Sections
Recent Articles
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” –John 3:16.
Easter is not just about bunnies and chocolate eggs. It's far more better than that. It is the oldest and probably, the most important Christian... read more
Back then we did not have the luxury of mobile phones, text messaging, and the internet. We had handheld radios and a whole bunch of people to talk to on the same radio frequency. Going on air was called "kitkit" and those who do it were called "kitkitero or kitkitera" (hahaha...funny terms if you think about it now).
Classic Mr. & Mrs. Beor
If you looked for instant people to chat to, there were a lot of frequencies to go to (145.13, 145.15, 145.72, 145.75, 145.81, 145.83, 145.95, 146.00, 146.02, etc.) All you had to do was say "break, (say your callsign or handle) and ask who were on air. If you knew anyone there, you look for them (saying your callsign/handle and the callsign/handle of the person you are looking for three times "beetlejuice gunrunner (3x)".
If there was no answer, you say negative control. The following radio codes were very familiar then:
QRT means signing off or signing out
QRL means busy, equivalent to today’s BRB - be right back
QSY means change frequency
If the person you are looking for is there, you say "tango (thank you) control we'll go QSY" to inform others that you have changed frequency for a more private talk.
It wasn't easy to talk to someone before. Unlike the regular chatting we have now, one had to understand the 10 codes, the Q codes, 92 code, and ham acronyms to understand radio language. If you want to go the extra mile - learn morse code. ASL (Age, ***, Location) was unheard of before; we had QSO (can I talk to you?), QTH (Location), and QSY. If you want to meet who you were talking to, you go on an eyeball and agree to meet somewhere uptown.
photo of first ever love letter
Flashback to when I was in 2nd year high school, my father brought home this radio base and 2 handheld Icom 2ST. I joined a local amateur radio club (Cebu Amateur Radio League - CARL / DX7CA) and that was how my radio days and community work started.
I had a double five eight for an antenna and an Icom 228H base for a setup. I went by the handle of Beetlejuice and the callsign of 7MJR. I was so used to frequency scanning, going from one frequency to another.
Before foursquare came along, we used to "check-in" to home frequencies where modulators or amateur radio hams from different clubs or places converge. I checked-in to 5.15 and the control for the hour said if we could QSO and we did, not knowing at that time that who I was talking to would be the man I will end up with. He had a handheld 02N rubber duck and went by the handle of Gunrunner and the callsign of 7GAY. At that time, he was on top of their roof to get good reception.
The love story did not start there, not yet. Someone got in the frequency and said QSY and I thought it was the same person who I was talking to. It wasn’t. He was probably singing in his head, before Katy Perry had it, the girl that got away.
vBulletin Message