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The NEW BERN
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NEW BERN, N. C. 28560, FRIDAY, MARCH 2, 1973
NUMBER 50
There are more than 265,000
radio (^ratora in the United
States, and Jim O’Daniel at
New Bern’s Professional Drive
Pharma^ happens to be one of
them. The wwld has grown
smaller for all of us, and
especially for him.
A friendly guy who likes to
talk, he routinely converses
with Americans from coast to
coast, and finds it not unusual to
chat with other hams in many
foreign countries. The oceans to
him are only backyard fences.
It is rathw commonly teown
that Senator Barry Goldwater is
also an enthusiastic ham, but
O’Daniel has never crossed
paths with the Arizona solon on
the air lanes. Sometimes it
works out that way.
Jim had no idea ttot his first
contact with Goldwater would
be a face to face encounter, but
this is how the two finally met
the other day. Barry wasn’t
wearing horned rimmed
glasses, but O’Daniel
recognized him as a casual
customer in bis business
establidiment.
In a manner familiar to all
hams, the congenial druggist
initially introduced himself by
his call letters. Goldwater
smiled broadly, and evidenced
deliiAt at runni]^ into a kindrd
soul unexpectedly.
Gddwater was in town to
check on the Hatteras yacht
built for him here. In this
respect he was following the
trail of a number of other
celebrities who without fanfare
have journeyed here for the
same purpose.
Most of us who know little
about amateur radio are under
the impression that hams
usually get together late at
night. Wtot we fail to consider
is that in global communication,
nij^t here is day somewhere
else.
At any hour you can pick up
someone to talk with. It could
be, as the National Geographic
Society points out, a king, a
London dockworker, or a
descendant of the Bounty
mutineers on remote Pitcairn
Island in the South Pacific. Now
many talk to each other via
satellite.
Maybe you haven’t heard
about Oscar 6, a small radio
satellite that went aloft late last
year with a large weather
satellite launched by the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration.
It weighs just 40 jxnmds, and
was built and paid for by hams.
It enables amateurs as far as
4,000 miles apart to com
municate without worrying
about conditions in the
ionosphere that sometimes
disrupt signals.
Once O’Daniel was talking to
an operator in Germany, and
has some difficulty making
himself completely un
derstandable. A native of
Germany, living in Greece,
broke into the conversation, ana
helped out.
Jim, as a ham, has learned to
expect the unexpected, but was
surprised when the ham in
Greece told him he knew all
about New Bern. Elaborating,
he said he was at the Voice of
(Continued on page 8i
HE SCORED—Alumnae of N. C. State University
from Craven and five neighboring counties saw a
new side of Coach Lou Holtz Monday night, when
the school’s highly successful grid mentor spoke to
more than 200 Wolfpack supporters at New Bern’s
Ramada Inn. Quick with the quip, and as humorous
as any college coach who has ever hidulged in
oratory here, including Bones McKinney, Lou got
off to a fast start with a magic-card routine. With
that out of the way, he wisecracked the full len^
of the field, resorting to a note of seriousness only
as he crossed the goal line. A youthful guy, with
hair as vivid as the yellow rose of Texas, he doesn’t
look like a coach, but opponents know better.