One of my favourite websites The Onion published an article interviewing the new CEO of Radio Shack. Comments by the CEO regarding Ham Radio caused quite an uproar in the Online world of Ham Radio. From the article:
“Even the name ‘RadioShack’—can you imagine two less appealing words placed next to one another?” Day said. “What is that, some kind of World War II terminology? Are ham radio operators still around, even? Aren’t we in the digital age?”
The only problem? The Onion not only a parody newspaper, it’s currently the most popular satire-based periodical, being in print since the 80’s and launching it’s popular online version soon after Al Gore invented the internet. There aren’t many people who aren’t aware of The Onion or what it’s about, but remember: we’re talking about Hams here, and if you aren’t aware they aren’t the hippest people on the block.
So, depsite the fact it’s The Onion, and the article is so laughably false that it shouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that it’s satirical, sadly our nation’s hams fell for it hook, line and yagi.
Here are some of the reactions from angry hams ready to start boycotting Radio Shack:
This is one of the reasons I don’t bother visiting eham or qrz.com anymore. Too much whining, bitching, moaning. The same-old, same-old arguments being re-hashed over and over again w/ little to no moderation. Screw ’em.
I agree.
I stopped on QRZ a long long time ago. I realized people were just posting to see their “post count” go up. I was tired of them complaining about things like Winlink and Echolink and how internet was ruining the hobby…on an internet forum. Ironic? No, just idiots.
73
I agree. That’s why we started http://www.hamwave.com
amen
Humour, even satire, and Amateur Radio are two things that do not seem to get along. “Hi Hi”