ROTFLMAO!!! 73, Mike NF4L
Al Lorona wrote: > MAN HOSPITALIZED WITH ANXIETY OVER HAM RADIO > > Southland County Morning News > > Southland -- A ham radio enthusiast was admitted to County Hospital today > suffering from anxiety over what he perceived as serious problems with his > new radio, authorities reported Tuesday. > > Irv Stumpo, 55, of East Pharsalia, checked into the emergency room "in > distress," according to the nurse on watch just before midnight Tuesday. "He > was perspiring profusely and moaning over and over, 'My K-3 is no good, no > good'," said Paula Stevens, a nurse at County. "He had enormous headphones > clamped tightly on his head which we had a ton of difficulty removing, and he > was also wearing ear buds," she said. "Isn't that strange? He was half > incoherent but kept mumbling something about dynamic range and audio > artifacts. I have no idea what that means." > > Randy LaHood, a fifteen year emergency room veteran, said that during an > examination Mr. Stumpo went into considerable technical detail about a radio > he had recently purchased from Elecraft, a company that makes high-end ham > radios. "He began by explaining that his radio had 'noisy receiver' and > 'mushy signals'," explained Dr. LaHood. "From what I could gather, he had > just spent a lot of money on a radio and hadn't actually noticed any of these > problems himself, but others in a internet group kept putting the ideas into > his head," he said. Over a course of weeks, Stumpo became distraught over > various imperfections in what Dr. LaHood said was a classic case of the power > of suggestion. > > The hospital records also said that Stumpo drew mathematical figures he > labeled "AGC slope", and filled four pages by writing "AGC off", "Ear > Isolation" and "K3" repeatedly. Hospital officials could not explain the > cryptic scribblings. > > Dr. LaHood said that Stumpo repeated the phrase "mushy AGC" for at least four > hours while he waited for treatment. Other patients who were in the waiting > room at the time moved to the other side of the room for fear he might > endanger them. J. B. Archer was one of those in the waiting room at the time > who had brought in his twelve-year-old son with a basketball injury. "Good > ol' boy was pretty upset, I just told him it would be alright, but he > wouldn't let up with 'I can't pick out the pileups'. I thought he had been > involved in a big accident on the highway. Then he said other things like > 'the impedance of my headphones' and 'ride the R. F. gain'. Then he started > with 'diversity problem' and I thought maybe he was having trouble with > racial relations. He was in terrible shape, I'll tell you that." > > Rick Culver, president of a local ham radio club, told the Morning News in a > telephone interview, "A lot of these guys spend five or ten thousand dollars > on a radio they think is going to be absolutely perfect in every conceiveable > way. When it's not, they go into a panic buying lots of other accessories > which promise to fix the issue they think they're having. This is followed by > a deep buyer's remorse." He went on to recount a recent case which epitomized > this effect. "We had one guy who had a radio that put out 95 watts instead of > 100. He went berserk and ended up smashing his radio with a baseball bat. Not > everyone gets that violent, but he never would have worried about it if it > hadn't been for an internet forum that drummed it into his head twenty four > seven that his radio was broken." > > Hospital officials said that Stumpo was treated with sedatives and is being > kept for observation. > ______________________________________________________________ > Elecraft mailing list > Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft > Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm > Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net > > This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net > Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html > > ______________________________________________________________ Elecraft mailing list Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/elecraft Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm Post: mailto:Elecraft@mailman.qth.net This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
