Featured Post

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...
1 comment

Remembering Bob Cirri


Bob Cirri Photo
Robert D. Cirri  Sr.



 I usually don't write about 9/11 but let me explain why I honor Robert D. Cirri SR every year. His callsign was KA2OTD and was a Port Authority Police Officer and Paramedic. We only knew each other only over the radio, never met in person, but I knew his voice. I would listen to him talk for his job and for enjoyment. I talked to him and like everyone else I talk to he was extremely patient with me.

9/11 disrupted a lot of communications, not ham radio. I remember being told to just listen, that's what I did for days, never picked up the microphone. Four days later I heard a ham radio operator driving all night from North Carolina looking to assist in New York. He was on the wrong repeater and I decide to get on the right repeater to get him some help. Well I was scolded. So I gave the ham from North Carolina the frequency, he programmed it in. When he got on the repeater HE said I HELPED HIM WHEN NO ELSE WOULD. I heard the entire thing and just went on listening.
This was a day I helped in a small way.
When I feel sad about today I think about the days after, I also think about Bob Cirri, the man I never met but I will always remember!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

One Contact - Five Lighthouses--W9C

Back in the summer I wrote an entry in here about my Lighthouse phone contact with Bill,N8ET , so now I had to top that with a five lighthouse PSK contact in Wisconsin! I was orginally going to wait until I got the card like my other contacts but I think at this stage of the game you can take my word for it. This contact was with a husband and wife team also known as "Team Cheese"--WI9TC (I love the callsign). Like the contact with Bill, they were in the line of sight of five lighthouses located on the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan. As soon as I saw them on the BeaconBot (the e-mail reflector used to notify people of lighthouse activations-) I knew I had to take my best shot. There were tons of stations dying to get a contact. Well after some monitoring of the waterfall and waiting for a break in the QSO's, I dropped my call. Unfortunately I was getting overpowered a lot so I actually wound up waiting for quite awhile. Although I have to admit it was also fun just ...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness

Bob Dylan blows into town

Image
       For a few months there has buzz around Cape May NJ that Bob Dylan was coming to America's Oldest Seaside Resort. No he wasn't playing a concert at Convention Hall. For most of this weeks parts of 2024 Cape May,NJ was transformed into 1965 Newport, RI. A Complete Unknown is a new film about Dylan's conversion from acoustic  to electric guitar starring Timothee Chalamet as Bob Dylan is in production and the location scouting team decided that  Cape May today looked like Newport back in '65. Bob Dylan debuted  his hit song Like a Rolling Stone   at t he Newport Folk Festival. They even transformed Perry Street  into Belevedere Avenue. Shops along the Washington Mall were temporarily renamed to match shops up in Newport.  The Victorian Motel was baptized then Viking Motel for the film  Days prior I started seeing filming equipment  being transported into town.       Like most o f the town I was hopi...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness

2025 New Year's Note

 WELL here we are folks one quarter of the way into this century!! I have been thinking about writing this email since the beginning of December but of course I am a month late. I am happy to report the Mattes Family is healthy!  Chirs, Natalie, Zander and Quinn are busy as ever! Zander is now a sophomore and studying for his written test to get his driving permit! I have to double check that fact because it's so hard to believe. Quinn is doing well in eighth grade and is on a travelling soccer team which plays in tournaments all over the country. She has one coming up in Florida in  February that dad and I are thinking about going down for a few days to watch her. They BOTH are getting as tall as their uncle Jay which is very hard for him to accept! The family adopted three kittens which as a dog person even I admit they are cute!! We spent Christmas with them and got  to see the new Bob Dylan movie, partly filmed right here in Cape May. Unfortunately, I didn't get ...
More Posts to Mattes's Madness