The following article is part of the Editor's Log written by Nancy Kott, WZ8C, appearing in the August 2008 issue of World Radio.

     Did you have a good Field Day? In Michigan, we had our traditional rainstorm on Saturday Evening.  Participation seemed down this year and there wasn't the contagious "Field Day Fever" that brings out the amateurs you don't see all year.  Most of the focus was on emergency communication promotion, which is good for the public to see, but the camaraderie and contesting fun is getting lost along the way.

     From my point of view, this all falls back on tradition. It appears that we are bending backwards to be politically correct and assimilate ourselves with the newcomers.  It used to be the other way around. The new amateurs were excited to be one of us: the licensed, the proud, the Hams, to paraphrase a military slogan, and that included learning our traditions.

     I just had my 20th anniversary of getting my first Amateur Radio license and remember when I first started learning about the slang terms that were used by Amateur Radio. For instance, the term Fine Business or FB. "How dumb is that?" I thought. "No one is going to say that on the air." But when I made my first CW contact and the operator  came back to me with "599 FB copy Nancy," I was thrilled! It was like I had been accepted into the fraternity, using a special language.  And every contact after that used Fine Business in the conversation.  It didn't seem dumb anymore, It was Ham-speak!

     Same thing with the term Lid (which thankfully, no one used about me, at least not to my face).  And the term Elmer. And Old Man. They may seem silly to outsiders or newcomers, but that are  part of our language and culture.  They have been around almost from the beginning of Amateur Radio. I read on the internet that the term Elmer was coined in the 1970s, but I find this hard to believe. Speaking with Old Timers, including my father W8ROG, they remember hearing it when they were licensed in the late 1930s and 1940s. I did find a reference to it on the web dated 1947. Old Timers, do you remember hearing the term "Elmer" before 1970?

     Our culture makes us who we are, and gives us a sense of continuity and belonging.  I would hate to see it disappear because we are trying so hard to be part of our community, let them learn the language. We have already made the written tests easier, eliminated the code requirement, simplified the exam system; let's not give up our verbal language, too.

     The class organized and led by Lou, WB8WXS, successfully graduated 4 students. Gary Hurt, our head VE, organized a testing session resulting in three students earning their Technician license and one upgrading to General.

     As usual, each Technician was given membership in SMARS as well as a gift from Walt, K8AEM,  a complete G5RV antenna. Lou, sent notes to each student praising them for their achievements.

The July meeting had a very interesting display of clocks and mechanisms by Lou. He discussed the various methods of time keeping over the ages as well as the various clever ways in which clock movements were designed.  Some of the tools that he needed to repair and make parts for clocks were also on display.

Before settling on the name Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens published work under the names Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, Sergeant Fathom, and W. Apaminondas Adrastus Blab.