THEY'RE HERE! THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK!

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Here's a partial list of brand new callsigns e-mailed to me this Thursday. These are the new callsigns for MNOAOS Zachary and his friend-who-is-a-girl Jessica. April Chunski is a friend of ours and a member of the Schenectady Museum Amateur Radio Association.

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KC2VWW Chinski April
KC2VWX Bowen Jessica
KC2VWY Baran Zachary

TWO NEW HAMS!

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That guy on the left...and that gal on the right are two new amateur radio operators. Both took their Technician Class License exam at the Masonic Lodge in East Greenbush, New York on Sunday morning October 4th. The two day class and examination was sponsored by EGARA, the East Greenbush Amateur Radio Association. Who are these kids? Stay tuned! Details to follow!

THOSE PEOPLE: 1

If you are more than an occasional listener to This Week in Amateur Radio, then you may also be familiar with the "Random Access Thought" (or "File", depends on my mood at the moment). As the title suggests, the content is selected in random fashion from a broad range of topics related to amateur radio or to other things of a electromagnetic nature, no matter how eclectic, no matter how obscure.

And, if you are more than an occasional listener to This Week in Amateur Radio, then you may also be familiar with some of the voice characters who perform in the Random Access Thought main feature and its attendant Random Access Promos and QSL Card Offers.

My Number One And Only Son Zachary began voicing his own character at the age of ten when This Week in Amateur Radio International first started broadcasting over WBCQ - The Planet at 7415 KHz. Over the years, a virtual neighborhood of virtual people was developed for Zach to play against.

For most of 2005, Zachary's dog made numerous appearances in Random Access Promos (in real life, we have a 15 year old feline, Suzie, who I sometimes refer to as "my one foot wife"). We never really knew what the dog's name was, but he was big. Remarkably, his bark sounded just like the Japanese quasi-superhero Godzilla.

As of this writing, Zach is now thirteen, his voice is changing and when encore performances of the Random Access Thought are re-aired, on occasion you can hear distinct differences in voice pitch.

Zach very much enjoys doing the voice work. There are two official mottoes...no, mantras...which I will always announce prior to recording. The first: "Be enthusiastic but not goofy!". The second: "Watch the blue screen, and not the green screen!". The blue screen displays the character script while the green screen shows the voice audio being recorded.

In Zachary's world of video games, PSPs, DS Lites, iPODs, computers and the Internet, appearing on a 50,000 watt shortwave station (not to mention billions of ham repeaters worldwide) may not seem like such a big deal. While engaging Mario, Sonic or Link in vicious virtual video vengeance, Zach will pause to listen to his on-air performance and when it's over, shrug his shoulders and get back in the game.

WHEN I WAS A KID! Being on the radio (such a dead medium for Zach) would have been the thrill of a lifetime.

More Later.