Wise Words – Investing in Your Education

James Wesley, Rawles (JWR) (he like to use a comma between given names and his surname) recently updated an evolving article on investing, ending it on a topic that resonates with me – education.

INVESTING IN YOUR EDUCATION

I’d like to end this essay with an aside:

In my estimation, there is only one intangible investment that comes close to investing in a tangible, and that is investing in your own education or the education of your children.

A well-educated individual betters himself and hence his prospects for earnings–whether self-employed or employed by others.

That is why I’m a proponent of both homeschooling and continuing education well into adulthood.

One of my lifelong friends was conferred a Doctorate (PhD) by the London School of Economics when he was 54 years old. That is commendable.

Once a body of knowledge is between your ears, you own it. Only senility can take it away.

Personal knowledge is invulnerable to market cycles or currency fluctuations.

It is also fully portable, and cannot be confiscated.

That, in a nutshell, is my tangibles investing rationale. – JWR

I couldn’t agree more.

History abounds with “the wealth of knowledge” events – how prisoners of war who knew “things” effected escapes and survived the unsurvivable. How castaways survived because they had the knowledge to improve their living conditions rather than succumb to adversity.

Or in our contemporary age we tell stories about MacGyver characters who know how to use the ordinary to produce extraordinary results through knowledge.

JWR thoughts that after your own education, you invest into your progeny’s education, it spot on.  Skills, Wisdom, Ability, and Genetics – truly treasures a family can pass on down.  Education is a big part of that.

JWR’s full post is at: https://survivalblog.com/2024/03/24/update-21st-century-tangibles-investing-rationale/

Whatever you can put in your personal “Life Tool Box” in the way of education, is a plus. What you can help put in your children’s (and grandchildren’s) is a force multiplier.

Obviously picking up ham radio skills is a gain.

73

Steve
K9ZW

More VoIP for Hams – HoIP Network

 

Hams Over IP VOIP Network (they style it Ham‘s Over IP VOIP Network) is out there.

https://hamsoverip.com/

Not much written about the background on the HoIP website and wiki (linked from the website).

More than a one person exercise? Not certain. Something different than Hamshack Hotline.

Much seems to be on the insufferable Discord platform rather than static webpage documenation.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Archived “Cornbread Road” Audio Series by Jeff KE9V

Jeff KE9V has made an long-term archive of his “Cornbread Road” audio series.

Cornbread Road. Again.

25 March 2024

https://ke9v.net/2024/03/25/cornbread-road-again.html

I recently uploaded the Cornbread Road audio series to the Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. DLARC is a project of the Internet Archive (the not-for-profit online library best known for The Wayback Machine.) DLARC is growing into a massive online library of the past and present of ham radio and related communications.

It is funded by a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC).

Cornbread Road was a ham radio mystery, produced in 13 audio episodes (10-15 minutes each) plus an epilogue and was originally released one week at a time between the summer solstice and autumnal equinox in 2010. I have reprised it here several times since then, but am pleased to see it enter the ham radio zeitgeist and will now be continuously available for download for many years to come.

https://archive.org/details/cornbread-road

Deep in the Heartland a small group of ham radio enthusiasts enjoy an idyllic existence of wide open spaces, no antenna restrictions, low-noise levels, simple living, and good fellowship. But things aren’t exactly as they seem. Unexplained lights in the night sky, radio signals masked from the ether, strange late night visitors to this small farming community…

While not specifically targeted to youth, the Cornbread Row series certainly would appeal to youth as well as the typical ham radio crowd.

As Jeff KE9V takes down his content as he reworks his webspace to better fit his evolving concept of what it should look like, Cornbread Road has seldom been available on demand.  This changes things.

73

Steve
K9ZW

The Moose and Squirrel Net

http://www.mrca.ar88.net/Old%20Pages/Net/MandS.html

One my pals mention “ The Moose and Squirrel Cold-War Clandestine and Long-Range-Reconnaissance-Patrol Net (A place to actually use your military radio.)

Not certain this is still running, but the premise is fab!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Examples of Ham Oppression by Example

Recently ran into where there were Unintended Consequences when encouraging someone to become active in amateur radio backfired.

Some background:

This licensee had tested to Extra Class level, but what they really wanted was just show they could pass the test. Apparently they had no actual interest in the practice of amateur radio.

“Unrecognized specific apathy” (I would say only recognizable in hindsight ) led to the unfortunate situation where efforts to help them become an active caused a first level of resentment.

Of course they under communicated and left excuses cover for what was actually their disinterest.

Several hams reached out, thinking the ham couldn’t afford equipment or couldn’t figure out how to get a station together, with gifted equipment and offers to help.

This created a second level of resentment.

That the reticent ham spoke about buying an antenna and actually doing some station building apparently was a manifestation from their internal disrupted thought-processes, and wasn’t supposed to be appreciative signals to other hams helping them.  It was faked.

As the inevitable contrast with ham activities of the encouraging operators made it obvious the new ham was going nowhere in the hobby – yet gave lip service that they were interested – a deeply third level of resentment built within them.

That is when the unintended consequences broke out, with this pseudo-ham having the equivalent of a semi-adult temper tantrum.

Thir very limited interest beyond throwing themselves against the tests, shrunk even lower becoming a loathing for the hobby.

Reframing this new ham lashed out and specifically blamed everyone who tried to help them for their attitude and bad manners.

Bridges were burnt.

Some of my observations:

I never envisioned that someone might split the testing/operating interests in the way this new ham had done.  People pick up certifications and licenses for the things they intend or at least dream that they would like to actually do.

Setting aside observable issues with mental health to encourage that new ham was risk prone, and forecasting success was because of my own “rose colored glasses” presuming that if they studied and tested, they had an interest.

Providing assistance prior to a request for assistance or at least an indication that assistance would be well received was my personal failing.  “I wanted” to help them, rather than wanting to help them help themselves.

Somewhat irksome was to find out that equipment tested & configured, then gifted to them, had been given away.  Apparently they didn’t feel comfortable to either refuse my gifts or to return them.  It is more about the lost hours preparing gear for them that is upsetting, as I should have given the gear to other new hams.

While I am not disquaded from helping other new hams, I have learned something.  Trust not only my gut but my eyes – if they are going nowhere patiently wait until they at least try before offering assistance.

Wondering if you have had similar ham experiences?

73

Steve
K9ZW

Flowers on the Wall, Saga of FT8?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowers_on_the_Wall

Taken from the Wiki article about the song (bold added):

• Kurt Vonnegut quotes the song’s complete lyrics in his 1981 book Palm Sunday, calling the song “yet another great contemporary poem by the Statler Brothers” and using it to describe “the present condition” of an American man who had recently departed his family. “It is not a poem of escape or rebirth. It is a poem about the end of a man’s usefulness”, he adds.

Is FT8 the radio equivalent to “Flowers on the Wall”? One of those low value activities will fill in the empty spaces of our lives with?

While traveling in Europe the last ten days, I could have done some radio I suppose, but my conversational aspirations were satiated by all the in-person conversations I was having.

Yet I had some pining towards a good DX SSB chat, that classic “rag chew” if you would.

Firing up the station remotely to do FT8 QSOs never crossed my mind.

I was far too bust and had so many other stimuluses that there was no room for any “Flowers on the Wall” time.

Something to think about.

73

Steve
K9ZW