Ray Tracy, Ham Radio Detective

[Jeff K1NSS]

Mea Culpa, I'm a very junior partner in this crime novelette -- Zone of Iniquity --written by ARRL editor Ward Silver, N0AX. I designed ZOI's cover and provided sundry graphic adornments to Ward's first Ray Tracy Adventure, hopefully the beginning of a beautiful relationship akin to that of mystery writer Dick Francis and the genius who decided what color to print the covers during Francis' thirty year run of whodunnit best sellers. I met N0AX a couple of Dayton Hamfests ago and we've since played catch with the notion of some kinda collaboration until this materialized. Zone of Iniquity is a regular old time non-graphic novel, but cover aside, I added my visual 2 cents and had a ball. I must say though, Dash!-Free Zone as it is, Zone of Iniquity is something OM Dashiell Hammett himself couldn't have pulled off without a code test. So if any of you hams cotton to crime stories on wry, you might enjoy Ward's new book. Check it out now at Lulu.com.

PS The map is a circa 50s ARRL Azimuthal DX map from a private collection. The title page shows a bit more, darkly, in the manner of noir cartography.
ZOI cover 800.jpg

[KG4CGC]

Nice graphic.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Tnx L.King!

[kb2vxa]

A crystal skull... hmmm. What frequency does it resonate at?

[NQ6U]

A crystal skull... hmmm. What frequency does it resonate at?

And can we change it with a elbow grease?

[Jeff K1NSS]

And can we change it with a elbow grease?

Yes, an elbow grease pencil.

[NQ6U]

Hey Jeff! Apropos of nothing but your avatar, I was at the Mingei Museum in San Diego last week and saw something that made me think of you, so took a couple of photos. All I had with me was my cell phone so the quality is so-so, but I thought you might like them.

Attachment 5670Attachment 5671

[Jeff K1NSS]

A crystal skull... hmmm. What frequency does it resonate at?

Yo Warren, GE, ever with the "answer graphic", bravo!

A brain pan doesn't resonate, it reasonates, from DC to Daylight, with sole exception of the amateur radio spectrum.

[Jeff K1NSS]

Hey Carl, GE, yep that's "The Maneki Neko (招き猫^?, literally "Beckoning Cat"; also known as Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money cat, or Fortune Cat) is a common Japanese sculpture, often made of ceramic, which is believed to bring good luck to the owner. I came across it while looking up lucky symbols for the lucky contest mugs and thought it was a nice change from Dash! and maybe might make a cool Japanese cousin character for the boy. Funny, a new Japanese Facebook friend posted a picture he took of Maneki Neko and Tanuki figurines at his local garden center. Maybe I can find it .

[NQ6U]

There was a whole boatload of them there, some pretty cool, but I was worried about getting busted taking photos—museums are fussy about that sometimes. Naturally, on the way out, I saw a sign that said photos were okay as long as you didn't use a flash.