With the advent of instant worldwide communication via the internet, is “ham” radio now a thing of the past?
The ham community is alive and flourishing with about 64,500 call signs listed for the UK & Ireland. Contact via the internet is fine, but chat rooms do not have the uncertainty, and therefore thrill, of calling CQ and waiting to see who comes back.
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Les Featherstone (G6UBM) Tonbridge, Kent
Arthur Harada (G4INX), Chester
The internet has complemented, not negated, amateur radio. Short-wave communication using the reflective layers of the upper atmosphere is still an exciting and challenging means of chatting to fellow radio amateurs around the globe — free of charge, once the equipment has been purchased or built. Recently is has been made possible to communicate by voice with other radio amateurs via the internet using links to local VHF/UHF repeater stations in different countries, without the necessity of having a radio, although a licence is still required.
David A. Horton (G3RZF) Slough, Berkshire
W. M. Foreman, Saxmundham, Suffolk
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Is London the only city to have developed a rhyming slang? If so, why?
Damon Runyon’s short stories, set in the 1920s and 30s, mainly on the stretch of Broadway between Times Square and Columbus Circle, contain many examples of New York rhyming slang, such as “Miss Missouri Martin makes the following crack one night to her: ‘Well, I do not see any Simple Simon on your lean and linger.’ This is Miss Missouri Martin’s way of saying she sees no diamond on Miss Billy Perry’s finger.” (Romance on the Roaring Forties, from More Than Somewhat).
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Michael Grosvenor Myer, Cambridge
Has anyone ever had to do the washing up in a restaurant because he couldn’t afford to pay the bill?
Further to previous replies (August 17), one should not be tempted to try this in France, where gastronomy is sacred and eat-and-run is a specific criminal offence.
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“Grivèlerie” is defined in Larousse as “to consume in a café or a restaurant, without having the wherewithal to pay”.
Gerald Stonehill, Denham, Bucks.