Re: Krikalev - Space Ironman


"OM" <om@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote
in message news:g5vag15gee0b1hfc6e62phmfg1lv8m1ocq@xxxxxxxxxx
> On Thu, 18 Aug 2005 22:38:05 GMT, Alan Anderson
> <aranders@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> It was a shortening of "ham-fisted", and was supposed to imply that
>> someone had
>>rather less than average skill with a telegraph key.
>
> ...Ham-*Handed*, actually. I had an Elmer explain this to me damn near
> 40 years ago, and explained how it was really the ARRL who turned the
> term "Ham" into a term of admiration. Prior to that, "Ham" was to the
> entire professional radio industry the same thing as the n-word was
> for our Afro-American contingent.

So it has nothing to do with the word 'amateur' or ham acting? Interesting.


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