HAM Radio or My Dad is a Way Bigger Nerd Than Your Dad

My father has been crowned one of the king nerds. This has taken years and years of dedicated hard work and familial neglect all in the name of HAM Radio. Dad has been a HAM Radio operator since he was a teenager. In fact he almost flunked out of high school and was sent to military school because he was spending so much time with his radios (he worte is final paper on William Morse).

Last month he was entered into the QRP Hall of Fame, QRP is the contesting organization he belongs to. You can see pictures here. He's the happy fellow with the white hair being toasted and then handed an envelope (at one point he can also be seen with his call letters hanging around his neck, K8DD, kilo eight delta delta (or duck duck, Duck is his nickname. He can do a pretty mean Donald Duck impersonation too)). He will also receive a plaque. Oh, yes, no expense is spared on Hall of Fame members. I make light of this, but according to my mother, he actually cried when they announced his name. Even though he's on the board of directors he had no idea they had nominated him so the whole thing was a big surprise. Mom says that at some point in the evening after he accepted this great honor and came back to their table a lady came up to Dad and "Congratulations Hank, you must be so proud,@ and then she looked at Mom and said (I shit you not) " And you too, he couldn't have done this without you." Mom tried to brush off this high praise but Dad put his hand over hers and with a catch in his throat said, "No Kathie, it's true."

This is probably the most romantic story I have ever heard about my parents.

Mom also says that the radical QRP group The Flying Pigs ("What makes them Radical?" I asked, "Do they use phones?" "No," said Mom, " They mostly just wear funny clothes, they're real live wires.") were super excited, see my dad is a secret member, and clearly he is beloved.

So, as you can imagine, it was an eventful year for Dad at the Dayton Hamvention 2007. It's not every day you get chosen as a member of the Hall of Fame for your chosen obsession/hobby. Mom says the whole thing has him feeling pretty big headed, but rightly so, he is one of the nerd kings after all.