A gift from heaven to us

I have had good contacts with Alan AC2K and Bill W7AAZ on 40m around 0530Z this afternoon. It is still 2 hours prior to sunset. The signals won't be so loud but, without much noise, are always easy to read. In an hour, the path will be open to Eu through the long way over the south Pacific. It is always attractive to me since the condition is on the uphill. Signals are always coming up as time goes by.

It reminded me of good old days. I was a beginner in ham radio. When I finished my school early in the afternoon, I always ran back home. I turned on home brew receiver, a double conversion hetrodyne, and strained my ears for weak signals from overseas. Sometimes, stations in Guam or Hawaii were working with the homelands. It was a real pleasure for me to catch someone from the US and to exchange some extra words other than the routine contents.

I was using a very simple set up while the statessides scarcely used big antenna even though they often ran a KW. My transmitter was only 10W, later at most 50W. The antenna was a dipole fed with ladder line feeder and a ground plane with a few radials. The full size and the floating radials must have been effective. But they were still a small set up compared with the present one. I would encourage the younger hams to get on 40m around this time of a day in this season. Unfortunately, there were less night owl hams in the west coast in the US, who would do with the beginners in JA. There could be chances for good conversation on CW at this time. It is a gift from heaven to us.   

The process of sending CW

I feel comfortable when sending CW synchronizes with the tempo I am thinking. Too fast QRQ sounds like an acrobat to me. Flowing conversation on CW without stagnation is ideal to me. Stagnation occurs when sending CW is too fast or too slow keeping pace with thinking. There seems a certain tempo which makes me happy in conversation on CW even if it may vary according to the situation.

I wonder what is that synchrony, what regulates that speed in sending and what is the rate limiting factor. The process of sending CW seems to be complicated, even if not so much as that in receiving.

In my view, the process of sending CW could be subdivided into the following four proceses.

1; Thinking what I should send in the context of the conversation going on.

2; Translating it into English. Or materializing the thought into sentences. Keeping the keywords in mind.

3;  Converting the sentence/words into CW codes.

4; Voluntarily moving arm, hands and fingers to send the codes.

All processed, especially the process from 1 to 3, are dependent on the clear consciousness. If I am not conscious or awake enough feeling sleepy or taking to much alcohol, these processed are highly disturbed.

The process 2 goes on smoothly or sluggishly depending on the topics. I could translate pretty freely when talking about personal experiences or, of course, about medical issues. In case with such as economy, politics or religions, it requires me a wide and profound range of knowledge. I could be slow in expressing my idea. Or even the process 1 is slowed down as easily expected.

The process 3 proceeds without any impediment. Of course, it is not the case with beginners. This could be the rate limiting process for them. In my case, this process goes on without being conscious of it. I could not boast ot this because I have had career on this mode for half a century.

The process 4 has been discussed in the previous article. For th smooth movements, the relevant arm and hand should be free from unnecessary tension. The elbow and hand/finger joints should be in light flexion. It enables them move freely and instantaneously.

Consciousness is composed of multple layers at a moment and, in the time course, is essentially a dialogue in ourselves. Since most of these processes proceed in our consciousness, there could be feedbacks and resultant modifications as the process goes on. When we think of what to say, we look for some keywords for that.  In the process 3, we always ask ourselves if that expression is proper or not.  If it doesn't seem right for our intension, we get back to the process 1 and start modifying message.  All these reflect the multiple phases of our consciousness.

 The rate limiting process depends on consciousness level, inteleectual ability, CW knowledge or motion capability. Non native speakers without much knowledge of English must have the process 2 for the rate limiting process. The process 3, as already told, might limit the rate for beginners. When aging disturbs fine movements of arm/hand, the process 4 should be determine the rate. In my case, small capability of inntelligence may limit the rate at the process 1.

As for me, the process 1 and 2 are important to enjoy conversation on CW. If they work out well, I feel very comfortable at the conversation. It depends on, in another words, the topic and the other person whom I talk to. When the CW speed just fits the tempo of thinking, it brings forth a pleasure to me. In case of too fast sending, even if I could do that phycically, it sounds restless to myself and the content could be flippant. The flow of thinking is always disturbed in that case.

I admit  there could be enjoyment with QRQ, so fast as seemingly far out of human ability, for some people. I won't go that way but on my own. 
 

Myaskovsky Cello Sonata

My nightcap recently has been the cello sonata Nr2 in a minor by Myaskovsky. It was performed by Warner for cello and Nuzova for piano. I got the CD recently. You may listen to it in Warner's site here;

http://www.wendywarnercello.com/video-clips.html

A long lasting theme appears in cello with piano accompanying with beautiful arpeggio. It sounds like dreaming in melancholy. Warner, one of my favorite cellist, plays it in deep emotion. I love her cello for the profound expression of emotion. When it runs high, it could not stop moving me a lot. In the mellow and soft tune, I feel it is coming into my mind directly as if it were whispering to me.

I used to ask her if I could access to her performance of Brahms cello sonata in e minor. I had ever listened it somewhere in Youtube. It was a daringly strong and appealing performance. I like it also very much. The small piece of Scryabin, transcribed by Piatigorsky, is also attractive. I don't know if she put this clip in her site after I had asked about it. But it is very good of her to add it to the collection. I hope her to record and publish it soon. It deserves recording.

Such a proficient musician as her won't show up in the mass media, at least, in japan. It is too bad. I hope she as well as Nuzova attract more audience everywhere. Her warm and deep sound of cello cakms me down when going to asleep even though late romatic pieces often wake me up. So does it for you.

Reminiscence of a tree and flowers

A magnolia tree looks golden yellow and burning in the garden. The leaves will fall in a week or two. Then a real winter will be here.  My mother used to like this tree in this season as well as its flowers in spring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a cluster of chrysanthemum planted by a helper lady who used to work for our parents years ago. My father loved these flowers so much. In late fall, there are several clusters of those flowers coming out at the same time. 

 

 

I still feel thankful to the helpers for my parents. Most of them have done very good work for them. Some of them have visited my parents when they were off the duty. This beautiful flower reminded me of those days.

Mushrooms highly contaminated far from the destroyed nuclear power plant

The latest issue of Asahi Shinbun in English version reports that wild mushrooms harvested at various places in the eastern Japan were contaminated with radioactive Cessium. It reports as follows;

~~~~

Cesium levels have also risen in various areas compared with last year.

According to tests requested by the central government, the highest levels recorded this year were 120 becquerels in Aomori Prefecture, up from only 60 becquerels last year; 2,100 becquerels in Nagano Prefecture (1,320 becquerels last year); and 3,000 becquerels in Tochigi Prefecture (134 becquerels last year).

~~~~

A researcher commented in this article that mushrooms could absorb Cesium easily for they were fungi. And those raidoactive substances attached to tree trunks or leaves in mountains might have been washed away by rain and eventually have been absorbed by mushrooms.

On the other hand, Fukushima Med Univ. has announced that they would establish a research center for irradiation problems spending 7.5 million USD. 600 people are supposed to be engaged in the medical research work there. This university is located about 80km west of the nuclear power plant and has been doing with the research work for the people in the contamnated area in Fukushima. The university staff have been announcing the irradiation is not of serious problem. If the issue won't be of such gravity, why would they found such a big research center?

It must mean the irradiation issue has been wide spread and serious at many places. The above mentioned mushroom in contamination may tell us that vast land of our country has been evidently contaminated by this accident. The contamination may be left as a curse to our country for a long time. We must, I believe, never have this happen again.

A vow after a shameful QSO

Yesterday, around the sunset, PT0S was coming here very loud on 40m. The path was again over the South Pacific. I misunderstood it was from PY0T, which I used to work years ago. But it was actually PY0S. I needed it for the last entity in S. America on 40m CW. As I repeatedly wrote, I have graduated from DXing some 10 years ago, when I completed all entities except for P5 on CW. 40m CW was my main concern where I needed TN, S0 and this PY0S, I guess.

When I heard that loud signal from PY0S, I felt blood was boiling a little bit. I started  calling him. The pile up was extending over 10KHz. I was a lazy caller staying on a fixed frequency. No answer to me for over 30 min. I started listening my calling frequency with my FT2000. Setting the audio at appropriate  level on both frequencies, I concentrated on finding the spot in QSO. Too many JAs calling him even though it was early in the evening, when most workers should be at their offices. "Are these callers from JA all retirees?", I uttered. Anyway, I went on tuning around the spread spots looking for the lucky guy who caught him while going on calling him.

"....1NUT...", PT0S answered. Yes, it was me who luckily got his reply. My! At that moment, I have already moved up from the spot I got his answer. Not remebering that spot. In my hurry, I came back to the spot which looked like the right one, which I was not confident in at all!, and gave him the report. In a very small delay, he answered to me "JA1NUT TU TU". I suspect he might not have recognize me giving him the report.  He might have given me a giveaway. Sorry for such a poor operation. I should have been much more concentrated on it.

When I finished this "QSO", I felt calmed down. What a shameful QSO! I have vowed myself not to go into such a pile up any longer as well as not to bother the DXers who are much more serious chasing those rare ones.

Twice a day

I have met Tof DJ6ZM twice a day on 40m yesterday. The first one was a QSO through short path at 21Z. The band was not necessarily very good. But his signal controlled at home through the intenet came through on the very quiet band. His signal was 589 with a bit of flutter. Almost nothing was heard from the western Europe.

Before sunset, around 07Z on the same day here, Tof gave me a call with mosquitto signal when bemed to NA, that was, off side to him. Again, he was at home. He is an excellent listener to have found my signal with 339 at first. With my beam being pointed to him, his signal built up to 569. Still clear cut rise and fall of ths signal typical for that through long path. It sounds mysterious to 40m lover like me. I seldom meet a guy in the western europe twice a day on the same band.

His remote controlled signal has had some problem of choppy keying. He said it was due to the delay in the internet. The dots sounded irregular at this time. Later, this morning, when I met Alan AC2K who used to work him twice since this July, Alan told me his keying had sounded good. Is it dependent on the speed of the internet varying from time to time?

Needless to say, I have met Tof in Seattle this summer. It was not difficult for me to imagine that he operated with a PC at home. He has had much fun when he operated ths same kind of system at the Hilton Inn in Bellevue in July. He seemed even to be proud of operating radio with such cutting edge technology.

It was not such a good condition as we could leisurely ragchew. Maybe, in some time around the winter solstice, we might have a big opening on either way. I would ask him if he has retired from his business completely and has his daughter taken it over.

It is still tough for us to find friends in the UK. For Tof's signal from a KW iwht 3 ele reachs here in this way. Not a pipe line. I hope to catch some of them in the plateau of the condition, as I used to do with G3FXB or G4BUE and so forth on 40m long path. 

The climate change

This morning, the good condition on 15m has let me talk a few friends in the US again. One of them was Alan W2MV. Since he has been a harpsichord player since young days and has loved Bach or the other baroque composers, I have felt him close for the past few years.

After he told me he would have a nice Thanks Giving with the family, he went on a surprising report that he had had power line outage for a couple of weeks due to Hurricane Sandy. The fallen trees and the damaged transformers have caused it for that long time. He could get it through a generator, which intermittently gave them the power. We have ever had the outage for a couple of days here in the terrible earth quake last year, which made a big trouble to us that time. I could hardly imagine what would be like to have the outage for 14 days. even though the generator might help them a lot.

I asked him what was the cause of such big hurricane there. Wasn't the global warming related with it? He answered that it was due to addition of another storm to the hurricane as well as to the change in jet stream. Just by chance. I have not doubted his comment but was so curious to know about the cause that I googled about it. The Scientific America has the following artile regarding this issue.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/10/30/did-climate-change-cause-hurricane-sandy/

There could be arguments on this weather problem. For it is a highly complex and multifactorial  system which determines the real weather. But, in addition to a report that the depth of ice in Arctic area has been lessened so much that the ice itself might disappear in a few years from now, this article seems to have made the point to me. we should seriously consider of the climate change probably due to the global warming. The countries which produce carbon dioxide and related warming gases should be responsible for this change in the climate.

A small spring day

It is already past the beginning of the winter according to our traditional calendar. It is so warm late in the morning today that it should be called as an Indian summer. This term could be translated to "a small spring day" in Japanese. I prefer the latter. It reminds me of a warm day when I lay on a futon, a japanese mattress, on a velanda for sunbathing in my young days. There is a sense of family union in it. On the other hand, it foresees the stormy or gloomy weather in the future. It may reflect our lives. In sometime, when the peaceful life is gone, we should do with the hard time again. The peace in warm sunray itself forecasts the disastrous future.

 

At present, we are blessed with the peaceful time of joy. Let's have fun and get united more with the family and the friends. It is a real blessing to us.

 

My friends, happy Thanks Giving to you all. 

 

 



Our small garden seen through the window of the shack.

"Decommunication" on ham radio

Around the sunset, 40m sounded good for the east hemisphere. It could be open to Eu through the long path. I tuned on 7026KHz. Asking if the frequency was occupied, I could not hear any reply. then I started calling CQ for a couple of times.

All of sudden, a big signal told me like "Nut QSY". No identification or explanation why I should move that frequency. I asked who it was and why he required me to move. Silence. I repeated that again. Then, he answered only his call, UA0**. Yet no excuse for his requirement. Someone else told me "PS0T PS0T". I finally understood they were waiting for this station from this isolated isalnd in the Atlantic ocean around the frequency. At first, they have just watched what would go on after my calling CQ. Once they knew that I would go on calling CQ again and again, they wanted me to go away and to clear that spot for possible appearance of this pretty rare one.

I used to be a DX chaser in '80s through '90s. I knew how valuable that island was for them especially on this band. As soon as I understood the situation there, I quit that spot. That UA0 should have told me why he required me to quit. I have called CQ after asking if the frequency was busy or not. No pile ups were going on at that time. They should have courteously explained the reason.

Nowadays, most of those DX chasers could not communicate on this mode. They sound as if pushing the button of their memory keyer or PC keyboard when operating radio. The memories must be their own call and 599TU. Isn't it deterioration of ham radio? Ham radio is originally communication. It seems to have been lost for now.

Some time later, that PS0T has showed up on 7025.5KHz through the path over the south Pacific. Very weak. Recalling that PS0T used to be one of the last few I needed to complete the Top Honor Roll on 40m CW in my DX days, I have given a few calls without success. I also remembered having worked it while I needed PY0S. I haven't felt so excited to be in the pile up that I left that mess in several minutes.    

A new audio rack

I have made a new wooden rack for the audio in the living room.

 

This audio system, not a high end one, has been in my room at the office for a few years. In the big earth quake last year, they fell down on the floor together with TV or cello etc. But, fortunately, they were all intact even though this speaker boxes got some injuries on the surface. Some scooped injuries on the beautifully finished surface. But no damage on the speakers etc. At first, I was inclined to leave this system at the office for the doctor taking over the office.  The injuries on the boxes, however, seemed to tell me I and the boxes had been "fellow soldiers" at the office.  When I asked him to let me bring them back home, he generously answered yes. That's why they are in the living room now.

 

The cheap wooden rack I used to set them on was gradually deformed due to the heavy weight of the amplifier. At a do-it-yourself shop nearby, I found wooden columns grooved for shelf boards. Purchasing them and finding the electric screw driver from the junk box, I have built this in an hour or so. Not painted yet. Not a fancy rack but still my favorite. 

 

So I could listen to music when I cook in the kitchen. It is a part of the living room. Now, piano trios of Schubert and Zemlinsky are always accompanying my task in the kitchen every afternoon.

 

 

A large cohort study on the effect of low dose protracted radiation on the leukemia in Chernobyl cleanup workers

It has not been elucidated clearly yet that chronic low dose radiation could cause leukemia. The following report from NIEHS seems to definately confirm that hypothesis. Those leukemic cases who have started treatment 2 years prior to this study won't agree with it as the authors said. It must be further studied in the future. Even if they are included in the study, it gives the same result.

IAEA etc has confirmed only thyroid cancer of childhood in relation with the radiation in Chernobyl. They should correct their lack of understanding about carcinogenesis, or at least leukemogenesis, of radiation other than this thyroid cancer in such a nuclear power plant accident. The event in Fukushima is not, of course, exceptional for this problem. This teaches us an important lesson for those irradiated in Fukushima due to the nuclear power plant accident. We should follow and back up those people in a long perspective. Especially, those who have had accumulated radiation in protracted course should be closely followed by proper medical facilities.

The summary and the URL of the paper are given as follows;

Abstract
Background: Risks of most types of leukemia from exposure to acute high doses of ionizing
radiation are well known, but risks associated with protracted exposures, and associations
between radiation and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are not clear.

Objectives: To estimate relative risks of CLL and non-CLL from protracted exposures to lowdose
ionizing radiation.

Method: A nested case-control study was conducted in a cohort of 110,645 Ukrainian cleanup
workers of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear power plant accident. Cases of incident leukemia
diagnosed in 1986-2006 were confirmed by a panel of expert hematologists/hematopathologists.
Controls were matched to cases on place of residence and year of birth. Individual bone marrow
radiation doses were estimated by the Realistic Analytical Dose Reconstruction with Uncertainty
Estimation (RADRUE) method. A conditional logistic regression model was used to estimate
excess relative risk of leukemia per gray (ERR/Gy) of radiation dose.

Results: A significant linear dose-response was found for all leukemia (137 cases, ERR/Gy=1.26
(95% confidence interval 0.03, 3.58)). There were non-significant positive dose-responses for
both CLL and non-CLL (ERR/Gy=0.76 and 1.87, respectively). In our primary analysis
excluding 20 cases with direct in-person interviews <2 years from start of chemotherapy with an
anomalous finding of ERR/Gy=-0.47 (<-0.47, 1.02), the ERR/Gy for the remaining 117 cases
was 2.38 (0.49, 5.87). For CLL the ERR/Gy was 2.58 (0.02, 8.43) and for non-CLL ERR/Gy
was 2.21 (0.05, 7.61). Altogether, 16% of leukemia cases (15% of non-CLL, 18% of CLL) were
attributed to radiation exposure.
Conclusions: Exposure to low doses and low dose-rates of radiation from post-Chornobyl
cleanup work was associated with a significant increase in risk of leukemia, which was
statistically consistent with estimates for the Japanese atomic bomb survivors. Based on the
primary analysis, we conclude that CLL and non-CLL are both radiosensitive.

http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ehp.1204996.pdf

Repeating the same thing in QSOs

Yesterday, around the sunset, I have met Don N7EF on 40m. He is a kind of DX chaser who used to ask me to go to P5 for DX pedition. Of course, it was a kidding to me. It is, however, a fact that he badly needs P5 for the last entitiy. On the other hand, he is a very nice ragchewer as well. He used to tell me to bring cello to P5 and play something for Kim Jong Wong, the Guru of the country. I answered that I would be brought to the labor camp as soon as I started playing it. Yesterday, he was pleased, as he told me, to know that I had not been sent to the camp yet.

Don told me he could not sleep long as in young days. He got up in 4 hours after falling asleep at night. Then he would go on being awake for 2 or 3 hours until he feels sleepy again and takes 2 or 3 hours sleep again. In the meantime, he often shows up on 40m in our sunset time. I told him how to fall asleep. It is the autonomic training method famous for a treatment for insomnia. Surprisingly, he answered to me he had remebered that since I taught him that 2 years ago. What a shame! I have totally forgot telling that to him before. He told me he had practised that method which worked out fine for him. I didn't dare to ask him if he had not tried that yesterday yet. Anyway, that sleep pattern is quite normal for our age. Wishing him good sweet dream, I gave him 73.

I was stunned to know that I had repeated the same thing to the other in QSOs without being conscious of it at all. Of course, aged people often do that. I could accept it without any problem. But it is a bit embarrassing that it has happened to me. I have realized that I was already in the old age. I should be careful about that. But I could not avoid it at all. I should ask friends for making such a trouble to them. Don was kind enough to emphasize that that method had been helpful to him but not that I used to tell the same thing before.

 

Maybe, I have done the same error in this blog. I should say the readers to forgive me in advance.

A trip to Fukushima

The day before yesterday, I headed to Fukushima to see our son there. Bringing some souvenirs like cooked rice with chesternut, I ran the highway up to north. The trees looked colorful. This ginko tree at a parking area looked like burning with golden yellow.

 

 

 

 

The other trees with reddened yellow foliages.

 

 

 

 

I met our son at the campus of a med school over there.  He has had a problem at school. We have discussed about it taking lunch at a restaurant. Though it was not resolved at once, it seemed he had known how to do with it for now.

 

 

On the way back home, just before getting on the highway, I have taken this photo of the peaceful countryside in Fukushima. Who could know from this scenary that there had been that nuclear power plant accident occurring about 80km east of this area 1.5 years ago? It has contaminated this area. Many people are still groaning being deprived of their mother home town or their works. It should not be forgotten however long it might have passed since that event.

 

It is the area, where I had taken the entrance exam to the same med school when graduating from a college over 40 years ago. Without any preparation for that exam for myself, it turned out not to be a success. Now our son is studying medicine there. I was full with gratitude for this to someone supreme, even though I am not a firm believer in God with personality. Remembering those things, I went back home.



 



 

An bio.

I was born right at this place 63 years ago between a couple who used to work at a sanatorium for tuberculotic patients. It was a small and poor facility that my aunt has started in the faith for Christianity before WWII. My parents had worked together and had known each other there. It was a quiet place surrounded with forests all around. My first memory in my life was a hymn in accapela flown througth the pine trees in the garden. Before WWII, tuberculosis was an untreatble illness which people were scared and hated for. This aunt was a person whose family and folks believed in as their backbone.

It won't take so long before the anti tuberculosis treatment was available for those patients however poor they might be. My aunt has decided to close down the facility since it has finished its role in the society. My parents have also decided to go to Tokyo, where they might have chances for work and education for their children. I still remember our parents working so hard. My father has become a house keeper at a hospital while my mother has got a position at a Salvation Army hospital in a suburb of Tokyo. They have worked hard from early in the morning. My mother used to go for work early in the morning and came back home for a while in a break to care for us preparing for the schools.

Accidentally watching a TV drama which ham radio was the main theme, I got interested in this hobby. I was aged 12 years then. I went to Akihabara, the famous downtown for electrical items, once a month when I was given a small amount of money. There were rows of small shops of electrical items and parts over there. I have purchased parts for radio little by little. At age 13 years, I got the licence and was issued this call sign. My set up those days was a single 6AQ5 transmitter and tubes single conversion superhetrodyne receiver. The antenna was a dipole, half wave for 40m, fed with a ladder line feeder. As an article in a magazine told, I have fried chop sticks with wax, which turned out not to be so effective against rain and sun outdoor. In the beginning, it was difficult for me even to work with JA. However, later on, as I have upgraded the rig to 6146 transmitter and double/triple conversion receiver, all home brew, I could work with all over the world.

In the beginning, I could work the other hams only on CW. That was the reason why I got on CW so much those days. Though that situation has gone on throughout my teen age days, I have become more interested in communication on this mode. As I already wrote, I had got acquaintance with Ed K6NB and his group on 40m CW. Ralph Multon WB6BFR was another elmer for me those days, as I also wrote. What an excitement I have had with them those days! They have lead me into the depth of the enjoyment of CW those days.

I was told to go for a college, that is, Kousen in japanese, a unique school system composed of a high school and a college, where we could learn engineering without going for universities. My parents later told me they could not believe that I would study for the entrance exams for any university since I was a real nut for ham radio then. I have spent a leisurely student days in the college. But I was not very interested in mechanical engineering I specialized. Finishing that college, I decided to be a MD. It took me a couple of years to enter a faculty of medicine at a university in Tokyo. A new world has opened to me then. At that time, ham radio did not take any place in my mind at all.

In the university, I was crazy for music. In the orchestra, I have chosen cello for my instrument and have started learning it. It was a club together with a women's university. It was a hell as well as a heaven for me who had never experienced studying together with girls. I have devoted myself to its activities. Most friends always retired from the club at the 5th grade or so. But I had gone on playing cello at the orchestra or at some chamber ensemble group until graduation. I still regret as for how to have practised instrument. That is, I have not spent much time for the basic training so much. But I always wanted to play in ensemble. At young age, we should concentrate on the basic activities, whatever it might be. Anyway, I have had unforgettable years at the orchestra. There were a girl friend whom I could hardly forget throughout my life as well.

On graduation, most classmates would stay in the mother university belonging to some speciality. I have chosen serving residency at a med school in this area together with my wife, where a professor whom I had known of in person  held a lab. of pediatrics. It was that time when I remembered of ham radio, being away from the orchestral activities. It took me a year or so to prepare a small set up at the dorm over there. It was late in fall in 1980. Most of you might know how I have been doing with the radio.

I could not brag nor even affirm that I have spent good life as reflecting it for now. But being born in that sanatorium and being involved in music in student days are not anything I should regret at present. I am thankful to my fortune for that. I don't know if I could close my life with gratitude and satisfaction yet. But with the pleasure of ham radio and music etc, I would spend days which I won't regret at that time.

Lee HL2DC

I had a chance to talk to my old friend in Korea, Lee HL2DC, recently. I have known him for 47 years through ham radio. When we met for the first time, he was a student studying electrical engineering in Pusan. I was a young student specializing mechanical engineering then. His call was HM9DC at that time, I believe. At that time, we have exchanged photos. After a long interval for about 15 years, we met again on the air in early '80s. He used to work for Sansei Electrical Eng, later LG Electronic Co. In mid '80s, he had been in Tokyo with his family for a couple of years when he was working at the branch there. He and his family used to visit us here twice. He was a tall and handsome guy who spoke pretty good Japanese.

He has already retired from a subsidiary of LG for a few years, where he had worked as the president. He has been settled down in a suburb of Seoul. On my inquiry about the territory issue, he told me it was not a serious and important matter for him as well as his neighbors. It would be settled down as the ongoing Presidential Election was over, as he said. He meant it had been risen in relation with that election. We agreed to have it solved by patient negotiation of diplomacy, not by patriotic ardor. He also told me, when I mentioned about the very hard situation our electrical companies were located at, we, Japanese, tended to take our small flaw or problem as a serious trouble. In his opinion, we should rather esteem ourselves since we have diligence and intellectuality. It might mean just a bit of encourragement to me. However, I still felt thankful for his words.

He approved the FTA with the US. It is not a positive approval. He seems to think they should accept it as the globalism is inevitable not oly to Korea but any countries in the world. He thinks those against the FTA are left winged people. He told me with subtle smile that 60% of the stock owner of Samsung is from the US. It was already globalized, as he told me. But I could notice a bit of cynicism in his smile. He also added that Korea should do well in economy with the US because they need the military back up by the US against the North Korea. I didn't dare to tell him what the globalism causes in the world. Korea is in a really critical situation. When North Korea collapses, it could be a huge burden for Korea to care for the refugees from there. There could be a possibility that the military party in North Korea goes mad and resorts to force if it is negligible. The domestic economy is not very promising as well.

We have talked about families, retirements and even health problems. Whenever we meet on the air, he always invite us to visit Korea. Korea is an important neighbor country. And we have such a good friend as Lee. We should consider visiting him in his home land not so far from now. Promising seeing him in person soon, I gave him 73.