I was idly studying the shack wall during a quiet time on the bands.
I don't really do awards, so there aren't any of them. What I do have nailed up around me:
Licence (legal requirement to display in the shack in some countries. I think it's a nice idea, even though we don't need to.)
Radio amateur world map. (traditional, but I seldom refer to it. Mercator projection, not a great circle one as no directional antennas!)
24h clock and barometer
RSGB membership certificate, saying I was 'elected' as a member in 1993. (I imagine gentleman smoking cigars in top hats, tentatively reaching for the black ball before deciding to let me in.)
FISTS certificate. Which is very nice, and mine is signed by the founder Geo, sadly now SK.
'Radio Room' plaque.
My commission from the Queen as an officer in the RAF Reserves.
Framed print of a Westland Lysander, landing in France (I have an interest in the SOE/Resistance history)
The last bit of space used to have a locator square map. I recently replaced this with the Jeff Bass print of Virginia Hall, a heroine of SOE and the OSS during the war, operating a morse key. The original is with the CIA in Langley Virginia, and there is a copy in the Special Forces Club in London. Virginia Hall was a very remarkable American lady, an amputee who worked for the British in occupied France long before the USA joined the Allies. She ultimately trained as a wireless operator too. Allegedly, Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, said he'd give anything to get his hands on 'that limping Canadian bitch'. (She had a limp but was not Canadian.) It's recorded that she called her artificial leg 'Cuthbert', and radioed London to say that while escaping on foot over the Pyrenees, Cuthbert was being tiresome. London thought Cuthbert was a codename for a paid guide and suggested she eliminate him.
I don't really do awards, so there aren't any of them. What I do have nailed up around me:
Licence (legal requirement to display in the shack in some countries. I think it's a nice idea, even though we don't need to.)
Radio amateur world map. (traditional, but I seldom refer to it. Mercator projection, not a great circle one as no directional antennas!)
24h clock and barometer
RSGB membership certificate, saying I was 'elected' as a member in 1993. (I imagine gentleman smoking cigars in top hats, tentatively reaching for the black ball before deciding to let me in.)
FISTS certificate. Which is very nice, and mine is signed by the founder Geo, sadly now SK.
'Radio Room' plaque.
My commission from the Queen as an officer in the RAF Reserves.
Framed print of a Westland Lysander, landing in France (I have an interest in the SOE/Resistance history)
The last bit of space used to have a locator square map. I recently replaced this with the Jeff Bass print of Virginia Hall, a heroine of SOE and the OSS during the war, operating a morse key. The original is with the CIA in Langley Virginia, and there is a copy in the Special Forces Club in London. Virginia Hall was a very remarkable American lady, an amputee who worked for the British in occupied France long before the USA joined the Allies. She ultimately trained as a wireless operator too. Allegedly, Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyon, said he'd give anything to get his hands on 'that limping Canadian bitch'. (She had a limp but was not Canadian.) It's recorded that she called her artificial leg 'Cuthbert', and radioed London to say that while escaping on foot over the Pyrenees, Cuthbert was being tiresome. London thought Cuthbert was a codename for a paid guide and suggested she eliminate him.
