Ed's Ramblings

© 2006 by Ed Muro K2EPM

Hi folks, wouldn't it be nice to have all the time in the world to play radio? Unfortunately, what happens to most of us? Well, we get caught up in that "Rat Race" called life and are forced to work for a living...by the time many of us get to retire...our bodies will begin to breakdown and then come all the doctor visits and aches and pains....and playing radio is no longer fun.

I recently came across a new book by Lee Eisenberg called "The Number: A Completely Different Way to Think About the Rest of Your Life." What is the number? It is the amount of money you'll need to save in order quit working; not to mention enjoy the rest of your life in comfort without the cold breath of skyrocketing health care costs, periods of inflation or your late-blooming adult child moving back home putting a chill on the dream-filled second half of your life.

Grab a copy and check it out.

One of my early ham radio mentors, or Elmers as well call them, was Ed Hesse-WN2RED, previously WB2RVA. Ed ran a successful weekly scanner net on one of the local 2-meter repeaters for years, he also supplemented the net with his newsletter called "Monitoring the Long Island Sounds."

While Ed had quite a following, his approach to scanning was straight forward and he subscribed to the KISS method...Keep it Simple Stupid. Ed ran his net at a pivotal time in the radio hobby as the Internet had just exploded and Trunk-Trackers were just coming on to the market. Yet, one of Ed's sayings that will stay with me till the day I die was "All Scanning is local." Think about it.

Some of you who read the above captioned reference to Ed Hesse may have wondered what happened to the Tuesday night Scanner Net on the 146.805 repeater.

In the mid-1980's through the mid-90's there was a fellow on Long Island writing the Long Island / NYC public safety column for the North East Scanning News (NESN).... this gentleman was Ed Hesse-WN2RED. In addition to his work with NESN, in keeping with his theory that "all scanning was local"...Ed started a local "scanner net" on one of the Long Island ham radio repeaters.

In support of the "net" Ed also published a monthly newsletter called "Monitoring Long Island Sounds" and he developed quite a cult following.

Then, without warning, in the Spring of 1997 Ed walked away from the net.

Not wanting the group to break apart, three regular participants of the net, Frank-N2VRA, Charlie-KB2UVV, and Myself....another Ed....Ed-K2EPM (formerly KC2AYC), took over the net.

In order not infringe on any of the work of the earlier Ed (WN2RED) the three of us quickly changed the name of the group to The Long Island Monitoring Association. The Newsletter also continued under the moniker of The LIMA Newsletter and many "enhancements" to the group were implemented such as adding a website, making the newsletter available by e-mail, and running a simultaneous internet chat room while the net was running.

At the early stages the interest in "The Scanner Net" increased and the net was running well over three hours each week and many positive changes took place.

One such change that took place was with regard to the Newsletter. The print newsletter was becoming costly to publish, and with the rapid growth of the Internet, snail-mail newsletters we offering "dated" material. So, I created the ScanCom reflector on Onelist (now ScanCom@yahoogroups.com) as a replacement to the Newsletter.

The Long Island Monitoring Association flourished for a number of years but as we entered the year 2000 a number of factors caused its demise. Basically, we were burnt out. For all three, life's commitments just took priority. Furthermore, there were other fellows doing similar things and the information was becoming redundant.

Life sometimes cycles in a circle, and as we enter 2006 the ScannerScum have decided to put their collective thoughts out on the Internet and this will be my avenue to impart my thoughts to you. I will not attempt to provide you with the ultimate radio reference resource.... there are other guys doing that. This will be a place to post my articles and pass along information, thoughts and ideas about the radio hobby.

I hope you enjoy this e-zine. Be sure to send e-mail to let me know what you think (or to contribute articles or ideas). I'll be updating frequently, so check back often!

Back