Re: Re: HAM
By: info to alt.bbs.synchronet on Wed Mar 08 2023 07:47 pm

From Newsgroup: alt.bbs.synchronet

On Wed, 8 Mar 2023 05:42:44 -0500, "Thom LaCosta" <thom.lacosta@1:153/7715.25.remove-r22-this> did make me awaken from my chao existentialism when they didst announce:

To: MRO
//Hello MRO,//

on *3/8/2023* at *7:49:59* You wrote in area *SYNCHRONET*
to *Phigan* about *"HAM"*.

Re: HAM
By: Phigan to tlc on Tue Mar 07 2023 09:26 pm

Re: HAM
By: tlc to All on Tue Mar 07 2023 05:30 am

Just installed the HAM function. Do

Not to be pedantic here (just kidding, pretty sure we all love being a >> little pedantic once in a while), but "ham" isn't an acronym so shouldn >> be capitalized as HAM. It's just ham.

i've ALWAYS seen it referred to as HAM.

>> It's just ham >> professional telegraph operators to describe amateur operators (IIRC).

that just sounds like something someone added to wikipedia. where do yo real this from? I'm pretty sure if they wanted to come up with a derogatory term for these guys they could have done better than ham

His historical reference is accurate. All too often we assume we knew thi

The reference is oft cited, yet never corroborated. For the last 4 decaes I' been in the hobby, no one has ever been able to provide one single citation back the claim.
The claim usually goes something like this:
"Back in ye olde day of ye olde wirelss telegraphist, they didst call the Amateur Radio community 'hams' as an inferrence they were being 'ham-fisted' whilst transmitting ye olde wireless telegraphy mode using ye olde sparke ga telegraphy equipment"
The only person that I was able to meet who was at one point in his life a professional telegraphist before becoming a ham himself, told me that the wo "ham" was just a shortened version of "amateur". Essentially "am" with an ad "h" for emphasis. Unfortunately, he went SK back in the 80's.
Does one person's account mean that the claim is untrue? Of course not.
But as with most phrases that enter the English language, it's actual origin will probably never TRULY be known.
Ergo, it is not worth arguing about, especially 100 years later.
OldbieOne [TM]
The One Who Tells It Like It is!
Brought to you by RetroPC

This reminds me of an interview with a rock band regarding the origin of
their name. They said the ideas or guesses the fans made up sounded better than the real orgin. The same applies with a company named CMMG. The name
is something like Central Missouri Machine Guns, however someone joked and
said the name is Cougar, Mustang, Maverick and Goose. Since then they used
the Top Gun style font in advertising, and produce a T-shirt with the quote "T oo close for missiles, switching to guns."


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