Funny Story

One of my younger radio friends was here yesterday to do some outside painting on my house--painting that required being on a ladder. After the job was done, he and I were gabbing about radio gossip, and I was telling him a story that I will now share with you.

A number of years ago, when I was still teaching, I was visiting my sister in Illinois for Christmas and was sitting at her computer, when a former student caught me on Instant Messenger. (I'll call him "D".) I had D in class when he was a Sophomore and was slated to have him again that year--his Senior year--but he had changed schools. On IM, he told me that he was interested in getting a radio license. I had made a promise to my students back then that if they studied to pass the FCC amateur radio license test, I would personally escort them to a test session and pay for it. I didn't believe for a minute that D was serious because he wasn't all that dedicated a student of English. His main focus in high school was football! Still, I put him in touch with a website that would help him prepare for the test. From time to time, he would check in with me over the course of a week to tell me how he was doing. Yeah...right.

By the time school started back up, D told me he was ready to take the test. We coordinated a day--January 5th--to drive to a test site to see how he could do. I was in total shock when the Volunteer Examiners came out to tell me that D had passed! I mentioned to him that if he had put that much effort into his school courses, he could be an A student. His response? "My dad said that, too." On the way home from the test site, I had the privilege of announcing to the radio world on my club's repeater that I had a new ham operator on board--age 18. Nice!

I was immediately able to come up with a handheld radio for D, purchased from another dear friend of mine. D began to explore the radio world as a new operator. I was really proud of that kid! There was an incident where his older brother got hold of his radio and started broadcasting (illegally) on his brother's new call sign. We had to deal with that. (I also had D's brother in class, so I knew what was going on.) Because D was MY radio protege, I felt very protective of him, wanting him to see the best of our radio brotherhood. I had him checking in to a kids' net on the 146.700 repeater, even though he was at the top edge of age limitations for that.

Then there was a fellow named Phil. Phil is an adult radio operator who always seemed to show up on the .700 repeater when kids were on the air. Suddenly, Phil took a fancy to D. He started calling D's house, trying to set up a meeting with him to "help" him understand radio. D wasn't comfortable with it, and neither was I. Phil seemed like a pedophile stalker to me! I got on the air with Phil and told him, in words that even he could understand, that he needed to leave D alone. Thereafter, I got a couple of letters from Phil--rambling missives that showed a lot about his IQ and intentions--telling me that, since D was 18, he didn't have to back off at all. At one point, I was so concerned about how to protect D (and other young hams) from Phil that I went to one of the movers-and-shakers in amateur radio in Marion County to ask what I should do about this dude. (He was fairly well known in radio circles.) The guy told me not to worry about it--that D should probably just punch Phil in the face and be done with it! In retrospect, I realized that what he was telling me that I couldn't be everywhere and that D probably had skills to take care of himself. Still, I was the mother duck trying to protect my duckling!

Over time, that all faded away. D went on to a 2-year college but kept in touch. Thereafter, he put in an application for an academy and used me for a reference. I got a phone call from the academy and told them, in all honesty, that D had caused me problems in high school English classes, but that I knew his family and I knew him to be clean of all alcohol and drugs, and totally dedicated to his education goal--and that I was in awe of his effort to achieve amateur radio operator status.

Now, here is The Rest of the Story, as the late Paul Harvey would say:
The young man that I was trying to protect as a newbie radio operator--D--was accepted at the academy of his choice and stayed the course. I was invited to and attended his graduation.
You can now find Indiana State Trooper Daniel Criswell (KC9AXD) on the highways and byways of Central Indiana!