Hams always come thru in times of need

October 21, 2008
Hams always come thru in times of need.
All 102 owners especially myself, NC4L, are indebted to Ted, W8KVK, for rescuing the 102 website. He has been an Elmer in the best sense, in helping me to transfer the old 102 website to a new home and in how to use html to edit the pages. In addition he has taken all of us under his wing by providing a home for the 102 site. He has given his time and effort in going over the pages and making them right. It is tedious work and I don't think I could have done it alone especially in a one month time period. And so the information and experience could have been lost.
The problem started at the beginning of Oct 2008 when I received a letter from AOL stating that their FTP webspace will be closing forever on 10-31-2008. That was very important since the webpage documents (html) reside there as well as the photos. No one would be able to pull the site up for a reference or information or for the several phototutorials that were there for 102 owners.
The information on the site is a compilation of my experience with this radio over the past 18 years (as of 2008). That is comprised of over 12,000 hours of getting over eight hundred 102s back on their feet. The site also serves to get my contact information out there so that people can get a hold of me and ask questions. I never hesitate to help any ham with 102 problems and often can correct a problem by communications or at least send people in the right direction without them having to send the radio down to Fla. That is very important since shipping damage, especially by UPS, is intense and frequent.
When I realized that I probably could not resurrect the site in a reasonable time I was distraught. I then got an idea to send everyone an email about the problem telling them to go to the old site and save the pages and photos to their computers.
I went to my email file and brought up the email addresses of anyone I had contact with that had a subject heading with 102 in the wording. There were an enormous number of email addresses so I copied only the current 2008 and came up with 80+ different addresses. I sent them a letter describing the situation. I probably won't need to go back and do the earlier years as the rescue was done.
I was greatly touched by the response of those hams. Out of the 80 or so emails that I sent out (only represents the unique email addresses where there was contact for the year of 2008) there were 6 responses offering help. That is truly amazing to me since most hams do not have the expertise to navigate or edit html files or could host the site. I did not ask for help in that letter and people just could have gone about their daily business and leave things up to me to find a solution. But I woul d be willing to bet that 100% of everyone who did have the knowledge and capacity generously offered help with their time and expertise. That makes me prouder than ever to be a Ham.
You know about Ted's efforts. And he has never met me before this occurrence. Ted does not own an FT-102. He found out about me thru a friend, Walt WT8E (a 102 owner) who asked Ted to help me. In addition there were: K3PZ - Paul Zora , KA2RIT - Dennis, K2FP Lou, N8BHL Stan Broadway, and GM1SXX Alan, who offered help. My heart felt appreciation of their offers to cleanse the old pages of the aol advertisements as well as offers of hosting the site at their places.
Beside from the offers of help were many emails offering encouragement and suggestions.
And lastly, in all my years of helping with the 102 this was the most touching phenomena I have experienced because it was so spontaneous, unrestricted and from so many.
73 de NC4L Mal

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		*HAMS ALWAYS COME THRU IN TIMES OF NEED* October 21, 2008 Hams always come thru in times of need. All 102 owners especially myself, NC4L, are indebted to Ted, W8KVK, for rescuing the 102 website. He has been an Elmer in the best sense, in helping me to transfer the old 102 website to a new home and in how to use html to edit the pages. In addition he has taken all of us under his wing by providing a home for the 102 site. He has given his time and effort in going over the pages and making them right. It is tedious work and I don't think I could have done it alone especially in a one month time period. And so the information and experience could have been lost. The problem started at the beginning of Oct 2008 when I received a letter from AOL stating that their FTP webspace will be closing forever on 10-31-2008. That was very important since the webpage documents (html) reside there as well as the photos. No one would be able to pull the site up for a reference or information or for the several phototutorials that were there for 102 owners. The information on the site is a compilation of my experience with this radio over the past 18 years (as of 2008). That is comprised of over 12,000 hours of getting over eight hundred 102s back on their feet. The site also serves to get my contact information out there so that people can get a hold of me and ask questions. I never hesitate to help any ham with 102 problems and often can correct a problem by communications or at least send people in the right direction without them having to send the radio down to Fla. That is very important since shipping damage, especially by UPS, is intense and frequent. When I realized that I probably could not resurrect the site in a reasonable time I was distraught. I then got an idea to send everyone an email about the problem telling them to go to the old site and save the pages and photos to their computers. I went to my email file and brought up the email addresses of anyone I had contact with that had a subject heading with 102 in the wording. There were an enormous number of email addresses so I copied only the current 2008 and came up with 80+ different addresses. I sent them a letter describing the situation. I probably won't need to go back and do the earlier years as the rescue was done. I was greatly touched by the response of those hams. Out of the 80 or so emails that I sent out (only represents the unique email addresses where there was contact for the year of 2008) there were 6 responses offering help. That is truly amazing to me since most hams do not have the expertise to navigate or edit html files or could host the site. I did not ask for help in that letter and people just could have gone about their daily business and leave things up to me to find a solution. But I woul d be willing to bet that 100% of everyone who did have the knowledge and capacity generously offered help with their time and expertise. That makes me prouder than ever to be a Ham. You know about Ted's efforts. And he has never met me before this occurrence. Ted does not own an FT-102. He found out about me thru a friend, Walt WT8E (a 102 owner) who asked Ted to help me. In addition there were: K3PZ - Paul Zora , KA2RIT - Dennis, K2FP Lou, N8BHL Stan Broadway, and GM1SXX Alan, who offered help. My heart felt appreciation of their offers to cleanse the old pages of the aol advertisements as well as offers of hosting the site at their places. Beside from the offers of help were many emails offering encouragement and suggestions. And lastly, in all my years of helping with the 102 this was the most touching phenomena I have experienced because it was so spontaneous, unrestricted and from so many. 73 de NC4L Mal HOME PAGE