There is one group of hams I really like to work and that is Cubans.

Cubans?

Yes. Cubans. You do know what Cubans are, don't you? They're people that live in Cuba. It is an island about 90 miles south of Florida. They speak Spanish. I do not speak Spanish to Cubans, I speak English.

In fact because I am fluent in high school Spanish I refuse to speak Spanish to any other people that speak it unless they speak high school Spanish. This is because the only people on the planet that speak high school Spanish are other Americans that took Spanish in high school. High School Spanish is a different language altogether.

I leaned my lesson in Mexico when I tried to order a steak, potato and a beer. I ordered in my fluent AMerican High School Spanish. A few minutes later the entire staff delivered a baked stuffed elephant, all the trimings and a cask of wine but I digress. Suffice to say I do not speak Spanish to Cubans. Or for that matter, to any native Spanish speakers.

Fortunately Cuban hams speak very good English.

To get a QSL card from a Cuban you generally have to send to their QSL manager, most of them are in Spain.

Cuban hams are for the most part pretty good peoplle and many of them are talented and do amazing things with very little. Some of them are incredible junk pile artists and that is no slight whatsoever. I truly respect that. It takes talent and hard work for some of those guys to get on the air.

I've read and listened to Cuban radio programs for hams there and by hams there. I've read where they take toilet paper tubes and parts from old copiers and antiquated laptops to make units to run digital communications with.

Almost to a man they seem quite happy when they are on the air and most of them are fast operators. There are a couple of them that I have spoken with s few times and now they recognize my callsign and address me by name.

Some Cuban hams mave managed to get their hands on reasonably new rigs. Still, a lot of them that have built their rigs with their hands. Many out of salvaged parts.

From what I have seen, Cuba is a beautiful country and I sure wish those hammerheads in Havana and Washington DC would pull their heads out of their asses and open relations up with the States. 

To tell you the truth I could use a nice visit to Cuba right about now because I am tired of freezing my ass off and shoveling snow. It has nothing to do with politics. It has everything to do with my sorry frozen ass. Cuba looks like a good place to thaw out.

I suppose the government in Cuba is pretty repressive and I am not permitted to send money to Cuba for return postage for QSL cards for a number of reasons. It is illegal for me to do so because of the economic blockade is one reason. The other is likely that the Cuban government opens incoming foreign mail and pilfers it. I've been told this by more than one ham.

Anyway, I have a lot of respect for Cuban hams and maybe if one of these days the dunderheads in Washington decide to permit Americans to go to Cuba I'll go and pay a visit to a couple of Cuban hams. I'd like to see how some of them build perfectly good radios out of what is basically junk.





To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY