I had an interesting treat tonight. I was invited to give a talk on innovation to RANV, a local Amateur Radio Operators (AKA HAM Radio) club. I used to be a ham radio operator when I was a kid… WN5IAU ..  or .- -. ….. .. .- ..- as I used to say.  There were about 25 of them gathered there tonight at the O’Brien Center in South Burlington. I’m used to giving talks to elementary and middle school kids.. sometimes high school kids.. and even less frequently college kids. it’s rare that I get to speak to a group of such.. uh… distinguished years. Lets just say It was so much fun being in a room with that many confirmed nerds.The Ham hobby has been on the decline for a while as kids turned away from science and engineering.. but as the Maker movement brings geekdom back in to the realm of cool . In addition to talking about the CoWe  talked about how the Maker movement might be a path for growth for the Ham community. While the allure of being able to speak to people over great distances has lost some of its allure in teh days of Skype .. there are certain things that Ham’s alone can do including using very high power transmitters or very high or very  low frequencies. There are also some very cool intersections with steam punk.. I’m going to help broker a joint meetup of some kind between the groups.

ok.. gotta go to bed…

as Hams say

73’s all, 73’s sam
-me