ever tested how many percent you really can hear ? You
need to test it and don't be shy or scared to find someone to test it for you.
If you copy 0% it is OK. If you copy 20% it is good. Next time you will increase
from 0% to 20% and 20 to 30 %. The longer you go the more you are building your
endurance.
While typing this I got another
person who is very excited after passing his Morse. He skyped me expressing his
happiness. Even after working plenty of DX stations on 10 and 6 meters they are
extremely happy about it. It is not about being able to work DX but being able
to achieve success. As I have said about a ham radio that it is not about
talking but about what you are talking especially to the DX stations.
CW is special because it needs
mental concentration and attention to decipher messages. It is not like any
other digital data or voice communication. Having a soar throat does not hinder
you from communication. You can do it with your eyes close. If you are dumb and
deft you can use the straight key. If you are blind you can either use paddle or
brass-pounder. Even SWLing CW chats required full concentration.
Happiness is when you can crossed
the hostile barb wire. You feel great. You experience another success.
That's about CW.
On the eve of Merdeka day it
was lucky that someone brought about the call sign 9M2TR. I never knew someone
had publish it in his blog about it, saying Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra was a ham.
That was a great error. One of the big errors among other mistakes. Tunku was
never a ham. He was a full politician. It is true that 9M2TR is his Highness
Tunku Abdul Rahman but not the first Prime Minister of Malaya. 9M2TR was from
Johor. I have been to 9M2TR's house, had a lunch with him and got to know this
humble Prince. Any blog that carries that false story could face a grave legal
implication.
Hams are adviced not to follow what
every blogger says. They may tell you to do the wrong thing and when you do it
and later realize your mistake you can't blame him.
Though I have asked you not to
believe my articles, pse do believe this one.
Please do erase the misconception
from the blog immediately.
02/08/2010
Top |
HAM RADIO OR HAMPUTER ?
I think Echo Link communication is
not a Ham Radio but a Hamputer. To qualify as a ham radio all communications
should be thru radio gears. If one person uses a radio and another uses no radio
the term hamputer is appropriate. If two radio amateur stations do not use any
radio for communication but have to have ham license to qualify for computer to
computer communication we can also called them hamputer.
The modern technology and the shift
towards computer hardware emulating or cloning the radio-to radio communication
is making the term amateur radio fuzzy and need to be addressed by the world
amateur radio community. Otherwise we all would be using the wrong term for the
wrong things. An internet server can broadcast music and song and we hear it by
the radio has been called internet radio which I think is a misnomer.
Someone asked me to work CW on Skype.
I felt very awkward because I did not feel it is a ham radio. And I don't feel
comfortable to be called a Hamputer too. I prefer communications via the airwave
using equipments with knobs, band switch, RF and AF stuffs and magnetic waves
going out thru the antenna. In the age of jet planes there are many enthusiasts
who refurbished the pre-world war 2 planes to fly them. The airplane and the jet
plane are two different things though they look similar in function, like a ham
radio and communication of hams using computer.
Using microchips to replace the
radio is not the same thing as using a computer to assist and facilitate radio
communication activity like using it to rotate the antenna to the country as
shown by the call sign automatically or using an electronic logbook. But using a
keyboard and computer to send and receive Morse code codes are not hamming.
Hamputers are more advance than the
the Ham Radio operators. Ham Radio guys would still want to stick to the old
tradition of ham radio in technology and practices. It is true these population
are fading worldwide like the fading of some religions of the world, which in
the West only empty holly houses are left. Younger generations prefer to go to
parties and bars and drive in movies for sex fun. The newer generations prefer
gadgets with hitech chips like the I-Phone, MP3, lap-tops and other
communication equipments using the state of the art technology.
With the growth of Hamputers the
concept of amateur radio has to be re-structured. That's the reason given for
the sending off of CW as a mandatory requirement because ham radio is shifting
towards Ham[puters. But the re-structuring is incomplete because the radio test
is still there when communication equipments and components have gone almost a
100% changed.
A Flext 500 is not a Ham Radio gear
but it is a Hamputer object. It cuts and paste the Ham concept to the structure
and the system. I am sure there are people who agree with my contention.
Think, when a Black marries a White
what do you call their offspring ? Then the kid marries a Black again. Or
marries a Chinese. What do you call the kid ?
31/08/2010
Top |
SAMAN EKOR
saman Ekor is
another object of a easy job mentality. It is another object added top the
series of the kind. It is up to you to take care of Aedes mosquito. If your kid
is missing or being kidnapped you are responsible. If you carry a hand bag and
it is snatched you are responsible because you carry the bag. Fighting crimes is
your responsibility. Easy
Job Mentality will make work easier without much hassle. Just convince the Law
Maker and they would come up with a law to make jobs easy. These were different
from the British period prior to the independent. One instant was the Sanitary
Board would go to the kampong and clear the waterways, spraying insecticide to
make sure no dangerous mosquito would bring havoc. Today the Health prefer to
stay in the comfortable air condition room and made rule so that people take
care of their own mosquito.
Why am I against Saman Ekor ? With the increase number of criminals and
greedy business men, the cloning of plate numbers were raising. I have seen 2
identical cars with the same plate number in one house. Lorries are fond of
having several identical numbers. A teacher in Alor Setar got a summon with a
camera showing her car brand with the same plate number for breaking traffic
rule in East Malaysia. And there were several of these cases.
Most people would not mind if getting tickets and go to
court immediately for any settlement or argument. An old man looking after a
sick wife found it troublesome when his driving license could not be renewed
while he was not called to the court to defend himself. A few prefer to pay for
the offence not committed just because to avoid delay and driving problem.
On the spot summon on the driver who committed the
offence would be the most fair. Those who create the offence pay, not someone
else. To call the Saman
Ekor a Draconian rule and run only by tyrant is of course too much and unfair.
But tyrants always inflict pain on the others and feel happy with it. It would
be argued that it is another way of doing a job, an easy way without much
hassle. The big question
is do the office exercise their jobs for the public or for the political people
? The next question is which department like to do job for the individual
politician just to get a pat on the back ?
31/08/2010
Top |
WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW
I am sure many of you have read all of my political
articles which were very vocal and sharp. From the tone I would be branded as a
number ONE anti BN government. My attacks had been very sharp on UMNO members
and leaderships. Those were not without reasons. I did criticized even the top
leadership on matters which I think are wrong. But as people used to ask "Isn't
there nothing good at all about Najib ?"
Here is a story which I think you should know.
I was a lucky one to be chosen as a Principal of Alor
Setar Vocational Secondary School in 1980. Many of us are not engineers but we
were trained in Technical Teachers Training College. As time passed by many
changes took place in the country. At one time we had had plenty of jobless
graduates. The country could accommodate those graduate engineers. Facing that
critical situations the country decided to absorb the engineers in teaching
line. Many engineers became lecturers in Polytechnics. And later a few were
transfered to the Ministry to assist in the technical curriculum development.
What transpired was the engineers contented that all
vocational school principals were not qualified because of the lack of technical
expertise. So they worked out a policy to replace all the non-engineers with the
engineers. It started with 7 schools called Excellent Schools lead by engineers.
The second phase was to change the schools name to Technical Schools to suit the
engineers.
The current principals then were given two choices, either
go to an academic school and became a Principal in B grade institution or remain
in the same school as Senior Assistant. And I had to go to SM Tandop, Alor Setar.
Principals get together and negotiated with the Ministry. First they fought for
the old Principals to be retained and later only a few who deemed to retire
soon. I gathered my teachers and gave them the last speech. "As you are fighting
against all odd to polish the poor students to make them successful and achieve
well in the SPM, I will do the same now...I will continue to fly without any
wing...."
I wrote to Dato' Najib then the Minister of Education
narrating of the successes of the non-engineers as compared to the 7 Excellent
schools which fared very badly, and at the same time getting ready to move out.
Shortly after the letter came back from the Minister confirming me in the same
school. The only Mohican running the school. Since other Principals had moved
out their places were replaced with other non-engineers.
I knew then Najib was a brave politician. And I did not
disappoint him because we prove the vocational students were doing well in Korea
and Japan, obtaining good results in SPMV and many became highly successful
people today. Najib visited my school and visited our restroom, hostels and the
whole school. He made our school great. Indeed Najib had given a magic touch to
my school.
Had not because of Najib's interference I would have gone
to academic school. And my teachers never failed me and brought our school to
the peak height. We became the bench mark. Our teachers went all over the
country to give talk on landscaping and the maintenance of toilets.
The government should always be aware of bad name the
officers and UMNO members could bring to the leaderships. Many of them don't
help the government at all. Short sightedness, corruptions, arrogance and
pomposity of the officers would create the bad image of the government.
So Najib did not do any harm to me. In fact had taken my
argument why I should remain there and non-engineers should be Principals in
Vocational schools. Of course with all the existing proofs. I just hope he will
be fair to Anwar. That's all.
Left - Najib shook hands with teaching staffs . Right - Najib
was asking some questions. There was no holiday while Najib visited the school.
While Najib went on to other areas learning and teaching went on.
Our photographer did not expect Najib wanted to inspect the
toilet
Visitors from Japan. The girls played hockey with our boys.
The Thais were from Education Ministry
Dato' Wan Noor Azmi and Kedah State Education Officer Made A
visit Too
An event during one of the school open day
26/08/2010 Top |
FEAR OF GROWING OLD
Ladies, especially, want to stay young forever. The
possibility of our future that we stay young forever has shown a promise when
scientists have found cells which don't grow old and yet to be implanted into
mankind. With plastic surgery and supplements people are rushing to delay their
growing old. Growing old
means we are moving away to the graveyard. But most of us don't want to die.
The classical economist like Adam Smith believed that
mankind must die to balance the world population. Scientists believed mankind
can still survive with the ever increasing population with the new kind of food,
taking less or no land. People can live with food as small as tablets.
With no death, eternal youth and sexual veracity human
tend to multiply. There are societies that prefer to have and own off springs
though there are people who do not find producing kids are important. In the
yesteryears children are to continue with the culture and civilization when the
older people leaved the earth. With the perpetual youth kids may not be
important anymore. If
people don't grow old and population remain stagnant, the world would still
change. The future may control pollution, the ozone layer would remain intact
and the global warming may be halted the earth surface will changed due to
weathering. We cant't say whether the world is going to continue rotating and
the sun is going to remain as it is now. If any of it misbehave like the earth
stop moving or the sun goes dormant or cool down, then the young population of
the earth will have several choices to do; take away ones lives , or continue to
struggle with the new environment.
On the other hand if population continues to grow there
will be a time when the food resource will be scarce. And people would be looking
for more land for lodging and farming. Survival of the fittest will restart.
Death is a good choice. Growing old is a good choice too. The idea if
perpetual youth was not new. The tale of Dracula though fictitious, it is
telling us how older people of the yester years thought. Then there were many
legends of queens who never grew old with the tales of love.
One old man who had lived and long enough to see the
many Presidents of the United States. Castro had seem and understand much of the
Americans and it's Presidents and the policies. Kenedy nearly bombed Cuba and
later was assassinated. Reagan called a bad Communist but later died. Castro
live long enough and earned much respect from even the non-communists.
Today you can make good business and good money to keep
people look young. Women are scared of falling hairs. They would panic if their
hair turn gray. They want to hear people say they 10 years younger and would be
ecstatic when praised at their beauty. Tell a 60 year old lady that she is 40,
tell a 40 year old lady that she is 25, and tell the 25 year old lady that she
is 18 and you can also share her feeling. Tell a 60 year old man that he looks
40 and he would feel that guy is up to something and he had to beware of that
person.
Plastic surgery is a lucrative trade because people
want to be looked attractive. And sell a potion that would make the skin smooth
and shine, kill facial scrubs and pimples and you will be rich. Once I was told
that there were many women who believed that swallowing the male sperm would
make then strong and remain young. They asked us to go for free sex in return
for our sperm for swallowing. Dirty ? No, it was a true story.
Most people choose to do daily exercise, going jogging
or doing Tai Chi in the evening for an hour or two. Exercise , they would
insist, is not to delay ageing but to feel fit and healthy. Nonetheless it helps
in delaying biological ageing.
Longevity is not without disadvantages. I live long
enough to see a fantastic technological changes. I can see the I-phone, flying
motorcars and motorcycles, and the chance of chatting with my friends and
students with video on.0
Assuming things remain the same for the next 50 or 200
years, we all are growing old no matter how hard e fight against it. As people
see me changing rapidly, I too see celebrities are not like before. I was
surprise to see a few actresses with wrinkles and the change face. I could not
recognize the formerly beautiful lady.
But love remains when the age change. You can't marry a
girl when she was 18, you still want to marry her now when she passed 50. That
is in most of our hearts. I had a sweet heart when we were 15 but somehow she
married someone else, and I was thinking of marrying her if she becomes widow
even at the age of 60. But she had passed away.
If we have to grow old let's grow old and live with it.
Those who despise old people will be despised too when their time come.
26/08/2010 Top |
A
CHAT WITH MY STUDENT
I was browsing thru a facebook when
I had a chat call from one of my students. I don't know and remember him. He
invited me for a re-union after the Hari Raya. He is now a lecturer in one
of the universities and his wife also from the same school went to Australia and
specialize in IT. He told me one of his friends is working in Korea right now.
He expressed his regret for playing truant in English class.
I was one of the bad Head Masters
because I did not blame the students for their playing truant or sleeping in the
classroom. I blamed the teachers for not making his class attractive to the
students. I remember when schooling, I wanted to go school very badly because I
got the class of Mr Sin Yong. Every student talked about that teacher. He made
the learning and teaching so very interesting. Non-graduate teachers always
blamed the students. When the graduate teachers took over the total attitude
change. Situations changed. This particular student did not have the experience
of having graduate teachers then.
Vocational school in those days were
the 'pariah' school. Academic school teachers would say 'You are belonged to
Vocational school...."In the later years I have big problems when PMR students
with 5 - 7 As applied. I had to discourage the 7A students and hard a hard time
influencing their parents. I have a lawyer friend who sent his son with 5As to
take a capentary course. "Why do you send your kid here ? " " I want him to be
an architect..." I told him my school could mould a student to be an architect.
He insisted. Many of these students were placed in electronic and electric
classes.
Yet a big majority were the low
achievers.
I needed to have teachers with
positive thinking, who would not blamed the students for being stupid and
naughty, and who believed that there was no stupid children in our school. I had
to make the students believe that they could learn and were not stupid. It would
be easy for the students but could not be easy with the teachers. I asked the
teachers to find why the students were weak in sciences and mathematics. We
forced the students to learn the multiplication table by heart. They need to
recite table in the and speak English during every assembly.
We built up discipline by making the
environment beautiful and conducive. I believed that beauty instills aesthetic
sense, which in turn control emotions of aggressiveness. We built in a 5
star-toilet and make sure the compound was extremely clean. We created a moto
'We Got To Be Number One', a school battle cry. We award the winners and
punished the failures. And we stressed on the school image.
During the re-unions I heard happy
stories. "Cikgu, during the time I went to Korea there were 10 out of 15 from
our school." And that was with the 'pariah' school with many IPT lecturers and
highly successful entrepreneurs and EO in private organizations.
The story of successful students
made me very proud. But not everyone I met was a wealthy corporate figure and
lecturers. One day while I was eating a mamak mee in a stall, a small lorry
stopped. The driver came in and went to the mamak. After talking to the mamak,
he came to mee and shook his hand with me. "I was your student cikgu." He went
away. He paid for my mee. He stopped his lorry when seeing me. I almost shed my
tears.
I lost many good and responsible
teachers because they moved to some other schools, retired or died. Aziz
Selaiman and Puteh were the first to push the sciences passes to above 90% and
later 100% for many years. Wong Kok Yin, Mazlifah and Saad brought up the
Mathematic to over 85%. Students who fared badly in their Sciences and
Mathematics were doing well in SPMV. Productive non-graduate like Lim May Chong
is still there.
Many teachers would go to the
students house when finding some problem with the kids.
The other night a lady student
called me for the facebook chat too. She is now doing a Master program in one of
the universities. We chat on many things. As a teacher I kept on motivating them
for further success. "Beat me up...you must be above me and make sure you get a
better CGPA..." I remember in school telling the students that the male students
perform better then the female in SPMV. "Why ?" I would ask.
Today when I met teachers who
complaint that their students can't read, I would encourage them to teach the
basic reading and writing again. Forget about the Ministry and the school's
regulation. But teach them the basic and organize a graduation day when the time
come. Let the graduates read something on the day in front of the parents.
Chatting with the male students is
better than the female. We can get emotional when friendly talk with the female
one, though it is a rare case. I know successful students will call me for that
chat again. I am looking to it and looking for any other re-union. But I really
want to see the 1995 - 2000 students. I left the school in 2000 on protest of it
being changed to Technical School. 1995 onwards the school experienced a peak
period. The school, not me. I did not run the school following what the Jabatan
Pendidikan Negeri wanted. I run my own way. They did not like me, but my school
shone, winning awards after awards. We had thousand of visitors from all over
because we were the bench marking school.
That explains the reason why I am
very proud of my former students and would attend their re-union when invited.
24/08/2010 Top |
THE JOKE OF THE YEAR
Please, this is not politics. You will say I am bias and
would simply side the soul of Teoh Beng Hock. If I talk politics please don't
believe me. It may well be full of lies and imaginations. If I side Beng Hock, I
may be mislead by the anti-MACC people. BUT please read on the MACC lawyer of
Abdul Razak.
I usually laughed my head off when hearing sex jokes. But
I did the same when reading about what he said in the court and how he attacked
Dr Porntip. Last time many of us found a story as a hilarious joke when one USM
Professor said in a PTA meeting "You all are not qualified to argue with me
because I got a PHD and you are not...." He was dead serious after the normal
PTA's arguments.
Someone recalled what Razak said to Karpal who was on the
wheel chair, "I can sit and you can't stand."
To me that was the mother of all jokes and certainly the
joke of the year. It is lucky that majority found it entertaining and Razak was
a joker, Otherwise people would brand every Malay a "Jonah" or a 'Don
Quixote' .
If you have not read it find it somewhere. I won't publish
it here.
The most entertaining when he asked Porntip whether she
had any experienced jumping down from a high building. If I were Portip, I would
have asked him to jump first. And mind you later every lawyer thought it would
be a good experience to jumped down from a 14-story building. The very high
class people may not laugh but merely shook their heads.
Entertaining yes.
Try to avoid public debates or arguments. It is not
whether you can talk or not but whether you can make fools of yourselves. Public
will judge us and able to see the depth of our brain, and want to know the
college or university you are from.
The lesser jokes that have passed were 5 watts of
transmission power is better then a 100 watts, the way a group of hams handled
DX communications ( very hilarious ) , Guan Eng's name mentioned in the sermon,
and a few other local happenings.
24/08/2010 Top |
MORSE TEST - NO LUCK
It took me a solid ONE year to learn
Morse. Because there was no computer nor class, I started to learn sending
instead of hearing. That was not the proper procedure. Those were the days of
tape and cassette coders. I savaged a small transistor radio to turn it into an
oscillator. Using merely two wires touching each other, I recorded the signals
into the small tape and carried it with me everywhere. I listened to it, my own
recording and my own sending.
The ship-to-shore frequency had
helped me. I listened to it everyday, trying to copy the group of characters and
all what I heard. I didn't know whether they were correct or wrong, until one
day the copied codes began to shown senses 'ALL SHIPS AND VESSEL MUST AVOID
( latitude and longitude ) AS THERE WILL BE A MILITARY EXERCISE...' Then I knew
my reading was almost perfect. When there were no announcement, group of words
and characters were sent.
Before RAE I already mastered about
12 wpm.
It is possible for a person to pass
RAE even without understanding the components and the theory. A one month test
drilling could pass him. The element of luck is very great and bright. There is
no such thing as luck in mastering CW. You either know it or not. You can't
guess. No luck. The only luck you have is that the guy still pass you even
though you can't copy and send. It is a very remote chance.
If someone claimed that he only
studied it in a month or two, I would really take my hat off. He has to be an
extra ordinary person. Special people are rare. A big majority will flop. A
three month of intensive and internal drive to success can help. But you have to
put your mind to it and the positive attitude may be a pushing factor. For the
2nd September candidates, by now you must be able to send 100% without error and
copy above 92%. You have to find a way to know your progress.
I believe a person has to put an
effort, a lot of it. Acquiring a skill is much more difficult than talking or
buying or reading. You have to organize yourself, set a system, set up your mind
and tell yourself to be patient.
I do not recommend you to listen to
ham CW QSO for several reasons. Firstly you need to have a radio to be able to
go to HF where people work CW. 7 MHZ is full of QRM from pirates. You need to go
to 14 MHZ. Secondly the sending is too fast. I don't understand why people
seldom send 12 wpm nowadays. The minimum speed is 25 wpm. Mostly between 30 -
45.
Sorry right now I can't tell you who
are really good in Morse in your area. In Kuala Lumpur there are CWers like
9M2YP and 9M2ZA. These people had worked a few thousand stations on Morse. In
Penang 9M2FK. In Perlis 9M2PZ and 9M2GET. The rest I can't say because either
they stopped working CW with me or either they worked less than 5 times with me.
I can't assess them.
Get a group and discuss the plan and
program is another method. I think this is a good method. But the 2nd September
test is too soon. You can start thinking about it now.
22/08/2010 Top |
A QUESTION OF ISLAM
Between Ahmad bin Awang and David
Donaldson, who is Islam and who is not ? Between Mohd Gamim Ali who always had
free sexual intercourse and running a prostitution and Johnson Mavrick who is a
devoted family man and respect every human being, who should be a better friend
? Today the Malaysians could not determine how many Ahmad bin Ali are not Muslim
and how many Tong Ai Han are devoted Muslim.
I am sure you do not feel secure
living in area where the Malay youths are drug users and bag snatchers. You
would not want a Malay neighbor who never want to know or say hello to you.
However in Islam there is a concept
of Kalifatullah which means a ruler is a shadow that run Islamic law. The word
Imam means a ruler leading the people. The Prophet was a ruler and an Imam. Nik
Aziz is also a Khalifatullah. Sultan Brunei had been an Imam before.
Khalifatuulah runs Islamic law or tries his best to run the law.
The question is do we really have
the Khalifatullah today in Malaysia ? Khalifatullah looks up at God and the
teaching of the Holly Book Al-Quaran. He does not look up at another human being
and obey his teachings especially if that man cant recite even a simple surah.
I am not saying the David Donaldson
is an Islam and Ahmad bin Awang is a Christian. We cannot absolutely be sure.
Some churches in USA branded Osma as Islam and as a Satan. Many believe that
Idares jalai is a Muslim.
Always scrutinize the sermon in
mosque. An Imam prays to God for the protection of a leader because they feel
safe with that leader. They can pray and practice Islamic religion, fasting and
feeling not being cheated. But there is no such thing as 'Oh God put him
in Heaven .....' In Imam's heart, he may asked God to show that leader a Right
Path. There are so many stories about the Prophet and his Great Uncle who was
not a Muslim. In USA many
churches welcome the Muslim students to the church and prepare a prayer room to
them and showed respect towards the students and their practiced. Hence Muslims
should invite the non-Muslim to join the Berbuka Puasa and enjoyed the free
Kanji on the fasting months.
If an Imam misinterpret the concept of Khalifatullah then is there in the
Islamic teaching that he must be reported to the police and thrown into the
burning fire ? The Ulama all over the world is studying the issue.
In my mind adultery, prostituting, pimping students,
and working with Jews to destroy Muslims are more sinful.
A question whether a person is a
Muslim or not need detail scrutiny and we don't go around and shoot every Donald
and Teoh as non-Muslim and awarded Idares bin Jalai because thinking he is a
Muslim. What would have I
done on the issue of Khalifatullah ? I would go and ask the person concern about
the subject matter rather than making a big noise. People don't forget when the
TV1 disgraced the Malays everyday to the world. Just because a person is a Mamak,
that did not give him a license to disgrace a Malay.
We are easily shocked at something different and
unexpected. Animals would jumped and run or attack us when we shocked them. But
we are animals with brain and thinking, of education and values, of culture and
reasons.
21/08/2010 Top |
START CLEANING MY SHACK
A
ham friend of mine asked me to clean my mind of political thought and clear them
off my website. He is truly a concerned ham. I would like to and stay quiet and
let other people take care of politics. But I was not able to do so how hard I
tried. Funny news came from the main stream media. I wanted to know more and dig
out from the opponent's media. Then I weighed it out. If my my reasoning shows
any irregularity, then I cannot keep my mouth shut. Of course I don't expect
people to believe me.
It is easier to clean my shack
rather than to clean my mind. In fact it is not so simple to command myself to
start work. My shack is really worse than a dustbin. Used papers were just
thrown out every where. Rambutan seeds mixed up with the dusts. My wife could
not do the cleaning. Getting a maid probably drive her to jealousy. So I have to
do it by myself.
Today I started to clear, not
amounting to clean, my left table and 1/10 of the floor. While I am typing now I
feel the top left corner floor is fairly clean. The broom is on the floor
beneath my chair. My big clock could not stand up because I threw away the stand
forgetting it belong to this radio clock. The table top is still messy, with 3
removable hard disk, a GPS, watch, pen, tapes and two CW keys on it's right.
This current lap top is above another one. Both are Acer. The bottom one was
strike by a lightning but could still work without a modem.
My estimation is , I will take 5 - 7
days to flush my shack and clear it with the unused waste papers. The last day I
will mop it with some chemical.
After the work and the Hari Raya my
shack will look abnormal. I would say there is something with it and would say
something wrong with me too.
My former boss once came to my house
and passed a remark "You can look after your school so well, but you don't look
after your own home." Actually a home is for myself. A school is for public. I
chose to make public more comfortable.
I told myself that I am going to
clean the whole house. First I got to find a new home to the newly born kittens,
6 of them. I got to bring them to the fish market to join the other stray cats.
In spite of that I will be having 6 more. Cats multiply fast and they urinate
everywhere in and outside our home.
I figure it will take 2 days to
clean the whole floor.
I don't have furniture, only simple
chairs for the visitors. I discourage people from coming to my house on the non-raya
days because it would not make visitors feel comfortable. If my wife allows me
to take another woman, I would marry a house maid who can cook and crop my hair.
Then the whole house will be lighted up like in fairyland.
20/08/2010 Top |
WE DON'T WANT YOUR MONEY
I rushed to Court Mamoth after reading the advertisement
sheet sent to my home thinking of purchasing a RM4599 Philip HD Flat TV. It has
an offer of a 32" LCD free with the purchase. On arriving the salesman ushered
me to the location of the TV. I was amazed at the quality of the picture and
decided to buy it.
When I took out my Debit Card the salesman said they don't
sell cash. I must take loan with 1.9 percent with the payment for about RM100 a
month for 5 years. "Can't I buy cash ? " I asked. He said if I buy cash there
will be no free gift. He said if I were to buy on loan basis I have to produce
my pay slip. "I am retired," I said. He asked me for my pension card and went
away. He came back and said "Sorry, uncle. You are above 60. You are not
qualified."
I told him that it was OK for me. I did not go to beg but
to buy. If the company did not want my money it was OK for me. I went out. This
is the second time I encountered with business organization that rejects
customer's money. Last time I did write about a Proton staff who refused to
allow me to test whether I could shove in a wheel chair in the bonnet. May be by
co-incidences these were the Malay staffs or the company owned by the Malays.
The hidden implication for the rejections were two; first,
they are saying that their are doing very well and they are not hard up of
customers. Secondly they are saying that people of 60 plus is going to die in
less that 3 to 4years time.
In fact I observe the number of workers and did a quick
computation of the monthly overhead cost the company is going to bear each
month. Even banks which merely survive on public loans are struggling to survive
and finding ways to build up their cash with all sort of scheme and charges. But
this company merely depends on the interest. That particular TV sets would give
them RM2000 after 5 years. That amount is almost a salary of 3 workers a month. I
just think that company could have been facing some financial problem and is
struggling very hard to survive.
Once upon a time there was one company which did not allow
non member to go purchasing. So people just went somewhere else to buy. Today
the company is already closed.
Many companies could go bankrupt and suffer heavy loses
with their policy. That include even Proton. Without government support and
intervention it would have closed shop long ago. Even that people still go for
the more expensive cars like Toyota and Hyundai.
How many percent of our customers do think like me ? If
above 50% the company which rejected people's money and have the 'sombong'
staffs would go bankrupt soon. The thinking is simple "If you don't want my
money well good luck. I will it somewhere else".
Now I am watching a fourteen inch RM150 TV. I watched the
World Cup with that one. Because Hari Raya is coming, I just to make my wife
happy with the HD TV. She has always rejected it and asked me to buy a leather
recliner. And I seldom watch it too because in my mind TV always lie. My wife
would tune to the Islamic channel and would tell me the stories she watched.
Who are interested in our money ? The insurance company,
especially the Takaful. They still sell to people of any age, even to those they
is going to die tomorrow. I have been receiving the insurance brochures from the
same bank that rejected my credit card application. Do you know what insurance ?
CAR ACCIDENT INSURANCE. If I die they promised a paid up of a few thousands.
What to buy in the grave with the Malaysian ringgit from Takaful insurance ? You
can't even pay the worms that is eating your flesh.
So now I am not yet made poor by RM4599. How many a RM150
14" TV set can I buy with that amount ? 30 sets. If one set last for one year I
can buy one set each year. And I won't live even 5 more years.
19/08/2010 Top |
F-CAR - GOVERNMENT MUST THINK NOW
Terrafugia flying car which will
take off by the end of 2011 already has a competition from the Wingless Flying
Car. While Terrafugia had to use wing and need enough space for take off, the
later can do a vertical take off and can accommodate 4 passengers. Terrafugia
can only fill in 2 persons.
Terrafugia (left) looks like a small
plane. A few other models do not look like the normal car but one. Look at the
picture in the previous article. For about RM300000, even the Malaysians can
afford to own them. The flying motorcycle is better, very easy to take off and
landing.
I hope our government would not not
post any tax for the first 1000 or 2000 flying cars and motorcycles. If I can't
buy a car at least I want to own a motor cycle. The motorbike is about RM75000.
I don't have that much but some how I am going to buy one.
Malaysian government must start
thinking about it on FAA and licensing procedures for both the flying car and
the motorbike. If someone is thinking only of making money again then it would
very unfortunate to the Malaysians.
2011 is fast coming. The flying
motorcycle is easier to build and can be in production any time. Thousand of
people all over the world would be purchasing them and use the vehicles by 2011.
18/08/2010 Top |
WHAT FREQUENCY ALLOCATION FOR NON-LICENSEES
TO BE ON HF ?
Rather than fighting the pirates and
upholding laws it was easier to legalize them and provide them with a special
frequency. It was good for the authority to find the simplest solution in solving the
problem. It has been done on VHF and I am keen to know on what frequency
allocation is to be given for pirates to come on HF.
After all radio is merely a hobby. The band does not
belong to our grand father, does it ? Or would it be simpler for any owner of HF
rig just to come on using any club call sign as practiced by a few 9W2s who
operate from their home using club call sign. May be it is practicable this way.
One gateway HF frequency specially use by any non-license ? Or 9M0 or 9M9
prefixes given before a person pass RAE ? The authority can get more income, and
people are happier. So 9M0ASB indicates he is a non-ham who is on training.
These people have to pay just a little more than the normal ham.
After all the world has changed. The policy has changed.
And the way to fight crimes can change too. Wouldn't it makes things easier for
the authority and everybody.
Please let us know the frequency allocation for
non-licensees on HF. Call it by any name, may be PRASAD1 or TRAINING1. We just
want to know. And in this way the million ringgit tracing equipment can stay
idle or can be sold away. Hence there will be no problem of piracy and illegal
stations. I can save money using transceivers rather than the hand-phone to talk
to many of friends and my old schools. If this is not
done the number of illegal stations will certainly increased following the trend
as what had been happenings on 2 meter band. The nature will shift to HF as
well. Similar format will occur. Because the MCMC will have no way to trace and
control the multiplier effect will take place. As what happened in Indonesia,
identical things will happen here. If you follow closely you will find hams
talking to their fellow friends minus the call signs around the CW portion.
MCMC has the choice of either abolish RAE or provide openings to
non-licensees . As has been pointed out and argued before that RAE is not
relevant nowadays and more than 50% would not understand electronic components
and the principles working of the radio. And people do not homebrew equipments.
Even the QRP rigs are purchased. There is nothing new
in my suggestion. MCMC has applied it on VHF. It only need to expand to HF. The
reasons applied to VHF should be applied to HF too. I
hope by now those hams who were pushing for the rapid increase of hams are happy
with the current outcome. May be 7000 is not enough. They may be pushing the
MCMC for a few million target. Get the criminals and big time smugglers in.
Radio is free and everyone has the right to be a ham. Train them using special
call signs or provide a special frequency so that they do not go anywhere. Be
their leaders so that they will be well known and praised and appreciated.
18/08/2010 Top |
MALAYSIAN HAMS BY RACE
In my previous article I narrated a
story about one Chinese ham asking me a question, "Cikgu we have about 95%
Malays, 5% , Chinese....where are the Indians ?" The figure was just estimated.
This person has not been an ardent SWL. There are a few Indians on the band
including on the 2 meters. These are highly educated and respectable people and
a few had been working as a signal men in ships. There are walking radio
dictionaries; 9M2PV and 9M2DY. 9M2PV is the most resourceful ham in Malaysia I
know off. He is always available and is not stingy to share his knowledge.
Chinese hams are more keen in
listening and eavesdropping. Almost all are good in CW and I usually work them
on CW. There are about 10 - 15 active guys monitoring the band.
So the most heard are the Malays.
A topic which I don't want to write
but feel it won't be completed if I have not expressed my total feeling. Why a
Chinese ham is picked up when more than 15 rule breakers who go on the band
illegally were ignored. These people are Malays talking to Indonesia on 40 and
DX station using club call signs. The Chinese hams were known NOT to report
people since the beginning of Malaysian ham radio unless their call signs are
being used. But they do monitor and noted what goes on the band.
It is not a matter of reporting a
case but why report a Chinese ? Human being will feel it that way. The
sensitivity of a minority must not be ignored. True that a past is past. What
will the future be ? It had not been mentioned about the language used and the
criticism for using it. English speaking ham already felt bad. Though Chinese is
not spoken among local hams, the criticism for using English has conveyed a deep
meaning. That can hurt.
No matter how much twists and turns
the victim will say that he was reported by someone. It did not come by
accident.
This is what I call the political
behavior which was non-existence in the yester years minus the 9Ws. I was
shocked when racial card was used to call for the increase of the Malays in Ham
Radio. That was way back in the 80's. Ham radio had been a factor of passing the
RAE and CW before. If therefore at that time there were only a few Malays, it
was just because they did not want to learn. Then I was told about the 'Lesen
Ampun Kurnia' base on the argument that it is just a hobby.
This is a hobby. Truly a hobby.
Nevertheless racial sensitivity can occur.
Another point which I have raised
before about the senility of a ham. A 9M2 said that ham is senile 'nyanyuk' ,
this ham is 'nyanyuk'. But when he comes on he did not realize that he too
is 'nyanyuk'. When there is a beliefs even a criminal can be a ham, I could not
say more but felt so very sorry.
News came to me about these and
those guys cheating, not trustworthy etc otherwise I would not know about thefts
, cheat and lies. I can only know MARTS directly without being told. I know
MARTS before and MARTS today.
A few years ago I said I hope
Malaysian amateur radio would be better in the future. It does not. It is good
to observe our neighbor today that the license hams would go down the CW area
and talked to their non-license friends without the use of call sign. So much so
the Indonesian CWers have to move away to the other band. Don't you think it
won't happen here ?
A few old hams put a total blame of
9M2... and 9M2... for what is happening today and now. Believe me they said it,
not me. When thinking profoundly I can see some truth in it.
18/08/2010 Top |
USA CAR RENTAL
Car
rental is cheap in USA. If you walk in you will have to pay much more. You may
be charge a week's price for a day. Make sure you do all your homework before
making a trip or else you will be wasting your money unnecessarily. Those who
are planning the trip to Dayton for the Hamvention should start to look at the
internet now and plan well.
In the USA and else where prices are
subjected to change especially the hotel price. The greater the demand, the
higher will be the price. Hotels near a certain attractions and festivals would
be extremely high. My experience in family traveling was that we took time to
look for low priced hotel starting from the theme park and move further out of
it. As we moved farther and farther the hotel became cheaper and cheaper.
You might find the cheap hotels
about 30 - 40 miles away. Our family would stay there and traveled to the theme
part everyday. We would reached the destination about 30 to 60 minutes later.
Hotels in Dayton already know when is the peak season with a high demand.
The O'Hara stadium is out of town in
the kampong. The traffics is not heavy.
I usually took Avis. The car is just
like a brand new one. It might be a bit expensive then the others. But don't
simply take a car without a question. There are 2 types of rental namely the
limited mileage and the non-limited mileage. The first allows you to ride free
but above a certain miles you will have to pay a few cents for each mile plus
the rental. The unlimited mileage should be your choice. Rent it by the weekly
rate. Below is the rate I copy on 18/08/2010 for your perusal.
Traveling with a group need prior
considerations. It is mandatory to get friends of the same wavelength. My
friend's group would select one among them to arrange all the transportation and
the lodging, and all agree to accept her decision.
There was a group that went to
Australia and one of them was interested in goat, and when they found someone
who run the goat farm there, went to see the farm. Hours were wasted and the
rest were very unhappy.
Decide from here how long you are
going to go. Hamvention is 3 days. So the minimum would be 5 days. Do you just
want to go to the Hamfest and then come back ? Again you have to get groups who
are willing to share the same length of periods with you. For a wealthy person
running a business, 5 days may be enough. For a normal person who think he may
not go gain because of the long distant may want to take the minimum of two
weeks. As for me, if I were to go with my wife, I may take 3 weeks.
Recently one fellow ham went to Los
Angeles, Las Vegas, and Grand Canyon with his brother. The total expenditure for
both was only RM3000 in USA for 7 days. Most things in USA are cheaper then here
after the conversion to ringgit.
The 2011 trip in May should start
with the visa application now. You may not get the visa even though you paid
RM400 for the fee. I am sure non of you have any connection to any terrorist
organization. And I don't think so you want to go to USA to work. If you are a
civil servant get a letter from the head to prove that you are a government
servant. If they sniff you are going there with the intent of selling Roti Canai
or Roti Arab, you are gone.
You have been to USA 10 years ago
but during that time you did not return the I-94 card or the immigration card,
please do go to the embassy and explain to them because in the mind of the US
immigration you are hiding somewhere in USA, selling Ais Kacang.
Remember the 2011 trip must start
now and today.
18/08/2010 Top |
THE CHANGE
\The quantum leap began with the micro-technology and
today what mind had never thought could become real had materialize. What we are
aware are the palm size kit which allow us to talk and see distance people, abd
the flying tortoise ( the wingless flying car ) . One of the coming ones is
Quantum Teleportation . Putting in a crude way,
you don't have to fly to Dayton. You need to enter a box. You disappear in the
box in Kuala Lumpur and appear in another box in Dayton. And the coming one is
the Fountain of Youth as the scientists already found cells which do not grow
old. For more information you can go to
this page.
The progress and the change would
also alter human life and culture. We use machines to replace animals in work
and transportation. We utilize technology in mosques. Kids are playing with the
new computer games and don't know any of the old kids games and sports.
With the great changes in technology and the earth
surface, human emotions do not change. The emotions of anger, happiness, fear,
jealousy, greedy, hatred and love are still there. External interventions like
the administration of drugs had brought disastrous effect on mankind.
Ways of some crimes change. Today we know of robberies
by bag snatching, daylight murder in public, and hitech house breaking
procedures. Because of the
un-changed human emotions we hear of the continuous killings, the unending
Palestinian issues, Islam under attack, political clashes, corruptions, robbing
land by law and much more. The cheat, the bluffs, the lies and wild accusations
dominate the daily headlines.
The age of reason should follow in
phase with the big progress in technology. It does not happen that way. Human
emotions rule.
One new development which most of us
may not aware off is the collection of human data of the Muslim world to group
who are the terrorists or supporters, the danger an individual can post to the
world, and to ensure the world is safe. Those with the potential danger would
not be allowed into countries like the United States or England. This internet
technology is the data gathering machines.
It is a wonder our mind and mentality could be recorded
thru the blog like this.
The awareness of the co-existing
technological change and the un-change human emotion by some countries made them
more alert to filter out bad elements.
17/08/2010 Top |
MY ARCH ENEMY
Who is my arch enemy ? I don't know. Here is where it all
started.
During the era of thefts, piracies and cheaters I came
back to Amateur Radio after a long rest. People began to tell me stories from
the stealing of rigs, piracies and cheaters. Being new and I did not know much
about class B and other activities, I just stayed mum and dumb. ASTRA was the
most active then. Slowly I began to hear a call sign being used by several
persons on the National link. I was told of person giving away for the
non-licensee to use the call for years. He himself would used it. And during
that time ASTRA net invited SWL to check in.
When I asked about it the net runner said 'Majlis
Tertinggi ASTRA allows it...' Then I began to intervene when a pirate check in
the net using another person's call sign. Those created anger and uneasiness . But nothing happened yet. Then
there was a case of money collection and one
friends told me about the cheating in the service of a hardware, I was suspected
of spreading the cheating news.
Things started to happen. One guy called me 'BABI' on the
ASTRA link. He kept on following me on HF and sending CW with a few characters
he learned 'B A B I'. When a new station talked to me, afterwards there would be a
phone call and the station disappeared. I knew it was a call to boycott me.
Certainly I hit back at the BABI stuffs because only the
son of the BABI would call people by the name. Then I became so sure that ham
radio will not be like the old hamming again. It will never be because these
pirates and the BABI guy would become a ham and bad habit usually hard to go by.
Some pirates can change and be law abiding but some others will not, and will continue with the
habit.
Certainly the one who like to use the word BABI has become
a ham by now. Following my deduction he has to be a guy in Kedah and will
continue taking me as his arch enemy. Letters were sent to my home. But I don't
read letters from an unknown. I am very much aware of the smear campaign thru
web sites and any other means.
Does it matter to me ? NO. NOT ONE BIT. Then why I write
about it now ? Just to let the new hams know what kind of people they can expect
around them and to show the lowering of standard of once a respected hobby.
People do respect hams long ago. It is very difficult to enhance the image of
ham as the king of the hobby.
It's political behavior began to take effects. People are
hunting for popularity, a show off of their smartness, making money strategy out
of the hobby. lobbying and smear campaign. The number of sects and groups grow
bigger.
Once they say that ham is for friendship. NAY now. With
those sick guys it creates enemy. Now they want to know who report the 9W guy to
the authority. SMS went around saying I did. I laughed but with regret and
feeling sorry. Surely my arch enemy would exploit the situation. If no one
reported, it means the MCMC is working hard without their knowledge and possibly
aware of the person or persons who went on illegal transmission local or
otherwise.
Hams should wake up. Clean the image of ham radio and let
it be a dignified and respectable hobby. Go and sit for CW test for whatever
reason. Ask not the wisdom behind it. But I assure you it has some wisdom. A few
has already realize the wisdom. And to tell you the truth, I don't want to know
who my enemy is. I prefer to find enjoyment by writings and talked to a few
friends. 9W2TZ always tell me 'Bang Rahman, life is too short...'
I am glad people read my blog to find out how stupid and
bad I am.
16/08/2010 Top |
SELF DISCIPLINE
Though I scorn the new Western
culture and value in area of freedom of sexual intercourse, I would still
respect them in the high quality of discipline. A great number do good things,
not of fearing God or authority but their conscience tell them so. Parents
respect the privacy of their own children, not opening or read their mails. They
would picked up cigarette buts found on the street. They stopped their cars for
pedestrian and animals crossing the road.
I told my students why they should
pick up thrown out chocolate wrappers and put them in proper places, returning
properties found and do other goods, not to show to people or fear of law and
authority but to get satisfaction, fulfillment and filling good. They would feel
proud of themselves.
I wrote a software for my old school
which recorded the fiscal standing. I told the school to guard it well for fear
of leakage of information. No one else other than the financial clerk and the
school administrators should know the financial standing. At any time I can
sneak thru the daily standing. But I do not do it and put my interest off at
that. For all the discipline we have, we grade ourselves not for others but for
ourselves. We feel good.
We did read articles on workers in
USA who found tenth thousands of dollars and return the money to the owner. When
interviewed the answer was "I teach my sons and grandsons to be honest..."
It is not an easy thing to control
oneself. We can administer ourselves on one but in another. Before I did not
throw waste while driving, now I start to throw 'kulit langsat' while on the
road. Whenever I see a custom, I always wish he does not taxed me. Once in a
blue moon I bluffed my wife.
I think the Westerners especially
the Americans are the most disciplined people today. Compared to the British,
the British still cheat people today. If they can cheat the Americans, they will
do so. They are very tricky people, very much different from the Americans.
16/08/2010 Top |
SORRY I DON'T WANT TO SKYPE
WITH EVERY DICK, TOM AND HARRY
I have closed my facebook yet there are still requests
of friendships. Similarly I decided to erase Skype guys whom I don't know their
back ground . In my previous articles I repeatedly warned hams not to trust any
ham friends because base on several experiences and observations some people
could not be trusted. There are hams who lost thousands of ringgit to unpaid
loan, did not pay for the purchase products, borrow expensive equipments without
returning, cheat people in purchasing of equipments and would even claim
properties of the dead ham as theirs.
Despite the warning I forget the advice because I
accepted people who want to join my Skype contacts. It is not to say those Skype
contacts are untrustworthy but because I don't know their backgrounds. All
contacts formerly signed were deleted and the new coming ones will not be
accepted. After all I am nothing to them and they aren't anything to me. I do
keep old hams like Chow , Weng, Lim and Rashid Ghani. Amry is still new but his
way of skyping shows great maturity and a person of wide knowledge. The non hams
are my students. Imagine
one day if you have a visitor from a Special Branch telling you that you are one
of the Al-Qeda members, which would surprise you very much. You will be having a
very tough time explaining that you don't know your friend is the brother
of Osama. Furher more today there are too much of bad influence around.
There are many hams I have not met and not known them
who request to be friends, Sorry I have decided to reject them just because I
don't know who they are. Yahoo chat is more dangerous then Skype because there
are many conman running around using other people's identity, showing pictures
of beautiful woman or young kids, and finally hit you by their misfortune
stories. Beg you to help them.
Even in the Celcom Broadband modem I received
mail telling me I won RM10000.
You are bound to tumble on a Skype guy who will want to
damage or cheat you. Be warned, choose friends carefully.
You yourselves would warn your kids to choose friends.
You want to know who they are. You fear they might fall into traps.
As I am of no value then there is no point to get into
my skype friend. I just wish you all the luck and success in what you are doing.
My only request is leave me alone on the band and do not deliberately cause QRM
when we are working on phone or CW.
God put education and religion into mankind and many
refuse to obey the rules of the Almighty and the rule of the world. So heaven
and hell were created. The brain don't and won't see the unknown and beyond.
16/08/2010 Top
|
Great
God ! I saw a video of a flying car without a wing. People were shouting. It
will come soon, flying over our heads. 50 years later younger generations will
be owning one. The price will come down.
The Flying Motorcycle is smaller and
looked more interesting. There are several models for sale at a cost of USD
25,000 each. If you key in
Flying Car in the search engine, you will be able to see various flying machines
invented and readily sold in the market.
In USA the use of air space by flying vehicles had been
agreed and set by the aviation and relevant authority. Probably a special test
license would be required to drive any flying object.
Today I spent much time on looking at inventions of
flying objects from the simplest ultralight to the wingless flying car.
Contemplating on the smallest helicopter and the skydiving type of object, the
latest was the easiest and the cost would be extremely low which is affordable.
Three types of people are required or enough if a single person with the 3
fields of knowledge namely the person who has the theory of aerodynamic ( what
makes an airplane flies and how ), a person who can draw and a person who is
good in handy work.
Technical, vocational and polytechnic students can do
it. Science and Technology club can do it. Radio Societies and Clubs can do it.
Or a group of interested people can do it. The group must either study from the
internet, read books or learn from those who know. A few hams are known to be
very well verse with the theory of flying and many hams are very skilful in
bending and cutting metals. As for drawings the parts that joined or interfacing
stuffs need be shown in detail.
Electric motors are very powerful and are known to
consume ample current. They can be bought thru the internet or direct from
China. The E-Bike are using these kinds of motor. Or else experiment with any
other kind of motor.
It is better for the Radio Club members to spend their
time building the flying objects. There is a research funds. Before applying for
the funds, try to prove that the club has already produce one flying vehicle.
Built first then look for a pilot. You don't have to
fly for miles. A short 2 minutes take off will do. And when you do it the rest
will follow. Don't you think you can do it ?
15/08/2010 Top
|
THINGS YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND
There are very numerous things that
we don't understand. Some are mysterious and others are not. When you go to
Waikiki Beach in Hawaii or Russia you will see rest area with tables and
Chess sets. There are many people playing Chess. When you come to amateur radio
you would hear many stations coming on Morse codes. Then you see people paid
highly for bungee jumping . Why you may ask.
A simple conjecture I would say they
might find those activities provide fulfilling. I find chess and CW sharpen my
mind. And if were to learn Mandarin, I would want to hear people speaking the
language and would want to converse using the lingo. All is just to sharpen my
Mandarin. Have you learn other languages beside Malay and English ?
In fact knowledge and several skills
like able to play musical instruments, play badminton and other games will make
you a better person. I feel good just deciphering codes and feel satisfied when
I hear my own sending rhythm. As I speed it up without errors I got more kick.
Call it a drug but not a dangerous one.
But people who go for adventure like
sailing the world in a yacht, sky diving, straits swimming and many other
challenging stuffs are special people. It takes special people to learn CW or
mountain climbing. Even a person who go to learn Mandarin, Japanese and France
during the free time too are special. When mankind tried to fly to the moon it
was said to be impossible, yet people sacrifice their lives to do the
impossible.
So was the Voyages of Discovery
where people sailed into the unknown, fighting the fierce seas and endure
hardships. Men of quality were being created by all those hardships and
challenges.
One of the easiest things to do
without challenges is talking. If you can't talk well then get drunk. Drunks
even talk to trees. Or get mad. We would hear mad people talking like the great
politicians. Many a time we can belief only one out of 100 things a person said.
Didn't I wrote about Chat and Harun Gila before ? Harus has passed away. Chat
may be still alive. Chat is a real patriotic guy.
You can't make people who don't want
to understand accept anything he does not like. I can't answer why people play
chess at Waikiki or in Russia except for the simple conjecture. But for CW , I
can only explain base on my own experience. The degree of comfort I got when
going CW is much greater than on Phone. I push my chair backward, putting one
leg on the other on the chair in front, close my eyes and keying away. I don't
talk.
Movies may be fictions. The fiction
showed us how special persons were chosen for a certain operation. They just
don't choose any Dick, Tom and Harry. I have always thought that people are
mature enough to see or comprehend the message we are trying to convey. I did
mention about attitudes they take things lightly and scornfully rejected it not
realizing that the attitudes and thinking could bring major problem to the
country. Much has political tones in it. It influence successes and failures,
efficiency and inefficiency.
Poor attitude people can always
cause havoc, and act irrationally. I wrote a comment on a group of people who
accused Karpal Singh for 'hasutan' when he mentioned about 'taking the Sultan to
court...' They ran havoc, making police report and news published it as if
Karpal was a hated criminal. In court Karpal read a clause to the court and
asked whether it was in the constitution. Was it wrong if Karpal quote what was
in the constitution ? I was not at all surprise when we lost Pulau Batu Puteh to
Singapre.
We need to understand things, our
friends and foes, why people go for CW and play the game of Chess. Wake up and
be matured.
15/08/2010 Top
|
HEY GOOD GUYS !!! DID I REPORT 9W2 ??? ON 20
The case has closed. But luka sudah parut masih ada. Bill
rang me up asking me whether I reported the 9W2??? to MCMC because of the SMS
going around said so. If I did I would admit that I did. I am not the scary type
of a person 'Baling batu sembunyi tangan...' Assume my close friend 9W2TZ were
to transmit on 20 meter, I might report him and won't deny that I did. I wrote
what I think has been happenings.
How did I report this guy out of 7000 + people and he is
not even my neighbor. Giving warning and advice to the others do not mean I
report this guy. But let me tell you something about transmitting illegally;
since there are many people around your area are in possession of HF rigs
probably a few stations would hear you. When they do so the SMS will run wild
calling the others to monitor you as well. And when I tell you about the
capability of the police 'semboyan' believe me I am not joking.
I have only wished the person concern asked for apology IF
he did wrong, and no need to bit about the bush. That would make people angry.
And that did not mean I reported to the authority. Seldom I went to 20 m. When I
went there I worked CW. How about 10 meter ? Once, with Hanafi a long time ago
because he wanted to test his antenna. Is there skip on 20 ? 98% of the time
there will be skip.
Of course when I was informed of such a case, I
immediately wanted to know the truth. If I have known Bill's or the 9W's phone
number, I would have rang them up to ask more or probably would 'interrogate'
for his own good.
This morning I was informed that the case was close. And
the others should be aware of the consequences that can befell them. But when
Bill put forward the question whether I did report, I was very surprise. Then I
began to see red at those boys in the area, the type who 'lempar batu sembunyi
tangan' behaving like school boys. They called it snake. Be more careful when
you meet people and mix with people. Sweet talk and smiling faces do mean white
and fresh.
But do know though 20 and 15 are skipped people around
your area can monitor you. And do know SMS run wild during your QSOs and there
are already 7000+ hams around and majority own HF sets. Using non-existing call
signs could be under probe too. The best is to work a little harder for your CW.
If Bill is hunting for the person who reported I think he
could finally found the culprit. As for me, I would not care. I did not go and
hunt for the news or read blog. When I became a ham there weren't 7000
operators. We talked among a few of us with fun and pleasure. Even the 7000 do
not like me it does not matter. Bad guys who try to run my image down local or
international will not be revenged.
This kind of thing was non-existing in the era before 9Ws.
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THE CHANGE IN VALUE SYSTEM
Value is the principles of right and
wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group. Religious people
follow the system set by the religion and people did not ask the questions why
we must follow them. As time goes by and the age of reasons came by, people just
do not accept things as they are and began to question between good and bad. As
I mentioned earlier about the different between man and animal is that man has
civilization and social values.
For many centuries when mankind
embraced religions killing, stealing, adultery, lying and a few others were
considered bad and undesirable. Laws were enacted to ensure bad things were not
done. Other values and practices on social interactions between men and women,
sex and marriages and other neighborly relationships. When someone went outside
the norm he would be called a deviant.
Society would outcast birth out of
wedlock. Sex before marriage was not only a sin but would suffer a heavy
penalty.
In the modern world we have new
things which we never have thought before. Drugs, child pornography,
experimental marriage, exchange of spouses and a few hundred of others.
Killing is not considered as murder
if it is done by government agent on the enemy, and the word enemy is widely
defined. It is defined by a race regardless of children, women or men not at
war. The more you kill the greater is you are a hero, the more medal you will
get.
A law breaker can be a hero. Robin
Hood was said to be a hero because he robbed the rich and gave to the poor. Drug
pushers have the support of many. The most interesting is the bad guy is
considered good and the good guy is considered bad and a nuisance.
The change in the value system
begins with the reason of the right of mankind. A chattel can be owned and
controlled but a man is born free and can have his own choice and do whatever he
likes. It is human liberty and human right. Lesbianism and same sex marriage has
become a norm. Nudity has become a norm in some community.
I remember when I was working; a new
teacher came from another school did not attend any of the Science teachers
monthly meetings because he said the used methodology and procedure was wrong. I
could not support him because Science SPM result had been 98% - 100% all the
way. The funny thing was there were teachers who support him and came to see me
as a middle man. To make a hero out of a man who thought he was a very great man
was very unacceptable.
The change in the value system, in
my mind, brought the world back to uncivilized atmosphere. We can kill people at
will either just because he is Islam or Christian, we can do whatever we want
just because he is a DAP or UMNO, we can make enemy out of a man just because he
criticize and point out at our errors, we support our kids who pushed drugs, we
asked the government not to interfere in our affair how bad they were.
When the Sisters of Islam called the
people not to 'jaga di tepi kain orang' and Rais Yatim show support of
non-interference, public just refused to know other people's business. Then the
Minister asked people to 'jaga tepi kain orang' ( Sharizat used those words)
exactly. There were people who witness pick pocket and hand bag grabbing but
just pretend not knowing it.
Are we not confused today ? Most of
us just feel sorry and just don't care. Just see. Each person care of his own
business. No point to comment on the moral decay. Yes to those with the old
value they see kids out of wedlock as moral decay, the support of lawlessness as
one too. Notice the program which gave Mat Rempit a special attention. It means
the good guys get nothing and it is rewarded to be bad.
"Hey..you think you got 11 As you
are smart ? Wait until we scrap of the PMR..." Is it not funny ?
A long time ago when a teacher
canned a student, the student dared not tell the parent. The parent would
further canned him for being bad or lazy. Today if a teacher cane a student he
would be confronted by parent, lawyer , education officer and probably a
Minister.
So what ? It is better just to
teach. If a student were to sleep, not doing home work, smoke and flout with the
school rules just leave it. Now students bring cigarette and marijuana to
schools and smoke them immediately after stepping out of school compound. Many
teachers just don't want to get involve in the affairs of the students. Today it
is called Kementerian Pelajaran not Kementerian Pendidikan. Pendidikan is the
role taken by the parents.
If people are happy with the new and
changing value then be it.
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WATCHING AMERICAN IDOL AUDITION ?
Though American Idol is for younger generations, it is one of my most
favorite programs. I like the audition most, where each person would show
his/her skill in singing. The good ones are really good. I was correct most of
the time that they would be sent to Hollywood. What interest me most was the
part when the bad ones were sent home. These unsuccessful guys would attack the
judges with all sort of angry words. One of the common was '...you won't choose
me, you will regret...the country lose a talented person...'
Judges at time can't help laughing. And they would throw harsh words at the
judges for laughing at them. How to make the judges praise them when their
performance were horrible ? There are so much things
that we can learn from the show. I would not want to miss the audition because I
enjoyed seeing the multiplicity of characters. The old termed given to these
people were JONAH. Jonah was a comic character in the 60s, which never did
things correctly. It was a laughing stock. Don Quixote was another character of
different nature. You want to know what I mean, you
have to watch the program. Be on the look out for it. I
looked at myself when watching the Idol, asking whether I made thing right. I
could not scold anyone who would think I was a Jonah. A Jonah might think he is
perfect like those unsuccessful idols. I was sure even after the audition they
would continue to curse the judges. We can learn and
see the mentality of the American youths too by their reactions and behavior. We
can compare with our Malaysian youths. A few took the defeat well and calm, only
with tears of disappointment. At time we still want to try even though we know
we do not have skill. They should take the judges advice like a gentlemen.
I would also tried to figure their educational level. Like Malaysians there
are also school dropouts. Believe me that there are school dropout who were in
American university start to learn the basic reading again. These are sportsmen
like the basketballers. In many aspects the mentality and knowledge of the
American and the Malaysian youths are identical. The
smart ones are really smart. They learn fast and are more creative. The way they
think are different from our ways, all due to the way they are brought up. I
studied the algorithms of the BASIC programs when I was trying to help them at
the computer lab, I found the flow differ from our thinking.
There seems to be a wide gap between the smart American and the lowly social
group. Watching the normal TV shows won't tell us the
truth. Live show might tell us something. Oprah and Nightline do paint a little
image of the society. News and articles in the web sites are from the higher
educational group. It is fun to watch the Jonahs from
the American Idol. Many do see Malaysian Jonahs but chose to keep quiet.
13/08/2010 Top |
NOSTALGIA
- I first work in Alor Setar vocational school in 1980 and left the school
in 2000. I have forgotten much about it. I think 1995 - 2000 were the peak
years. But my students can confirm when the image rose up.
We won several national as well as the state awards for
several categories. Whenever I met some of the students they would talk
about the landscaping and the cleanliness of the compound and proud of the
toilet.
My intent here is to narrate how the toilets were kept
clean and beautiful.
We told the students the importance and history of
toiletry. We plead so that the students took care of the plants and not to
dirty them of any form. The plead followed by a harsh warning, that we would
close and seal it in case of vandalism or effort to make them dirty. The
students understood and took care of them well.
Somehow like many other human being there would be
someone who wanted to test us. Students originated from the nearby school
were the most notorious. One day they brought fire crackers and were happily
causing explosions in a toilet. So we immediately took our action as
promised. We sealed all the toilet including those in the hostels.
We were stern about it. And I feared no response from
anyone, even it comes from politicians or my upper bosses. I had made up my
mind that they need to kick me off. Students came and begging, and we
allowed them to go out anywhere to ease themselves. Cruel yes. Jewish
style...yes. Nazi style..yes. But we were not happy either. I pitied the
students but stayed mum and stern. Before the school ended we went to look
for volunteers to repair the toilet, and fun collection to replace the
damage parts.
We got the volunteers and the money. Work were to be
done after school.
After that very day the monkey business stopped. I did
not know what happen to the trouble mischievous students. Probably they must
have got stern warning from their friends.
Similarly the class glass window panes were all intact
whereas you may see in many schools probably 50% will be missing. The school
will start with 100%. If anyone broke it, then he must replace it. If nobody
knows who broke it then the whole class had to share buying and fix it.
Everybody must be aware of what's happening in the class. Then every student
was very careful to ensure nothing broken.
On the other hand classes which were well kept would
take turn to go to picnic. Our school buss would take our students out to
Lata Bayu or Lata Mengkuang to enjoy the water fall. One class was taken to
Bukit Merah for winning the cleanest competition three times consecutively.
And the hostelites would enjoy Kentucky Fried Chicken for well kept
dormitory.
So whenever I saw schools with dirty and smelly
toilets and broken glasses, I always wonder what the school Principal did.
What was in his mind ?
I did not work for popularity or aim for promotion. I
dared to take any risk for the good of the school and the students.
I firmly believe in the strict re-enforcement of rules
and regulation. There
is no pity after several pleas. You want to stop the
mischief slapped them with very severe fine. In Thailand there is no problem
of illegal immigrants. So is Singapore. I do not need to relate what they do
for law breakers in those countries. Today you send the illegal home, the
next day they will come back.
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