An Earlier Use of "Basta!" (MUCH earlier)

It turns out that Pete and I may not be the first homebrewers to make use of the word "basta!"  At lunch time, while sitting near the Einstein memorial in Washington, I found a short article in SPRAT 83 (Summer 1995).  In it, Robert PA3BHK presented some ideas for reverse polarity protection, and noted that his friend Peter PE1MHO had discovered an interesting phrase from antiquity:

"SPIRITUS TRANSISTOR BASTA"

According to Peter this was the diagnosis of a classical Roman engineer when checking a transistorized PA that went dead after an accidental reversal of the polarity of its supply. Above we see that same engineer, obviously setting up a 2 meter Moxon.  

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