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Charlie Campbell Tribute

  It has been a whirlwind few weeks. One  father's friends from high school passed away earlier and we made an expected trip down to Murrells Inlet for the celebration of life. They have kept in touch over the years. Charlie moved around a lot during his eighty plus year his roots remained n Allendale, NJ! He and his wife Bev were a fixture a t DeeDee and Anth ony's Fourth of July Parties. I   know their kids,John and Annie.Charlie also had to sons from a previous marriage and it was recently discovered he has another daughter. Charlie was the CEO of several companies, like Floor Shine shoes and Munsingwear, a golf clothing company.  The family moved around a lot from  Allendale,NJ to  Connecticut to Minnesota before finally  settling in Murrells Inlet SC, founding the Dead Dog Saloon, a fixture on the Murrells Inlet Marshwalk, he later built the Claw House next door. Ironically Charlie and Bev brought a second house in Cape May which meant I spen...
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Nostalgia police scanning

Alright even though I have written mostly about my ham radi hobby, I have been into scanning longer. I bought my first scanner, the Uniden BC55XLT, when I was fifteen with the money I earned from my first job doing data entry. It was bottom of the line, even back in those days, but it was $100 which was the cheapest scanner at the time. The BC55XLT on has 10 channels and it can't do anythingv like trunktracking, alpha tags, recieve all the transmissions my other scanners can do today, but at the time I bought it I was happy to hear my local police and fire departments. A few years after I realized I needed more than 10 channels to even hear all the local departments in the county. So I asked for another scanner for Christmas and the 55XLT was giving to my brother which hhe lost on Cabbage Night, but that didn't matter. I have since owned and sold scanners to help fund upgrade to my radio shack.
Over the weekend Isaac and I went to a hamfest. While I was looking for and I found a microphonle for my HF rig, I always keep my eye out for other stuff. I was going through some junk when I found a BC55XLT. The guy wanted $25 buckks, which doesn't seems like a lot for a radio I spend $100 on ten years ago. I looked at him and said $15 knowing that he'd come back with $20. Isaac, my ham buddy who drove me sighed and I walked away with the scanner. The scanner is worth it, not because of what it can do, but because it represents the beginning of what is turning out to be a life time obsession!!

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