Reminiscence of Jun JA7SSB

In some ham radio clubs abroad, there seems to be a tradition to memorize old timers in the club who have passed away. Of course, those past hams are destined to be forgotten in some time. However, the recollection of them must help new comers to understand how ham radio has evolved even if they don't know those old timers in person. I believe keeping records of those old hams having passed is worth not only as reminiscence but also a history of this hobby.  In our counry, such recording is not very popular so far as I surfed around ham club sites in our country.

There must be only few who know of Jun JA7SSB for now. He was one of the pioneers in ham radio in our country in the post WWII era. He has been active on the air, especially on CW. With extensive experience and knowledge in radio communication, he has often published reviews on new radio equipment in magazines. As the obituary written by me shown below, I knew him through CW communication and FOC membership. Our friendship was never close or long lasting. He is still an unforgettable friend in ham radio. He should be remembered in ham radio. 

He has visited me at this place maybe in 1990s. He must be in late 70s of his age then. He has driven the long way from Fukushima by himself. At another occasion, when I was shocked and depressed having had a bad lightning strike to the tower and most equipments were destroyed around the same time in 1990s, he, kindly telling me the probability of direct lightning attack is pretty low, kicked me back into ham radio again. Without his encouragement, I could have gone QRT at that time.

The following is the obituary for him which I was asked to write by FOC in 2008;

 Jun was born in China in 1931. When the WWII was over, he came back to Kyoto in Japan with his family, where he was first licensed as JA3CKI in 1955. I used to hear he had been active as a SWL some years before that. He was a real pioneer in the resurrection of ham radio in Japan after WWII. His new own business has brought him up to Fukushima. He got a new call JA7SSB there.

He has been quite active in various aspects of amateur ham radio. He has published a number of articles on reviews of new equipments or on technical issues in various journals here. DXing and contesting were also his interests. He has been translating DX news from overseas into Japanese and has published them on a web site. Later, he has enjoyed leisurely chats on CW with friends all over the world. I should add his contribution to the new comers. He said he had been keeping a net for CW practice for 12 years. It has been held twice a week on VHF for the new comers in the area. He might have shed good seeds who would be good CW operators in the future.

Personally, I have become acquainted with him around 1990 a few years after I had entered the club. He was so experienced in radio communication technology and had ample knowledge of radio equipment. He won’t, however, show off them to me at all but behaved like a real old friend. I am sure he has been doing the same way to the new comers or his friends there. A few years later, he was approved to be a member of the club. Some of you might have heard him on CW with not necessarily fast but steady keying in morning or in evening.

His death came all of sudden due to a heart attack on Dec 2 2008. He has written and published a column in the local club web site on the very same day. In its last part, he said, despite of the confusion in the world, he won’t despair. Enduring the present situation, he would make effort to live better reflecting own mind and would look for a new world.

We are saddened to know we won’t hear his signal again. This great experienced ham who has always run ahead of us in various fields of ham radio will be missed by all of us.

Another peformance of Brahms clarinet trio

After sunny and cruelly ot days for the past week or two, it rained this afternoon. It has spared me the routine work of sprinkling the vegetables with water. It was, however, like a sudden rain accompanied with thunder. Anyway, it must have been a blessing to the plants. Of course, the weeds I have been doing with for the days are growing even faster than the vegetables. Whack-a-mole like work with the weeds will go on until the end of Sept. or even later for me. 

By the way, I have ran across with this performance of Brahms clarinet trio. This has been one of my beloving music since young days as I wrote about in the other posts in this blog. I have listened to various renditions of thie piece by different ensembles. I still have several sources of CD for this music. This ensemble is one of the best ones for me.

It is beginning with an unforgettable impressive melody by cello. It has struck me a lot. I have never heard such a cellist weaving that melody in this way. Most exquisitely expressivo. The cellist seems to have been playing in a famous string quartet. He seems not young any longer. Together with the other two players, he must be an experienced person not only as a musician but also a human. This excellent performance might be owing to his capability almost innate but could be enriched with his life in the past. Yearning for something beautiful, or regretting or reconciling something gone away. Such experience might leave him a kind of aesthetic sense. And he would try to play cello after that. If it is right, it might be another meaning of getting old. 

 

 

Musical instrument practice will keep us young

It is getting into the muggiest season in a year here. Disliking the artificial coolness by air conditioner, I try to sleep without it and often result in unwanted wake up at midnight or ery early in the morning. And I should turn on the air conditioner then. 

A lot of unpleasant and unhappy news are continuously coming in. Tramp tariff won't only devastate the economy and people's lives in the US but also do wrong to the other countries like Japan. The government debt of the US has risen astronomically high and the US government has almost given up redeeming the government bond. USD is losing its value against the other major currencies around the world. The tariff rise won't cover the deficit at all. The tariff is the tax which the US corporations/people should pay. It is a domestic problem in the US. But if USD loses its key currency status in the world and the US government bond should not be creditted, it would give rise to formiddable confusion in the world economy.

  

Okay, enough about unpleasant topics of politics...

A recent good news to me is that practising musical instruments will keep us young.

A research group in Kyoto University has followed up elderly groups, one starting practising musical instruments and the other not practising for 4 years. The practising group has shown no decrease of the grey matter in right Putamen while the non pratising has shown decrease of the grey matter in the same region. The bilateral cerebellar function respnsible for linguistic working memory is better preserved in the practising group while it is reduced in the non practising group.     

Music instrument training in elderly seems to work at least some of our brain function against aging. There are a lot of anti aging procedures. Music activity is involved in a lot of aspects in brain function, sensory, motor and memory/cognition. Practising musicl instruments is surely expected to keep us young as this scientific report says.

It has made me wonder if I should restart cello all after 3 years of absence. If tendonitis of both arms is settled down, I may do it again. 

Even though there is no scientific evidence that pounding brass is comparable to music, sending beautiful CW may keep us young as well. Too much extention of thoughts?

Stay cooled, everyone!

Vaccine elimination would cause over 6000 deaths in the US in a year

Recently, an expert of vaccination has quit CDC. 

She was disappointed at dissmissal of the membrs of ACIP, Advisory Committee of Immunization Practices by HHS Secretary RFK Jr. They were mostly replaced to anti vaxxers or those unwilling for immunization. ACIP and their statement on vaccination have been the hallmark for immunization not ony in the US but also in the world. Whenever new vaccine or immunization protocol was published, I tried to see what they were saying about it. Having them replaced even to anti vaxxers is nothing but a nightmare for those involved in immunization all over the world. I could fully understand what this researcher has felt at it

Here.

This is a paper predicting what disaster vaccine elimination brings forth.  This is not a fake or conspiracy but a scientific prediction. More than 6000, mainly children, would be killed by preventable diseases in the US. Even not being fatal, a lot of cases would suffer from the sequelae throughout their lives. Infectious diseases spread immediately to the other parts of the world, where even more people suffer from it. 

Here.

Conspiracy theorists or demagogue won't take responsibility for the result. 

Our home and vegetables in summer

It will be the summer solstice tomorrow. It has been like mid summer here for the last several days. Hot, sunny and wet. Dazzling sunray all around. Quite aberrant weather. We used to have this kind of weather in the last part of July to mid August only for 3 to 4 weeks. Global warming sure comes on here.

When I was crazy for ham radio, around this time in a year, it was the time of summer withers, of course, on the propagation. It seems to become literally summer withers season for now. 

Ume trees and a magnolia tree are so vivid and grown thick. 

The summer vegetable I first think of is tomato. I have planted several plants of tomato together with bitter melon. The latter is told to get rid of insects which aspirate and ruin tomato fruits. I won't use any insecticides and hope this companionship may work well. Already several fruits are borne even though still green.

                                                                                            

Another summer vegetable is okra. Very strong against heat wave. It may produce fruits until fall. A seedling growing on the ground. There are several more growing. Whenever I talked of okla to Ellen W1YL in this season, her reaction was just as if she got bored with such as okla. She used to tell me she and her OM Bob used to have tomatoes canned in summer when they were in the New England state. A lovely memory.

A pumpkin plant is growing. Already a small fruit on a branch. I am planning to plant more seeds in order to get them matured in the end of fall. They say it is the winter solstice pumpkin. 

There are a lot of summer vegetables growing at present such as egg plants, paprika, sweet melon or carrot. No pesticide nor herbcide is given to the farm. Only compost and small amount of organic fertilizers like rice bran are used. Of course, some are bitten and eaten by bugs. Weeds around vegetables could be food for those bugs as well. More seeds are planted than necessary to compensate the possible loss. Grass mulching would become natural compost and enrich the soil in years.

Marie gold is a stout flower living long until the beginning of fall. As well known, It will suppress the growth of nematodes. That effect of this flower is beneficial for such as tomato.

 

All of them will keep me busy. If you see an old guy sitting on a tiny chair on the ground and concentrated on caring for the vegetables and cutting unnecessary weeds, it is me.  

Fascism looming

Leberation has posted an appeal against rising fascism around the world. It is by 400 intellectuals from all over the world. I have read it in Japanese. 

Here.

https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/400-intellectuels-internationaux-signent-un-manifeste-contre-le-fascisme-nous-appelons-toutes-celles-et-ceux-qui-croient-en-la-democratie-a-agir-20250613_SDZAU6AS65BQBJLM2OLQBEJELE/

The fascism is against the peace and democracy, which human has gained through the devastating world wars. It is dependent on the populism. Economical inequality among people and among countries has brought about despair and hatred. They would applaud and fanatically support the leaders of autocratic dictatorship as if waited for a messiah. Those leaders are always the rich themselves or those closely linked to oligarchs.

The problem of this modern fascism is that it's augmented and proliferated by the internet social media. Fakes, conspiracies or anti scientific discourses in favor of the fascists are echoing in that media and often amplify themselves. They won't care if it is right or even real. They tend to deny the intellectuals or the authorities. It would be a tragedy that those blindly worshipping the fascists would be exploited or even victimized. 

It may be a difficult question how to do with this fascism grown in this modern era. Economical disparity brought by the neoliberal economy and enormous indebtedness of the most developed countries are the background of this populism. We should start with the present disparity. 

The fascism often aims at war. War could be the origin of their profit and the origin to fascinate and bundle up people. The next world war could be the end of human civilization.

Be careful. Fascism is looming us before we get aware of it.

Airplane crash, Crowded Haneda Airport

An info from Lester Price. It might be of concern for those often travelling abroad. The probability of airplane crash or other accidents is quite low compared with that of traffic accidents etc. 

Once we see the disaster of Air India crash, however, we could never neglect this safety rank. 

It might be related with the manufacturer and the maintenance crew of the airplane as well. 

In case of travelling at or transitting through Haneda Airport of Tokyo, the airplane would take off toward north, that is, over the downtown of Tokyo when it is southerly windy. That route has started to be in use since 2020. It sure is not as safe as the course over the Tokyo Bay. They say the flight takes off once in a minute from 3 to 7PM in our local. So crowded! If an airplace should fail taking off and crashes into the downtown, it might be an unimaginable disaster not only for the passengers but also for those living in the area of the the flight course.

 Luckily, I won't have any chance to travel abroad any longer. If I should, I would choose a flight from Narita Internatl airport.

RIP to all the people victimized by the accident in India.