At 01:37 PM 3/21/2002 -0500, I wrote:
I thought Jon's response was just right. Interestingly, the guy hasn't even responded to my message to him asking for more specific information. Agree that's he's not interested in anything constructive.
Do you remember the saying that "anyone you meet on the Internet might be a dog".... After thinking more about it, I decided to do some looking around to find out about Chuck/W1HIS, since I didn't know much about him and he was at least interested enough to send lots of e-mail. I figured I'd find him referenced somewhere on the Internet with other less-than-constructive comments. The first reference I found was on the ARRL web site. He'd been in touch with WA1LOU about some free propagation software available from the government (VOACAP ICEPAC, etc) - and there was a web news story about it. Another online reference was in a radio club newsletter that indicated that W1HIS was the author of the HFWIN32 portion of that software, made available by the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, part of the NTIA. Incidentally, that software is written for the evil Microsoft Windows operating system. Chuck isn't a software programmer, but may have written the theory behind the propagation software program. I couldn't find any reference to him on the NTIA/.ITS pages so guessed he must be associated with them through some other organization. Finally, I thought it might be useful to see if I could find him on the MIT pages somewhere. Bingo! His very complete biography is posted online. You really have to take a look at it. It is really amazing. http://www-eaps.mit.edu/faculty/counselman.htm Now that I had been recalibrated, I figured part of what must be going on with the "interesting" e-mail exchange was some misunderstandings of intentions - by both sides. Seems to happen too often with e-mail... So, I decided to call him on the phone, Just spent about 45 minutes talking to W1HIS. He's really quite nice on the phone, does understand that his experience with the ARRL web site may be unique. He's using Netscape 4.74 for the Mac - the version supported by MIT's IT department. After some conversation about the difficulties distributing and supporting software in large organizations, he re-checked the MIT pages and found that they'd recently added Netscape version 4.78 to the list of supported Mac versions. He's going to install it. In addition, he's going to compile some more specific information about what isn't working right - hopefully without the extra rhetoric included - with the hopes that we might track down the problem at our end (or his). If there is a problem I think it is limited to Netscape users on the Mac. But as far as I know, we have had very few complaints about how our web site works - and lots that say it works very well. Anyhow, he seemed quite positive when we finished, he really hadn't realized how unconstructive his earlier messages had been, and we're planning to get together at a hamfest in a few weeks. Bottom line - as a fanatic user of e-mail myself, I need to use the telephone more... it breaks down barriers. Who on here (besides Gary/KI4LA and Rod/W6ROD) use a Mac? I may want to talk with you offline. -- Tom PS: Looks like we should also see if W1HIS would like to write for QST or QEX! ===== e-mail: k1ki@arrl.org ARRL New England Division Director http://www.arrl.org/ Tom Frenaye, K1KI, P O Box J, West Suffield CT 06093 Phone: 860-668-5444