Mattes's Musings by KC2GIK

 It's every scanner listeners' goal, to increase his or her range of  monitoring!  Ever since we bu

Before I write this I'm laying down some ground rules. First of all I+ caused this mess because I again took my emotions out on someone it turns out I would miss when she was gone. Like in all other communications behind the keyboard this ongoing chat between us took my body out of the equation. We This ISN'T a "love story" it's a lust story deep down I always thought it was a "lust story" primarily because she is on the opposite side of the world, the wonders of the Internet. Anyway I wanted to write down what happened because Facebook statuses won't cover it. I take full responsibility We met in grade school, she's about my age, and exchanged hellos we were never really friends. She was in a couple of special ed classes with me, back when I was only partly mainstreamed but she was very very shy. Which should have set off alarm bells. We didn't really communicate for years. She actually moved back to her home country right out of high school

I admittedly have not been blogging on here as much because like most of the country because the Corona Virus has me in somewhat of a lock down!!  I will not writing endless entries on how I wish this lock down will end, too many people have already opined on how the virus has affect them. . It seems I have  traded entries in the blog for Facebook.  Cape May needed to adjust like every  place else, the did it with some bumps in the road but  is fortunate in the fact they allowed the restaurants and bars to serve take out. When Governor Murphy allowed outdoor dining,  the  Cape May City Council, with the help of  our City Manager, outlined plans for restaurants to expand outdoor seating. They even closed down two  streets in the middle of the Washington Mall to allow additional outdoor seating. Everyone was gettin g used  to the "New normal" However when travelers started coming back into town an d things started bustling. It seems that the "Social Distance" Guidelin

Folks,  I think I bring a few things to the table here. First off I co-host a meet in a high densely populated area, the most populated in the country with four major cities in lass than a 500 mile radius. Secondly I myself, as person with a pre-exsisting condition as highly aware of the risks and benefits of hosting a meet during these challenge times.  Thirdly my  emergency management background gives me a unique perspective into how different states handle the pandemic, promise it won't get too political. I will  say this from the outset, while the social distancing guidelines should be universal, there is not a "one-size fits all magic bullet approach" this really is uncharted territory. After talking it oveer with my co-host and the place where we would hold our meet, it was decided that we wouldn' t have a meet this year. Even though we booked the place last year, and the meet was on the same weekend, we decided to hold off on the official announcement. Whe

 Dealing with loss at any time is difficult. Dealing with multiple losses in a short period of time is much  harder. Dealing with losses when you can't say a proper goodbye is downright devastating. I lost two friends, Bill Cole, N2CSA, a Cape May County ham radio operator and mentor and Mike  Ross, a member of the Cape May Veterans Home Association, two days apart. I knew them well enough to say they were friends. Like just about everything else these days, mourning takes on a whole new meaning, but I still mourn First to Bill I actually emailed him a few times before moving to Cape May because a mutual ham friend suggested I have a local contact if I needed help with anything radio related. Bill was also in charge of Cape May  County RACES, which was definitely a good sign. He informed me the City of Cape May didn't have a radio officer and someone from the county was driving to the Cape May firehouse o-nce a month to do the test. I asked him if I could assist Bill's r

Today marked another milestone in my radio career.  Every ten years hams have to folk over ten dollars to the FCC to renew their license.  Something very significant but overall ve ry uneventful except posting a status update on Facebook band little else. Today was the first day I could renew my ham radio license for the second time. When 2010 rolled along I could hardly believe it was time to renew my license! I had been through so much radiowise in just a quick ten years  I  first got licensed in 2000, Y2K, I did it kind of as a dare. One  of my police scanner buddies, David, K2DBK, studied and passed his Technician test. He and I e-mail]ed each other back and forth exchanging scanner frequencies. He encouraged me to listen to the  hams. ne of he co-workers was a member of the Ramsey NJ Office of Emergency Management and convinced David to go to a meeting. I also began exchanging emails with the Ramsey OEM coor dinator Mike Adams, WA2 MWT . He encouraged me to study for thre Techni