W4GMN 

A Poem from Dan W4GMN Phil-Mont Club Member

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It is borrowed heavily from Emma Lazarus' "A New Colossus", a sonnet which you may know. She wrote in 1883 to be sold to raise money for the construction of the base of The Statue of Liberty. In 1903 the poem was cast into bronze and placed inside the pedestal's lower level. I'm sure you've heard parts of the original before.

A Miniature Colossus

Unlike the corporate giants’ web page,

Aethereal limbs, warehouse to web-store;

Toiling in their shack with solder, rosin-core,

The amateur shall stand, whose Weller iron

Holds the imprisoned lightning, and their name

The Intrepid Ham. From their burning heart

Glows world-wide welcome; their calm eyes command

Their crowded workbench of no great acclaim.

“Keep, web-store malls, your shiny bits!” cries she (they, or he)

With silent lips. “Give me diodes, your perfboard,

Disused transistors yearning to be free,

Forgotten project parts of decades yore.

Send semiconductors, jar-tossed, to me,

I open wide the component drawer!”

My fellow hams, if you have a cache of capacitors, a tranche of transistors or disused, dismissed diodes, heed this call! They are all welcome and will find new life here in my component drawers. "What will you make of all these parts?" I hear you asking. The answers are many-fold. I'm exploring electronic fundamentals through small audio circuits and basic amplifiers with designs on musical applications.

"Jeez, man! What are you going to do with a giant pile of parts? How many can you possibly use?!" you say? Well, in my most optimistic moments I imagine an overwhelming response amounting to a summit of semiconductors. This potential accumulated treasure could become a club resource for our PMRC RadioLabs, a stockpile I'm happy to curate and share with my fellow Labmasters for future projects and demonstrations. 

Look into those forgotten corners of your shack and share with me your findings. Free up space for something new! Depending on your QTH I can come to you, or bring the stash to the next meeting and I'll add it to the collection there.

Thank you for your time and I look forward to seeing what you uncover!

-Dan W4GMN