By Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU
Contributing Editor

This week, Surfin’ is full of short stuff that is not big enough to be tall stuff.

Ham Radio on Highway Patrol

“Radioactive," the ham radio episode of the 1955 television series Highway Patrol is now available for viewing on Hulu (thanks to Mark Thompson, WB9QZB, for the heads-up.)

Old Red Head’s QSL Card Unearthed

While on the topic of old television shows, remember Arthur Godfrey, K4LIB? Well, Bob Green, W8JYZ, e-mailed me that he recently discovered one of the “Old Red Head’s” QSL cards before he was K4LIB.

Bob wrote: “Last month, while sorting some old cards from my collection ‘Old QSL Cards from the Past,’ I found a 1929 Coast Guard QSL card signed by Arthur M. Godfrey, “Red.” He was stationed at the old Curtis Bay Yard near Baltimore and made this contact to W1RP on July 17, 1929. He also wrote on the corner of the card his new call sign.”

You can see the QSL for yourself here on Bob’s Old QSL Cards Web site.

Musical Hams

Independence Day weekend, the rack that housed the majority of our CD collection bit the dust. So I moved all the CDs into five cardboard boxes for the time being and moved the rack into the garage to await trash collection day.

While I was boxing the CDs (in alphabetical order according to the name of the artist), I realized that I had tunes by two hams (or one ham and one former ham): Joe Walsh, WB6ACU, and Patty Loveless, formerly KD4WUJ.

Makes me wonder how many other hams performed on the 500 CDs in the collection or the 11,213 tunes on my iPod?

No, I have no tunes by Arthur Godfrey. Although, not exactly known for his singing, I do have 710 episodes of the late Jean Shepherd’s, K2ORS (SK) radio shows on my iPod.

Anyway, I had not played my Ms Loveless CDs in awhile, so I loaded her music on my iPod and enjoyed being reacquainted with her repertoire (I can’t get enough of her I Try to Think about Elvis).

Helicopter Guys and Coconut Corn Meal Pancakes

Steve Robeson, K4YZ, e-mailed me regarding the July 2 installment of Surfin’, specifically asking about the Polly Pancake Parlor customers who arrived and departed by helicopter.

Steve wrote: “You kinda left the story hanging about the helicopter and the restaurant. Who were they? They made an off-field landing just for breakfast?”

We asked our waitress about the helicopter guys and she said they were regular customers and not celebrities. And, yes, they flew in just to have breakfast.

In the same installment of Surfin’, I mentioned that I like coconut corn meal pancakes.

Ken Rudder, WA4JJW, wrote asking for the recipe, so here it is:

Coconut Corn Meal Pancakes

Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup water
1/2-1 teaspoon coconut extract
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 cup grated coconut

Directions:
Sift the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Whisk the egg with the milk and water in another bowl. Pour the egg mixture in with the dry and stir until blended. Add the melted butter and coconut extract. Stir in the grated coconut. Cook on a hot griddle. Voila!

By the way, “Short Bits” is a misnomer, because a bit is as short as it gets!

Until next time, bon appétit and keep on surfin’.

Editor’s note: Stan Horzepa, WA1LOU, wanted to become a ham because he mistakenly believed as a ham he could spin platters on the air like the Good Guys on WMCA. To contact Stan, send him e-mail or add comments to his blog.