Actually it lets me move on to another freq and let him think I faded. Which is really what happened.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Just type "pneu" into Google and look at the suggestions it provides.
I really need to get back into CW. I learned by listening to many qso's in the novice section, even before I got my general. Knowing CW is just part of it, maybe a small part, knowing the lingo and how to send so it can be understood may be more important. I loved having rag chews on CW, was not much interested in a quickie. Late 70's and early 80's, and I notice a bit has changed since then. I no longer hear much slow CW, or rag chews. I miss the Novice sub bands.... After a few years I was very comfortable at about 20 wpm, with my brass radio shack key, still have it, it still works. I tended to write most stuff down, but don't think I could do that these days. I suppose I should get back into it before its gone...
I think it won't be "gone" for a very, very long time. Cars have been around well over 100 years and people still ride horseback. Boat motors also, and people still buy, use and even build sailboats. Etc. People still collect and trade baseball cards and comic books, still collect stamps and coins, still build ships in bottles. I really don't hear "less" CW activity today than 20 years ago, or even 40 years ago. Band condx can be very poor sometimes (this cycle wasn't very good) and manmade electrical noise combined with more people living with antenna restrictions can make it seem like there's less activity. I don't think there really is any less. Tune the CW ends of the bands during the next contest...not a clear space anywhere.
I think that's the disease folks who live south of Hilo get when the Kona winds come on and the VOG from the volcano gets breathed in. Vog is the mixture of humid air and volcanic gas and dust. Trade winds usually blow it out to sea but the Kona winds are in the other direction. My son lived in Hawaii for 4 years and told us all this useless trivia (unless your live there).
That is correct. When Mt. St. Helens erupted in May, 1980 and burped a lot of ash and such to the northeast, people in Yakima, Spokane and pretty much everything in that direction got at least a small coating - others got a lot. Doctors started treating lots of patients and pneumo ... etc. was the exact name for the illness. There were quite a few MDs who bought rubber stamps rather than writing it out by hand...or so I've heard.
