Another sad news Bill K1YT passed away on July 15th

Yesterday morning, I have opened an e mail from Bill's e mail address. I thought it had been one of his mails which he used to write to let me know how he was doing. It was from his wife, Lisa, telling me Bill had passed away on July 15th after having fought against a complication of interstitial pneumonia, which he had suffered for the past years. An unbelievable and saddest news.

I have known him through ham radio in the end of '80s when the high bands were quite active. He was with his former call sign W1EYT then. We have talked a lot on our beloving mode of CW. Together with a couple of friends, I have been to Cambodia operating as XU0JA in 1990. Yes, it was a hectic mad days when we were so enthusiastic for DXing. 

He told me to visit him with the slides I had taken during that trip. I decided to visit him in Oct of 1991. He has prepared a meeting where I reported about the trip to Cambodia at his home, where a couple of dozens of ham operators, mostly well known to me, attended to and listened to my feeble report. He and his wife have kindly held such a nice meeting for me to see them.

Ever since, we have met once in a few months on the air and, lately more frequently, by e mail. We have discussed a lot of topics from politics to daily lives. In the recent year or two, the on-going inflation was the topic for us. He was quite happy to have had his deranged aortic valve replaced by a catheterization surgery which was quite successful and brought him a life in great shape. I knew interstitial peumonia has affected him for the past years. I believed, however, as he often told me, it had been stable with small amount of steroid. 

This photo showing him was taken during a drive around his place. We were intending to visit old Clem W1EVT after watching his huge phased array at his home. We were lost there and could not find the entrance to his home. We have lost a chance to see this old guy. It was the week end when WW phone contest was held. We have seen John K1AR operating for it at K1EA then. We have gone to Jim K1MEM as well, who went SK as well a few years after our visit. Bill is still this image shown in this photo within my memory, a young and stout guy.

I know of littel about his young days. He has not mentioned it so often. Seemingly, he was not so happy in his young days. He still made it to MIT and has become an engineer doing with optic technology research. He has served at a lab of a governmental office for decades. He had loved that job so much that he was sorry to quit it. In retirement, he has spent a peaceful life with his wife Lisa and a son William Jr. 

In the most recent correspondence with him in May, he was willing to prevent the wild creatures from invading his lot eating the crops and flowers in the garden and to enjoy doing farming/gardening this year. Between the lines, however, his sentences sounded not to concentrate on the topics as they used to. He might have had the interstitial pneumonia aggravated by that time, even though he has never mentioned of that.

Lisa told me in the mail that he had often mentioned about me and apprediated of me as well. Even though I am not sure if I deserve such a compliment by him or not, I always felt comfortable talking to him since I knew I had been accepted by him in that way. There are few relationships like that with him, basically approving and understanding each other in a stable way. I owe much to him in that respect. 

Thanks a lot, my good old friend, Bill. RIP. 

A real midsummer and a tiny accident

It's already mid summer here. Terribly hot in the daytime. Almost 35 degrees C everyday. They seem, as already told elsewhere, to ignore that it could have been much hotter without El Nino in the Pacific Ocean going on.

Looking up the tree of Indian Lilac at the entrance gate, it has already bloomed. It sure is a sign of midsummer arrival. 

In close up. Not only indicating presence of the midsummer here at present but also subtle sign of early fall coming in the near future.

Against the fierce sunray and the drought since the rainy season was gone, the flowers of Marie Gold are vividly blooming. This was naturally grown from spontaneous seeding. Such plants naturally grown might be through the selection at the seed level and seem to grow large and healthy. This acquired trait might be inherited through epigenetic process. Some flowers have already turned to seeds, which I would collect for the next season.   

The front yard. With the rainy gone, the lawn will grow slower. But it still needs to cut it once a couple of weeks. There is another "used to be" lawn place at the entrance, which has already turned out to be weeds place. I should cut them at the same interval.

I have complained to my brother, 4 years younger than me, working as a psychiatrist, that it made me wonder how long I should go on caring for this place even if it was a heritage from our mother's ancestors and our aunt had started a tuberculosis sanatorium during WWII. It is a fun for me to concentrate on pulling the weeds and caring for vegetables. But I could not deny that I had a feeling of compulsion to maintain this place memorable for our family. 

He told me gently who could know there would be someone who takes over this place. Our parents, he remembers, have done the same thing as I do at present. His words are not a promise but a quiet encouragement to me. He is still a psychiatrist. I believe he has done a good job in his profession and has given much comfort and relief to people with anxiety and worry for the future. 

This is the first harvest of pumpkin this season. Pretty big. I wanted to cook it for tempura. When I almost finished cooking it, I have turned over the fry pan and the hot oil was dumped over to the floor. Some of it has poured on my left foot. In haste, I took off the socks and rushed to the water tap. Having water poured on the foot for 20 or 30 minutes, I cleaned the dumped oil and things at the kitchen and finished cooking. I have never done such a mistake in the past. Cooking without a tempura pan missing somewhere might be one reason for such a trouble. But my aging should be the main reason, I believe. I should be even more careful not to make such a trouble for now. Even more. Two blisters on the inside aspect of the foor tell what happened to me last night.

One more thing. When I got the burn and was feeling the irritating pain on the foot, I was reminded of people burnt with incendiary bomb or other ammunitions. They might have much worse burn all over their bodies. What agony they must have! Especially the children in war place. My small burn could never be comparable to their wounds. The pain on my left foot has still made me remember of those people in war. 

The fried pumpkin and chicken as well tasted good.

 

Fifty seven years have passed

Yesterday, I read a post by John W1ITU on facebook. He told he had been to a baseball game of Cape Cod League with his son somewhere in the area. He said it was getting even cooler later during the game there. Surprised to know of that cool weather in Cape Cod in these hottest days world wide, even though I know well that it is a summer resort and could be cooler than the other areas, I asked him if it was usual to have such weather. He answered affirmative and told when he was in PA and drove up to Cape Cod in summer, he felt it was getting much cooler as coming close there. He wanted to spend his retirement at a place where he won't sweat much during summer and was settled down in CT.

It has brought me to this post on him in this blog.

http://nuttycellist-unknown.blogspot.com/2021/03/k5pka-wg3u-and-then-w1itu.html

We have lived in the same age. We have not been in regular contact either on the air or by mail etc. But we were in touch in 10 or 20 years interval. 

He has given a page of his old log showing possibly our very first QSO in '60s. I have looked up in one of the old logs in 1966 and found it as this photo shows. Aug 30th 1966. On 15m CW. He was in Covington LA aged 21 years. He was running 150W into 3 element quad.  

As I wrote in the post, I managed to put up bamboo made quad for 15m only at 5 or 6m in the air. It was still miraculous. I could enjoy working all over the world. The log was filled with rare entities and also enjoyable chats with statessides wor Eu. It seems I have started recording what we talked about in the remark of the notebook log. I also have had great time in the All Asian Contest 3 or 4 days prior to this QSO. A lot of old calls during that new contest in the log. In addition, the next QSO after that with John was with Jim, W0HTH, who later became W0HJ and W7ZQ.

It is only a meaningless record to others than me and John. But it is still a precious memory for us when we were indulged in the same hobby in our youth. K5PKA in '60s, again K5PKA in '80s, WG3U in '00s and finally W1ITU in '10s till now. John has two lovely granddaughters who must be visiting him and his wife for now. I wonder if one of them still calls John as Grumpy grandpa. He is spending a peaceful retirement close to a lake. A blessed guy in fact.

May we be able to keep in touch from now on, even if not on the air. 

Hot weather and tomatoes

It seems the rainy season has been over for the past few days. Burning sunray in the day time. It gets even 33 or 34 degrees C in midday, while it could go down close to 20 degrees at night; it is not correct. It has remained hot during night for the past couple of days. Added on Jul. 18th.

This year, El Nino phenomenon has occurred in the Pacific Ocean that could have brought a cooler summer here. It could be even much hotter without it. So far, it seems to have brought only the torrential rain mainly in the Western Japan. It has damaged a few areas and killed several people. We might have bigger typhoons this summer.  

The global warming has surely proceeded. It could have already gone through the point of no return. In our country, the deranged weather could cause crop failure. At present, the food self-sufficiency rate is only 37% in caloric basis. We depend mostof the fertilizer, forage and seeds on foreign countries. If we consider these requirements for farming imported, the self-sufficiency rate drops to 10%. Even in this situation, the only maneuver MAFF plans to deal with such disaster causing crop failure is to force farmers grow sweet potatoes. People in big cities could not imagine what will happen then

The tomatoes in the garden farm have been ripened. I harvest some of them every day. The fresh tomatoes are the material of salad. 

On the other hand, broccoli have been eaten by insects as soon as they grow up. Kidney beans won't be ripe even though they have been blooming. Are these due to the too hot weather? Next month, I should start to get ready for vegetables infall/winter. I would raise their seedlings in pots in order to avoid insect damage. Insects will have been active by the end of Septemeber. 

Until the end of Septemeber, I will be kept busy with weeding. Sweating like waterfall on face and all the body, I still lock in pulling and cutting weeds. I am asking myself if I should equip my home with solar panel generator.

The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires

From a news in Newsweek, I knew Argentine seems to suffer from devastating inflation with political corruption and crimes at present. They are supposed to accept an austere fiscal policy ordered by IMF. The inflation rate is raised up to 100%. 　

For us, it is not only to be drawn a lesson but more of own subjective issue. The debt of our government has been amounted up to 260% of GDP. It still goes on quantitative easing, which is leading debt monetization. Even lower than the other countries, the inflation rate remains high without austere policy and/or raise of interest rate. The relative poverty rate stays high, the worst among G7 countries. One in 7 children could not have good meal. Nevertheless, with more taxation, the government is expanding military up to the 3rd in the world. A portion of people is getting drunk with asset bubble in big cities. Fraud or crimes are prevalent all over.

The problem is not the same as that in Argentine. Sufferings and hardship among people may still be the same. 

Over a century ago, Argentine tango was born among poor immigrants in cities of Argentine as you may know. Piazzolla has cosmopolitanized it with the form of classical music and the rhythm of jazz. I have been listening to this famous number "The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires" by Piazzolla. As with his other works, it expresses the intense emotion in fast parts as well as the sadness of people abandoned in the society in slow portions. It is a music for those with the same problem in life all around the world.

An excellent musicians of piano trio play this piece. Speaking of hardship in life, I knew they were from a part of Eastern Europe confronting to a war.

Confidentially...

A part of this article photos were introduced by Sandy Farly in facebook. How could she find such interesting as well as stimulating things?  She always post something like this. 

Funny and too much exaggeration. But they may be applicable to our impressions far away from the US.  

 https://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/european-ai-american-list?fbclid=IwAR0bTQ7GooVJPdr4dvfhnY2DHrqfjCfXFMCgqUp2aYfsj4Ygd7fv6Eco690

Speaking confidentially, I am recollecting my friends in each state watching those images.

The limbic system and learning the Morse Code

 There has been a never ending discussion as for how to remember Morse Code and how to use them. In recent years, most of the beginners are starting learning them by computer soft ware. I have never tried that by myself since I grew up in the age when computer was not available. 

In my case, mechanically remembered of the codes, I just listened to the ham bands with simple receiver even not equipped with BFO. In the low teen age days. At first, I could barely copy a character even though I knew there were Morse Code coomunications. It was frustrating me that I could not read them. Different from the soft ware learning, it was not possible for me to check the answer later. In a few days, I could read a character or two with them. Completing receiving certain call signs was a real joy. I was greatly impressed when I could read a signal coming from far away. Sometimes from overseas. That emotion of joy to decode the Morse Code or even the message they sent on the air sure has helped me to master CW. The more pleasure I had with decoding them, the more willing I was to learn CW. It was a kind of synergy for me.

On the other hand, how will learning them with soft wares work on the new comers? It might be advantageous to them that they could repeat the task for many times. But how about the joy to decode what the others are sending? No one behind the software and it won't bring us any emotion which we often have when doing with the other human being behind the codes.    

Recent brain science tells when our experience is weighed with emotion by the limbic system, it could be kept easily as a long term memory. As for such as CW reception ability, it should become a procedural memory by cerebellum and brain stem nuclei. Then CW could be read without being conscious of the process like playing a musical instrument or riding a bicycle.  

How about trying SWL when trying to master CW?

Bob W6CYX passed away

Last night, I received an e mail from Don WB6BEE which told Bob W6CYX had passed away on June 30th. It was a news by Rick N6XI in the FOC News Letter.

For the past few years, I have heard of his suffering from prostatic cancer, which might be the cause, I am afraid. Whenever he told me about it, he had mentioned of the multiple biopsies, which were always "not so bad" as he reported to me. He kidded the doctor as a quack. And I have not taken it so serious. 

I have known him since 1960s. In 1980s, we have become close friends making a lot of QSOs. Always on 40m at night here and early morning in San Jose. I have had a chance to visit him and his wife Mariko halfway up the Mt. Hamilton in San Jose back in 1988. A great place where we could have the grand view of the Bay area through the living room window. He and Mariko have been quite kind and generous to me whenever I visited there. The last visit was with my wife on the way back from FOC gathering in Seattle in 2012. He kindly took us for a drive around the woods in the Peninsula and Santa Cruz. Later, I noticed he might had the sight problem at that time.  

One of the most memorable episodes with him was that he had attended Carmel Bach Festival every summer in '90s through, possibly, '00s. I was astonished to hear that the conductor had been Helmut Rilling. He was the conductor leading Stuttgart Bach Ensemble in Tokyo in '70s, whose performance of St. Mathews Passion was the very first and unforgettable experience of that music for me. Bob told me he had had a chance to have dinner with him and let me know of that meeting in vividness. Rilling seemed to be an open-hearted person once off the podium as Bob told me. Ever since I knew he had listened to Rilling, I sure felt even closer to Bob.

He used to tell me he was on a fisher ship as a radio officer while he was a student at Stanford. It seemed to be an interesting experience for him. With such a work, he has graduated the university by himself. He was confident in himself having paved the way of life by himself. That has, seemingly, made him a firm Libertarian. He hated beaurocrats as well as socialists. I was a kind of socialist side in certain aspect and had to listen to his hatred for socialists from time to time. In the end, I always enjoyed what he cursed against them in a stream. We have shared problem awareness on the beaurocracy. 

From round the start of millennium, it has become scarce seeing him on the air. For my Christmas card to him last year, his wife has replied to me on behalf of him, which told there was always something to overcome. He might already be ill at that time. I should have sent a letter asking how he was doing. And I have known of his silent key last night.

The very last QSO with him was in Dec. 2021. It was the 1252nd for us.

RIP, Bob.

Bob and Mariko in 1988

Looking forward "Winter Solstice Pumpkin"

The whack-a-mole task of cutting the weeds in the property is still going on. With massive rainfall and continued heat, they grow even more vigorously and keep me even busier. In the heat outdoor, I can hardly go on working there for longer than a couple of hours. Albeit its never ending work, I won't hate it. A time of concentration.

I am preparing a few more seedlings of pumpkin, which I should plant this month and would harvest in the season just before the frost comes on. They are called "winter solstice pumpkin". Won't it be nice to have pumpkin for a material of warm salad or of stew early in winter? 

As I have done before with the seeds of pumpkin, home grown last year, some of them have been placed on wet paper for a couple of days. Then they start sprouting like this. It's amazing how fast they sprout in this warm season. This was gone directly for ground planting.

I have collected dozens of green peas, matured and hard. Honestly, they have not been harvested due to its too fast over growth. I still wanted to keep them for the seeds next season as well. I am not sure if it has been scientifically proven but believe some of vegetables or plants which have grown at certain place could be accoustomed with the environment could grow better in the next season. I believe it could be possible from certain epigenetic mechanism and its trait could be transfered to the next generation. 

Hopefully, these seeds of green peas might grow better next season. 

They are still too many for my modest garden farm. If they sprought successfully, I may give the rest to my friends or keep them for the year after.

I was impressed at the seeds already sprouting in its dried sheath. They were trying to pass the life to the next generation by any means.

As always, I woke up early in the morning today. Still dark. Not very hot but the atmosphere was sticky with high humidity. I recalled what I had dreamed immidiately before waking up. Taking an entrance exam for med school. On a history of a foreign country which I have never known. Wondering how to answer it, I woke up. Nowadays, I scarcely have such a dream even though some dream of absurdity sometimes makes me tired espcially when I am in some stress or in a depression state. I thought such as entrance exam things had gone far away in my memory. 

Anyway, it is an expression of my inferiority complex or of being conscious of own incapabilities. Entrance exam must have occupied a lot in my mind even though time has it lapsed into the depth of memories. As often said, inferiority complex could be reversal of superiority complex. In both psychological mechanisms, a fierce desire to be prominent among others is working. In my age, I should be gradually free from such a desire. I am a bit sorry I have not been free yet.

But, hopefully, in some time, I would be more and more free from such constraints soon. It should be a meaning of senility, I guess.