>>9991956 (PB)

Where is the best place to begin as a HAM operator? I'm in central NC and there don't seem to be any classes nearby.

>>9992097 (PB)

i was a late comer. First up was a flip-top XT built from a box of boxes. Started with two floppies (DSDD) and graduated to a 40 meg MFM Seagate HD. Gradually souped it up with added ram (a daughter card), math-coprocessor and 10 Mhz CPU. EGA monitor, 1.200 baud modem and a wide-carriage 24 pin Epson printer completed the rig. Kept track of the ~600 AA groups in SE Michigan (600+ meetings a week) on it when I wasn't playing Wolfenstein 3d. ;-) WordStar Legal was the perfect word processor, with Alpha 4 for a database and Quattro for a spreadsheet. I solved for elapsed time (254 characters) in a single cell and was apparently the first, according to the tech rep on the GoBor forum on Compuserve.

I bought the Borland C++ compiler in a failed attempt to teach myself something past batch programming. (Later took a class in Unix shell programming ... much beefier!)

>>9992605

Correction: it was a CGA monitor. TBH, when it comes to getting actual work done, I greatly prefer an amber monitor. There is usually just enough on the screen to do the task at hand and not much in the way of eye-candy.

>>9992621

The root cause? Karma.

>>9992677

Ethiopia tested a paw-paw fruit for Covid and it came back positive. THERE is your paw-paw.

>>9992536

THIS boomer, not speaking for others, doesn't GAF about Austin. Why do you?