brainwagon

The more things change, the more things stay the same:

MR. B. N. BURGLUND, whose description of the wireless station at the University of Michigan, appeared in our March number, writes us an interesting letter on the part played by wireless amateurs during the recent floods in the Middle West in March. He has much to say in praise of those who did good work and rendered efficient service; and he also condemns, in no uncertain terms, the meddler who, we are sorry to admit, appears to be always on the job and gets in his fine work at such times. One of these individuals, possessed of a powerful transmitter, and ignorant of the code except to the extent of being able to recognize a few well-known calls when he heard them, persisted in calling the station at the University of Michigan while the operator there was trying to handle messages from the flooded districts. He was told, repeatedly, to keep out, but being ignorant of what was said to him, and thinking his calls were simply being recognized, kept on calling. And he kept it up for over six hours. The wireless law provides a heavy penalty for offenses of this sort, but he did not sign an understandable call and will probably never be caught.

via The Wireless Amateur in Times of Disaster (1913).