Thinking of an old friend.
As Christmas draws near, I have been thinking about an old friend that I haven't seen or talked to in about a year. His name is Selden Mitchell. He is the kind of person, once you meet him, you can't un-meet him. He is a HAM Radio operator, like myself, and to me he is the consummate HAM Radio operator(not to mention a GREAT Human being). I met him when I worked for Antique Electronics Supply back in the 90's. We immediately hit it off. In the 50's, he was a Union musician in L.A. He played what some folks call a Dog House which is slang for the Upright Bass or as some know it the Contra Bass.. Now in the 50's there was only 2 gigs for a Contra Bass player. You either played for a Symphony or you played the Jazz clubs. He, I believe, was mostly the latter which meant, he was exposed to the whole Beatnik...ie...<\b> Lenny Bruce, Jack Kerouac<\b> counter culture and it had a very vivid impression on this man.. I know also he had done gigs with the likes of <\b>Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Cannonball Adderley<\b>, just to mention a few. His outlook on life was one of a very inspired individual. Among some of the things, he was generous to a fault at times. One thing I had to make sure of when I would visit him was to make sure the back seat of my car was empty because, it would always be filled up with various trinkets of electronics equipment and or musical equipment. One of his philosophies of life is " If you look around you when you are in your 20's and you are not a Liberal, there is something wrong with your heart"... Now he also said " When you get to be in your late 30's, there are parts of the Liberal philosophy you have to re-consider and pull back on".. I do understand what he was telling me and I did just that just by nature of my own understanding. In equipment construction, he was skilled and a stickler for detail. I saw a 3 Kilowatt linear amplifier he constructed that was a desktop amplifier. Normally something like that would require a 6 foot high 19 inch wide rack assembly to accomplish a viable device. He did it because he like to send something we HAM's call Slow Scan TV. He built it for 3 KW output so that the amplifier would not go up in flames sending SSTV at Legal limit because SSTV is a 50 percent duty cycle and if you used your normal station amplifier it6 would literally burn to the ground. The most amazing thing about it was, it was a work of art. Over the years, he gave me so much equipment. A lot of it went from my hands to other HAMs that were not able to afford descent radios so, it went to good purpose.
Mich is also a deeply spiritual man. It is from this that a lot of what I experienced with him have it's origins. He truly lives his beliefs and as an ordained minister myself, I look to his example to help me know how I should act.
Now, the last time I went to see him, he loaded me up with all kinds of stuff. He told me he was disenchanted with the whole HAM Radio scene since it was hard to find anyone to talk technical with.This saddens me because, I too, have started to see the same thing. It is a sad state of affairs for Ham Radio. <\b>Another side note:<\b> all Mitch's technical knowledge is self taught. He did not get the breaks I got with my education so, instead he became a Master Stone Mason and I mean a true Stone Mason( not the organization A.F.&A.M.). His work as you can expect was some of the most intricate and beautiful Stone work I have ever seen...
I have just sent him a message with the hopes of re-lighting a fire in him on HAM Radio. My business partner bought out a very exclusive Radio company a number of years ago and he happens to have a radio that needs a lot of TLC to get it back working. I hope Mitch takes me up on the offer to rebuild it because I think it will do his heart good to do so. Anyway, so I am thinking very deeply of my old friend today and I hope to hear from him around the up coming Christmas Holiday and I can arrange to go see him... Thanks for listening(reading) . Merry Christmas to all of you out there and here is hoping for a better year this next Year....
The DesertMann
Mich is also a deeply spiritual man. It is from this that a lot of what I experienced with him have it's origins. He truly lives his beliefs and as an ordained minister myself, I look to his example to help me know how I should act.
Now, the last time I went to see him, he loaded me up with all kinds of stuff. He told me he was disenchanted with the whole HAM Radio scene since it was hard to find anyone to talk technical with.This saddens me because, I too, have started to see the same thing. It is a sad state of affairs for Ham Radio. <\b>Another side note:<\b> all Mitch's technical knowledge is self taught. He did not get the breaks I got with my education so, instead he became a Master Stone Mason and I mean a true Stone Mason( not the organization A.F.&A.M.). His work as you can expect was some of the most intricate and beautiful Stone work I have ever seen...
I have just sent him a message with the hopes of re-lighting a fire in him on HAM Radio. My business partner bought out a very exclusive Radio company a number of years ago and he happens to have a radio that needs a lot of TLC to get it back working. I hope Mitch takes me up on the offer to rebuild it because I think it will do his heart good to do so. Anyway, so I am thinking very deeply of my old friend today and I hope to hear from him around the up coming Christmas Holiday and I can arrange to go see him... Thanks for listening(reading) . Merry Christmas to all of you out there and here is hoping for a better year this next Year....
The DesertMann